PURPOSE: One of the top priorities of Europe 2020 is for the EU to become an inclusive economy, and for the Member States to deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. Targets include a 75% employment rate overall, which cannot be accomplished with the current exclusion of large numbers of persons with disabilities from the labour market. The European Disability Strategy also is aims to remove obstacles to inclusion and participation. According to the EHSIS, in 2012 there were 70.0 million people with disabilities aged 15 and over, equivalent to 17.6 % of the population that was aged 15 and over. Those people are usually confronted with barriers in an educational, employment and social context. This increases the risk for them to be socially excluded, to face financial and ‘societal’ poverty, as well as isolation. Frequently, the major challenge during the recruitment of people with disabilities for a particular job is the lack of evidences for their abilities, experience and competences. Taking into considerations that several people with disabilities does not have completed secondary, vocational or higher education diploma is quite difficult to match them for a particular job vacancy. Another obstacle is that a big group from those youths did not have enough level of developed self-presentation skills which does not allowing them to present appropriately their strengths and abilities during a job interview. The overall objective of the project is to enable people with disabilities in EU to participate more frequently, more fully, and more successfully in employment and labour mobility. This will be achieved by the development of a competence passport (outcomes based) which will be created/completed with the participation of a career counsellor, supported employment consultant, vocational rehabilitation adviser or similar. In addition, a social and transversal competence validation tool will help the beneficiaries to further understand and identify the level of competences that they possessed. This tool will serve as a validation of their non-formal and informal competences described in positive (statements), non-discriminating, standardized and transparent way. The passport will have also additional part which will include also what accommodations the job seeker with disability needs, to be able to work successfully (e.g. an accessible toilet, special lighting, work in a small team). This competence passport will be based on the outcomes from a set of social competences questionnaires that will be completed together with the professional (as stated above) and based on the cooperative completion of the statements together with a professional (see below description). The questionnaires will be developed by experts from different backgrounds and sectors. The Dutch Europass Centre will participate to advise on the interoperability with 'mainstream' Europass products. The Competence Passport will inform employers, HR managers, in-house trainers what is the estimated level of the acquired social competences during non-formal and informal experience of the job-seeker with disability. DIRECT TARGET GROUPS: • Youth with disabilities • Youth low skilled • Career guidance providers – career counsellors, supported employment consultants, vocational rehabilitation advisers etc. TARGET GROUPS AS BENEFICIARIES: • HR managers, in-house trainers, employers, • Youth centres and institutions • NGO’s of/for youth with disabilities • Local and regional authorities • Policy makers INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS: IO1: Social competence validation pool IO2: European competence passport for youth with disability IO3: Guide on further career guidance for professionals involved in the career counselling based on the results from the validation tool IO4: Interactive competence hub Partnership: P1: Leading university from Turkey (Malatya) P2: Experienced educational youth authority from Malatya (TR) P3: Youth volunteering organisation targeted to validation of non-formal learning from Austria P4: Experienced NGO of people (Youth) with disabilities from Bulgaria P5: Counseling body working in the area of validation of non-formal learning on EU level.
According to the EU Commission, by 2020, around one-fifth of the EU population have some form of disability. Targets still include a 75% unemployment rate and current exclusion of large numbers of persons with disabilities from the labour market. This increases the risk for the youth with disabilities especially to be socially excluded, to face financial and ‘societal’ poverty, as well as isolation. Frequently, the major challenge during the recruitment of people with disabilities for a particular job, is the lack of evidences for their abilities, experience and competences. Taking into considerations that several people with disabilities did not have completed secondary, vocational or higher education diploma is quite difficult to match them for a particular job vacancy. Another obstacle is that a big group from these youths did not have enough level of developed self-presentation and communication skills, which did not allow them to present appropriately their strengths and abilities during a recruitment process. The overall objective of the project was to enable people with disabilities in Turkey, Bulgaria, Belgium and Austria to participate more frequently, more fully, and more successfully in employment and labour market. In order to support them, we have created social and transversal competence validation tool. It helped the beneficiaries (youth) to further understand and identify the level of competences that they possessed. The outcomes of this process were presented in a form of an outcome based competence passport, which was created and completed with the participation of a career counsellor, supported employment consultant, vocational rehabilitation adviser. It includes a verification of the current level of 13 different social and transversal competences, assessed by the professional. These professionals were also supported by additionally created guide for further career support (as part of IO1), which provides methods and strategies for further career counselling to youth with disabilities. All these activities led to realisation of validation process of youth non-formal and informal competences described in positive (statements based), non-discriminating, standardized and transparent way. All project intellectual outputs are provided by the interactive hub, which is allowing a 24/7 access to all intellectual outputs and further competence development resources - this allows the trainees to use them during their daily practice without additional costs (provided for free of charge) and without limitations. In the project we have involved around 100 youth with disabilities, who now they have their competence passport and they are ready to present themselves in appropriate and convincing way potential employers, HR managers, in-house trainers with regards to their level of the acquired social competences during non-formal and informal experience. At the end of this project, we have ready intellectual outputs in English, Turkish, German, Bulgarian and Dutch languages: IO1: Social competence validation pool and Guide on further career guidance for professionals involved in the career counselling based on the results from the validation tool IO2: European competence passport for youth with disability IO4: Interactive competence hub - https://eucompass-project.eu/competencehub Reached impact: The validation pool is covering the gap of the lack of existing tools for validation of social competences in the field of youth including those with disabilities. Further innovation is that we are offering an innovative positive psychology concept in the way of provision of career guidance by youth workers and career counsellors as a lever towards validation of non-formal competences of youth with disabilities. With the creation of this passport, we have raising substantially the aspirations, expectations, self-confidence and ambitions of participating youth (more than 120) towards the educational and labour market perspectives. We have improved the understanding of disability and the barriers, which youth with disabilities face in their daily live among employers and trainers. This was further supported by the gained direct experience of working with youth with disabilities. We have strengthened their social and civic competences, empathy, assertiveness, knowledge about disabilities and empowerment of their career perspectives. Transferability elements: The access to the hub is available for free of charge so any interested youth learners might benefit from its content. Transferability potential of the output is related to the fact that it can be used also by professionals working with other disadvantaged groups on the labour market such as refugees, long term unemployed, NEETs. The project outputs give an opportunity for cross-sectorial cooperation with other educational providers on VET and HEI levels.