PROFINT - PROfessionalize the actors training and accompanying migrants and refugees in their social and profesionnal INTegration The massive arrival of migrants to Europe since 2015 put its members in front of an unprecedented integration challenge. In a number of member countries like Sweden, Italy, and France, private initiatives have flourished at local level to support the national policies in meeting in urgency the needs of the migrants and refugees arriving at different places. Among them, organisations working with social inclusion / training / work integration of disadvantaged people, mobilized to develop new adequate training and accompaniment devices. An overview of project reports and shared practices makes two principal needs emerge concerning the setting up and implementation of such training and accompaniment devices: - the need of developing approaches and methodologies of training and accompaniment that better take into account the all dimensions of the beneficiaries’ learning and integration processes, especially the intercultural dimension. - and the need of developing a better organisation, articulation and interaction between the different intervening actors to the benefit of the training and accompaniment efficiency. The aim of the project is to support organisations and their operative staffs in mastering these two processes when setting up and implementing their training and accompaniment devices for refugees and migrants. The concrete objective is to produce a professional resource that can be used in different professionalization contexts by concerned operatives and project leaders, in order to collectively improve their training and accompaniment practices. To attain its objective, the project relies on the partnership between three innovative organisations which each have a solid experience and expertise in training and accompanying disadvantage young adults even young adults in great risk of exclusion and which develop their devices to address migrants and refugees. The partnership is enforced by a fourth partner, in France, who have an expertise regarding the project related issues and a solid experience of project management and methodological development. The project will ground on a research-action approach, making the three operational partners to work on their own device of training and accompanying migrants and refugees (shortcut called TA-device). They will construct and appropriate the targeted professional resource by steps, and successively work with: - A MAPPING OF TRAINING AND ACCOMPANIMENT DEVICES FOR MIGRANTS REFUGEES and the identification of SUCCESS FACTORS - The construction of a practical framework for setting up and implementing TA-devices for migrants and refugees: The PROFINT-MODEL - The production of a TRAINING KIT to make their staff appropriate the PROFINT- MODEL, that they will test in the frame of a Short Joint Staff Training - The experimentation and documentation of actions/new practices designed in connexion to the training in order to construct METHODOLOGICAL CASES. - The production of GUIDELINES and a TOOLKIT integrating the intermediate productions Using the professional resource developed will make operative trainers and coaches involved in TA-devices for migrants and refugees, improve their way of working together, to better apprehend the different needs of the beneficiaries and the different dimensions of their integration path, especially the intercultural dimension. Appropriating the PROFINT model will impact organisations setting up and implementing TA-devices in different territorial contexts, in their way of organizing the devices and especially in their way of interacting and collaborating with other organisations involved in the devices. Using the professional resource for training or supporting their operative staffs in their activity addressed to refugees and migrants, will impact positively the efficiency of their devices. The appropriation of the PROFINT model and the use of the produced professional resource by the different integration actors of a territory/ a municipality/ a region will make them: - better take into account the different needs and resources of low qualified migrants and refugees, - and better apprehend the intercultural dimension of the integration process which will strengthen the prospects of social and professional integration of new arrived migrants and refugees. In this sense, the project will contribute to the long term European objective of social inclusion and integration into the labour market of refugees and migrants.
The PROFINT project was carried out by four organizations working with persons remote from employment in France, Italy and Sweden. When in 2015 these countries were faced with a massive influx of migrants, these four organizations created programs and / or adapted their programs to meet the urgent accompaniment needs of new arrivals on their territory. . Following an exchange of experiences in 2018, they jointly designed the PROFINT project. THEIR GOAL was to help those concerned with the integration of refugees and migrants to provide them an effective support. They were particularly concerned by two issues: Knowing how to meet all the learning needs of beneficiaries and fostering effective coordination of the various actions and initiatives carried out to meet these needs. THEIR CONCRETE OBJECTIVE was to produce a set of resources that could be used in different contexts by professionals, individually or in groups, to improve their practices for accompanying migrants and refugees. The partners have relied on their solid operational experience and complementary expertise: - The MISSION LOCALE DE VILLEURBANNE in France has proven skills in supporting young adults excluded from employment by helping them build their professional project and guiding them towards vocational training and employment. - MCG SOC. COOP. is a training organization operating in Sicily and Sardinia, expert in educational engineering and in supporting the learning process of people in social and professional integration. - TIKITUT COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM conducts participatory tourism activities in underprivileged peri-urban neighborhoods in Sweden and harnesses the potential of this activity and of its environment to support the social, cultural and professional integration of newcomers in these neighborhoods. - SOCIALINNOVATION is a French one-person agency for project engineering and support, mainly targeted on issues regarding socio-professional integration of people remote from employment. In a first phase of the project, the partners analyzed in depth their device and their accompaniment processes for migrants and refugees. They enriched their analyzes through interviews with their beneficiaries and other integration actors in their territory and the investigation of good European practices. On this basis, they identified the SUCCESS FACTORS of their accompaniment activity and built THE PROFINT MODEL, a practical framework for action and professionalization. In a second phase, the partners developed a TRAINING KIT to appropriate the PROFINT model: they defined the skills targeted by the recommendations of the PROFINT model, they reflected on the most suitable methods to promote the development of these skills, and built the practical supports of training modules. They tested these training modules with their teams. They experimented in their respective context, improvements in practices and tools resulting from these tests and produced a documentation of the progress and impacts of these experiments. In the last phase of the project, the partners objectified the professionalization process in loops (Analysis of practices / experimentation <–> Formalization) which involved their teams and their organizations during the project and defined the conditions for transferring this experience, with a formative and professionalizing perspective. They completed, refined and defined how to articulate the different "tools" produced during the project, on an online platform. The PROFINT PLATFORM offers: - RESOURCES (cases, tools, good practices) linked to the PROFINT model, presented and articulated in such a way as to put users of the platform in a professional approach. - A TRAINING that can be followed online by professionals, offering at the same time all the supports necessary for the organization of a face-to-face training adapted to the context of the participants. The PROFINT project has resulted in a tangible way in: - An INCREASE IN SKILLS and INNOVATION CAPACITY of the PROFINT ORGANIZATIONS and of their TEAMS to support migrants and refugees, and a VISIBILITY of these skills to their partners - The appropriation of the PROFINT model and an understanding of the commitment and role of the PROFINT partners by the external actors who participated in the project - An improvement in the prospects for integration of the migrants and refugees involved in some project activities. The benefit of the PROFINT platform is the professionalization opportunity given to its users to better support the integration of migrants and refugees.