The foundation of the partnership for the exchange of good practice of the three partner organisations ZAUG (Germany), CEPROF (Portugal) and AICS (Italy) is the motivation to contribute together, on a European level, to reactions towards the challenge vocational education is facing, due to a changing labour market as well as continuous migration movements. Moreover, this partnership aims at building stable cooperation structures between the organisations. Refugees and migrants are one of the most disadvantaged demographic groups. This is why the need of digital education, one of eight key competences necessary to improve personal employability, is very high among this target group. The acquisition of ICT-competences combined with other basic skills such as targeted and lifelong learning are essential for future employability, social inclusion and personal development of refugees and migrants in today’s information society. The project ICT is the Future – Integration through Competence Testing and Training pursues the aim of improving integration of refugees and migrants into the labour market 4.0 by the process of identification, optimization und dissemination of good practices, especially in the area of competence testing and qualification with a focus on ICT. Thus, the project focuses on two subgoals: the improvement of digital education taking into account the five areas of competences defined by the DIGCOMP framework: information, communication, content creation, safety and problem solving and the improved integration of refugees and migrants in vocational education in the area of ICT and the labour market 4.0. There are three project partners: AICS is a NGO active in promotion of sport and culture focusing on social integration of refugees, CEPROF is an educational institute with a centre for qualification and certification and ZAUG is a vocational training institution with priority on vocational qualification and labour market integration of refugees and migrants. The project partners will share their expertise in all relevant areas such as digital education, vocational qualification, certification, social inclusion and labour market integration of refugees and migrants. The professional knowledge and methodical competences of every single partner complete the other partners’ specializations to provide a widespread exchange of good practices, the collection of new ideas and visions for combining approved methods. Through the exchange of good practices of the project partners in the areas • supporting the strengthening of key competences of disadvantaged groups (AICS, ZAUG) • target-group-specific competence testing procedures (ZAUG) • certified qualification in ICT (CEPROF) • vocational training of refugees and migrants (ZAUG, AICS, CEPROF) the transferability of methods and practices of organisations in Germany, Italy and Portugal with different focuses in the given areas to each partner organisation and country will be verified. The expected results of the project ICT is the Future that serve the dissemination and exploitation of the good practices, will be a list of criteria for identifying and assessing good practices of all project-relevant areas and a collection of good practices including a transferability and adaption strategy for other target groups, areas of vocational education and countries. Furthermore, resulting from the project partners’ exchange, the creation of a common project idea that comprises a combination and optimization of several components of the identified good practices, is expected and could lead to a future project application in the framework of a partnership supporting innovation.
ICT is the Future - Integration through Competence Testing and Training was developed by three partner organisations: AiCS - Associazione Italiana Cultura Sport (Italy), CEPROF - Centros Escolares de Ensino Profissional, Lda (Portugal) and ZAUG - Zentrum Arbeit und Umwelt Giessen gGmbH (Germany). The strategic partnership was established for the exchange of good practices in competence development and social promotion, focusing in particular on digital and vocational education in order to strengthen key competences among disadvantaged target groups and enhance their opportunities for labour market integration and social inclusion. The foundation of the partnership for the exchange of good practice was the drive to create solid cooperation structures among the project partners and to jointly make a long-term contribution at European level in order to respond to the challenges of vocational training due to a changing labour market and ongoing migration movements. Refugees and migrants are one of the most disadvantaged demographic groups. Therefore, the need for digital education, which counts as one of the eight key competences required to achieve employability, is very high among this target group, as well as other socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Acquiring ICT skills, along with other basic skills, is essential for the future employability of these target groups as well as for their social inclusion and personal development in today's information society. Accordingly, the focus of the project was divided into two long-term sub-goals, the improvement of the digital educational offers for these target groups in the respective regions and an improved integration of refugees and migrants in vocational training and the labour market 4.0, as well as the strengthening of their social integration. The project team consisted of a non-governmental organisation in the field of sport and culture promotion with a focus on the social integration of refugees (AiCS), a vocational school for youngsters with an adult education centre for qualification and certification with an ICT focus (CEPROF) and a vocational training provider with a focus on professional qualification and labour market integration, in particular of refugees and migrants (ZAUG). Over the course of two years, the project partners shared their expertise in all relevant areas such as digital education, vocational qualifications, competence testing and certification, labour market integration and social inclusion of refugees and migrants as well as other target groups that are considered digitally excluded or disadvantaged. The professional knowledge and methodological competences of each individual partner complemented the specialisations of the other partners and thus enabled a comprehensive exchange of good practices in all areas addressed, stimulating new ideas for transferring and adapting approved methods for implementation in the regions and countries of the partners and beyond across Europe. The consortium developed a set of criteria for identifying and evaluating good practices, which includes certain quality indicators that the project partners considered relevant for their good practice collection purposes. Based on these criteria, the partners identified good practices that they or their partners have recently implemented and presented them to the consortium. The partners selected the good practice examples from a large number of practices, taking into account the evaluations of these by regional project advisory boards, which promised high relevance as well as great potential for transferability to the respective regions. The advisory boards consisted of associate network partners representing young and adult educational institutions, communal authorities, NGOs and experts working in relevant fields. The results of the ICT is the Future project are a catalogue of criteria for identifying and evaluating good practices in the areas relevant to the project and four collections of good practices with strategies for transferring and adapting to other target groups, vocational training areas and countries. This includes three national collections of good practices and one collection of good practices for European-wide use. Future projects that combine individual components of the various examples of good practices and develop them further so that they can be implemented in a larger European framework and in new fields of application are planned.