Over the past years, the issue of “basic skills” has gained particular attention in most European countries. Of particular concern is what is generally called ‘functional literacy’ and ‘functional numeracy’. One of every four adults in Europe fails to reach minimum literacy levels for coping with everyday life. In addition to this situation, Europe has faced an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants. Although most member states have started to provide language trainings, a very large proportion of these individuals have very limited literacy and numeracy skills which prevents them from integrating into the culture of their host countries and from participating at the labour market. In this light, the recommendations of the European Basic Skills Network (funded by the European Commission) promoting basic skills programmes to combat social exclusion are more relevant than ever. They include “... labour force participation, use of literacy skills in the workplace, participation in adult education and training ... Programs in these areas would have a positive impact on the literacy skills.” Demand for unskilled and low-skilled workers declines as a result of technical change, which requires more advanced skills. Employers also confirm a requirement for better communication and social skills than are generally present in low-skilled workers. The increasing complexity of work processes requires better literacy, numeracy and communication skills also at lower work levels, especially to meet quality and safety aspects. During the preparation of this proposal, we identified four work sectors with a demand for special workplace training: construction, cleaning, tourism and care. In these sectors, work opportunities for low-skilled people exist, provided that they have basic literacy, numeracy and communication skills: The overall objective of our project is therefore to improve literacy and numeracy skills in the workplace for low-level educated adults, especially refugees and migrants. The specific objectives are: • to develop Workplace Basic Skills materials for for literacy, numeracy and communication training in construction, cleaning, tourism and care; • to design Workplace Basic Skills Guidelines for Trainers with information on the target group and how to train social and communication skills particularly required in these professions. Moreover, they will focus on European work ethic and how to consider equality and democracy aspects in all parts of the training process; • to take into account aspects of diversity, especially of the cultural and social background of the learners, for their better integration into the European society; • to provide these environments at an e-platform and through mobile applications as a very useful incentive for learning, especially basic skills, because there is noticeably less stigma attached learning ICT than attending an alphabetisation course; • to focus however on important social and communication skills and convey European working values and attitudes; • to introduce cultural competences and by promoting democratic values into the basic skills training which focuses on basic skills needed at the workplace in four distinct sectors. In this way, our project promotes inclusion and fundamental values through education - a way to prevent violent radicalisation, and the integration and social inclusion of refugees and migrants into their new environment will be facilitated. • to provide all materials in English and all languages of the partnership, and additional explanations and motivational and didactic background also be produced in Arabic and Pashtun The primary target groups for our project are trainers in adult education, labour office advisers and job counsellors , key actors for basic skills training and from refugee organisations and other institutions dealing with the integration of refugees and asylum seekers. The ultimate beneficiaries are refugees, asylum seekers and migrants with basic skills deficits in literacy and numeracy. The immediate impact, already during the project’s lifetime, will be the transfer of knowledge and skills to more than 100 basic skills trainers who are working with at least ten times more learners from different backgrounds, and to more than 150 experts and key actors who will also be involved in the validation phase. We assume that they are working with approx. 20,000 clients (refugees, asylum seekers, job searchers, adult education learners, etc.) each year. After having been involved in the pilot tests, they will be able to implement the project’s concept directly afterwards in their regular counselling activities. For the long-term impact we have estimated that in the countries of the partnership alone, more than 85.000 persons who are working as labour office advisers or in similar professions will be informed through the Guidelines and e-learning materials in their native languages.
Literacy, numeracy and social skills are fundamental to master typical situations in everyday working life. Competence deficits in this areas can prove to be an obstacle to permanent and successful integration into the labour market especially for migrants, refugees and locals. The materials of the ERASMUS+ project “Workplace Basic Skills” were developed by eight different project partners and focuses on four learning scenarios in the areas of construction, cleaning, care and tourism. Using four protagonists, learners can experience how typical professional situations can be managed competently through the application of basic skills particularly required in these professions. Due to the action orientation of the concept, competences are trained and reflected in numerous situations. The specific objectives of the project were: • to develop Workplace Basic Skills materials for literacy, numeracy and social skills training in construction, cleaning, tourism and care. • to design Guidelines for Trainers with information on the target group and how to train social and communication skills particularly required in these professions. • to take into account aspects of diversity, especially of the cultural and social background of the learners, for their better integration into the European society. • to provide these e-learning materials and Guidelines at an e-platform and through a mobile app. • to provide the materials in English and all languages of the partnership plus Arabic and Pashtun. Our target group The target group of Workplace Basic Skills e-learning materials are people with poor literacy, numeracy and social skills. The people with these deficits are mainly migrants and refugees, but also local, mostly low skilled people. The guide is aimed at trainers who support the integration of adult immigrants and locals into the labour market. The materials are applicable in the following situations: job placement of adult refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants & locals who are not able to read, write and calculate well or have a lack of social competence; Language training for adult refugees, asylum seekers & immigrants; Integration programmes for adult immigrants and Vocational education and training. Workplace Basic Skills Approach It has long been known that learning theoretical concepts are insufficient to enable learners to apply their knowledge in practice. Instead of promote literacy, numeracy and social skills dryly, abstractly and separately from each other, our concept integrates all learning objectives in a story based approach. The learner can accompany the following characters on their first day of work: • Arman: a construction labourer • Anna: an office cleaner • Nedjad: a personal care worker in Health Services • Karina: a waitress Through this approach, the Workplace Basic Skills approach aims to improve basic education and social skills as a basis for long-term integration into the labour market. Due to the size of the consortium of eight partners in total, an important milestone was set in strengthening the topic of basic education in Europe.