E-Entrepreneurship Module for Migrants and Refugees

Programme: Erasmus+ KA204 Strategic Partnerships (Development of innovation) Title of the project: “E-Entrepreneurship Module for Migrants and Refugees- EMMR ” Duration of the project: 36 months Applicant Organisation: Erzincan Halk Eğitimi Merkezi, Turkey Partner Organisations: AzM-Lu, Slovenia EDUNET, Romania VALNALON, Spain Erzincan Valiliği, Turkey There are significant increases at the number of Afghans who came to Turkey in recent years. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees according to the figures, there are about 130 thousand Afghans in Turkey. Excluding Syrians, Iranians and Iraqs first used in among immigrants who came to Turkey in queue, the Afghans took their place. During 3 yearly EMMR Project process, this number reached 300.000 Afgan migrant/refugees. And 2300 of them are in Erzincan. Unemployment, war and the lack of a secure environment in the country are important factors in the migration. In addition to financial difficulties due to uncertainty in their situation, there are Afghan refugees who struggle with serious psychological problems or even commit suicide or harm their bodies. Unemployment, financial impossibility, education and health needs are the most fundamental problems in host countries. By the project we focused on the social and economic integration of refugees in the hosting countries which are involved in the project. Through the Project it was aimed to implement a succession of activities that promote the integration of the refugees in the host society and at the same time fight against its exclusion. Likewise, Implementing the project, it was aimed to view integration as a flexible and multidimensional process implying not only the refugees' adaptation to the host society. Some of the partner organizations are running individually social inclusion projects and some of the partner organizations are running entrepreneurship projects, but this project was be innovative since it brings together the experiences in different countries. Migrants and refugees who are hosted in different countries will take advantage of the socio-economic integration into the host society. The project is innovative in a way of focusing on and representing the key elements and competences any newly recognised refugee will need to address in order to establish themselves and begin rebuilding their lives in the hosting country. In order to achieve the aims of the project listed above four module were designed: O1:““The Basic Language and Communication Skills Module for the Migrants and Refugees" aims to help internal migrants and refugees acquiring basic skills of communication in languages of host states that enable them to deal with situations they face in everyday life and adapt to the conditions of the society in the host country, prevent their social marginalization and empower them to become independent and to participate actively in economic, social and cultural life in the host country. O2:“The Basic Digital and Computer Skills Module for the Migrants and Refugees" aims to help internal migrants and refugees acquiring basic Digital and Computer skills that enable them to deal with situations they face in everyday life and while working on their Business ideas. One of the aims is of course prevention of their social marginalization and the empowerment of migrants to become independent, active residents of the host country. O3:“The Entrepreneurship Module for the Migrants and Refugees" is the learning material that provides the knowledge and skill for the setting up businesses and the development of those businesses by combining the sources like work place, staff, machines-equipments, finance, etc. The aim is also to make migrants and refugees active individuals in the host country’s business life. O4: “The e-Entrepreneurship Module for the Migrants and Refugees" is to give information about establishing and managing a business plan based on those who consider digital entrepreneurship as an option. Refugees and asylum seekers, who are the target group, can not survive as they are generally located in the cities or countries in which they live. For this reason e-entrepreneurship training for employment and the employment at e-commerce without timeness, space limitations will be a hit for the target group of project. All modules was applied at the local courses to the target groups by the project partners and disseminated by the multiplier event during the project. Project meetings was held in the presence of all partners, had the objective to prepare and plan the project actions, in the development of the diverse project activities, to plan and monitor the research phase for developing the case study, monitoring and analysing the results, to plan the training activities, to plan the dissemination actions, to exchange training materials and to evaluate the project results. 5 TPM was foreseen during the project application process. Still 5 transnational project meetings were held throughout the project. There were only changes in the meeting dates and hosting order stipulated in the application. First 3 TPM was held face to face but, last 2 TPM was virtual meetings because of Covid 19. The hosting partner of the transnational meeting prepared agendas, minutes of the meetings and participant lists to be signed, certificates. From each partner organisation at most 3 staff who participated in the transnational project meetings. These meetings helped the intended developments and reviewed the progress and planning for the next months. These meetings allowed all partners to express their views and ideas as well as ensuring that the project and its intellectual outputs and multiplier events were on track and that quality issues are addressed. First project meeting held in Turkey hosting by Erzincan Governorship and in the project outputs and related activities, clearly defined and discussed during the Kick off meeting and the Work Plan, Timetable updated. At the kick off meeting of the project, there were changes among the module study leaders. Subsequently, as the progress process of the project, it was deemed appropriate that the work plan on the relevant module be followed by the responsible leader, that the staff training of the relevant module would be carried out by and hosted by the leader responsible for the module, and the subsequent evaluation TPM would be hosted by the same co-host. At each TPM meeting, the leader of the next module presents the work plan, preliminary work on LTT date and TPM date, and it was decided in partnership. At the Kick Off Meeting, the O1 work plan was announced by the leader of the first module(EduNet) and discussed by all partners. Based on this plan, the first LTT (C1) and 2nd TPM dates, hosted by the responsible leader, were determined. Afterwards, under the control of the project coordinator, with the organization of the intellectual output leader, LTT personnel worked on the module and the first LTT was realized. The final version of the module, which is shaped here, local pilot courses were held with refugees/migrants and the module was edited if necessary with the feedback and evaluations obtained from these courses. In the second TPM, the project team was informed by the module work leader. The project process progressed in this way, with O2 responsible leader AzM-Lu, O3 responsible leader Valnalon and O4 responsible leader Erzincan HEM. Each partner prepared the agendas of the activities hosted by them, organized them, and organized local pilot courses; was also responsible for actively participating in other LTTs and TPMs. After the 2nd TPM, progress was made as C2, 3rd TPM, C3, 4th TPM and 5th TPM. As of March 2019, the 4th and 5th TPMs had to be carried out virtual due to Covid 19, which affected many areas of life. 3 short term staff training had made. By the training events two staff from each partner gained the professional teaching techniques designed by the partnership and the experience that they staff gained during the events enriched the local courses. Individuals with cirruculum desing, relevant teaching and field knowledge in the field of qualification (digital literacy, language learning, entreprenership) selected for each training. Each partner contributed to the design all of the modules. They prepared the modules firstly common English and translated in their national language. Slovenian partner, AZM-LU was also responsible for designing and updating the project web site and facebook group. Each partner had organised four local courses based on the intellectual outputs (O1, O2, O3 and O4). The courses was held locally as the mobility of the target groups (migrants and refugees) is quite impossible due to the mobility restrictions and regulations of those groups. Each partner promoted the local courses among the target group and organise the courses according to the modules (O1, O2, O3 and O4) which elaborated and designed by the partnership. All partners loaded the Project documents to the intended shared area (Google drive shared folder) all developments, minutes from meetings, papers, dissemination materials and evaluations. Each partner prepared the agendas of the activities hosted by them, organized them, and organized local pilot courses; was also responsible for actively participating in other LTTs and TPMs. All partners was responsible for organising the transnational meetings in order to rearrange some of the activities in the timetable, to identify the basic principles, methods and strategies for developing the action plan in order to address the intellectual outputs, activities and the events in the Project progress; to discuss agreements regarding short-term staff training and multiplier events. We have included our target audience in almost every phase of the project, starting with our opening meeting, which made a lot of noise in the local and national press during our project process. In the pilot cources of the intellectual outputs developed within the scope of our project, we have directly included about 100 migrants/refugees in 4 countries by working with an average of 25 migrants/refugees from each institution, as we envisaged in the application form. In the multiplier effects section of the application form, when this calculation is made separately for the 4 modules to be developed in the project, it was envisaged to work with about 400 migrants/refugees. However, during the project process, we realized within our partnership that working with separate groups for each module will not be very productive in terms of testing our modules. Because each module is interconnected. Ultimately, we preferred that each partner continue with the same group as much as possible. On the other hand, while projects are being carried out in our partner institutions, since the institutions are currently conducting one-to-one projects or courses with immigrants/refugees, immigrants/refugees who came into contact with these institutions also had information about the project and indirectly disseminated it. Considering that the dissemination of the project would be more effective, all the multiplier activities were carried out after all the intellectual outputs were created, with the decision taken in partnership. And also these multiplier events was the final and the lansman of the Project. This launch was planned to involve the local, regional, national maximum number of public / private / sectoral institutions / organizations and local governments, making the project sound and a multiplier activity in the project. But because of the effects of Covid 19 all multiplier events was made only with local participants.7 multiplier events were held after all intellectual outputs were designed . E1: Conference on integration of the migrants and refugees, refugees' profile in in Romania, in Turkey, Slovenia and Spain and around Europe was multiplier event of O1,O2,O3,O4, performed by Spanish partner, VALNALON. Same time E6 was the virtual multiplier event was performed by VALNALON. Valnalon had a two multiplier event reached 19 participant (virtual), 16 people face to face. E2+E7: Conference on digital literacy and social integration of the migrants and refugees digitally in the hosting country, Slovenia. The multiplier event to disseminate of O1,O2,O3,O4: performed by Slovenian partner, AzM-Lu. AzM-Lu had two multiplier event reached 31 people face to face. E3: Conference on Entrepreneurship and e-Entrepreneurship/e-commerce and social integration of the migrants and refugees in the hosting country Turkey was multiplier event of O1, O2, O3, O4, performed by Erzincan HEM. The intellectual outputs were promoted and disseminated among the target groups and stakeholders from the organisations, education centres, schools, public training centres and associations dealing with inclusion of migrants and refugees. There were totally 58 local participants in the event. E4: Introduction of EMMR Project's Intellectual Outputs was multiplier event of O1, O2, O3, O4, performed by Erzincan Governorship for the wide range of the local representatives from community, organizations, public authorities and other stakeholders who are involved in social inclusion of migrants and refugees in Erzincan. During the event the intellectual outputs were promoted and disseminated among the target groups and stakeholders from the organizations, public bodies in Erzincan, university, the Chamber of Craftsmen, the Erzincan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, headmen of the neighborhood and to NGOs associations dealing with inclusion of migrants and refugees. There were totally 56 local participants in the event. The news of the event was covered in 2 local printed newspapers. E5: Introduction of EMMR Project's Intellectual Outputs was multiplier event of O1, O2, O3, O4, was assigned to Romanian partner, EduNet. One of the most important indicators showing the success of the project activities is the number of people directly or indirectly reached by the activities. Within the Kick Off Meeting, the EMMR Project opening meeting hosted by our Erzincan Governorship partner, with the high-level participation of local authorities, our target audience of around 50 Afghan refugees, around 100 representatives from public institutions, 21 e-newspapers, 3 printed local newspapers and 2 local television channels. It is a great indicator of success that it was realized by taking part in the channel. The project results disseminated among the professional staff and the target groups inside the participating institutions. Because of the Erzincan Governorship is a public authority that has an institutional role in the government and coordinates a network of public organisations thus they possess powers which is important for implementing project activities. They have influence in a range of sectors therefore ensuring they disseminate activities across sectors. Especially, the Erzincan Governorship The Bureau of European Union and Foreign Affairs, responsible for disseminating activities regarding projects developed via EU initiatives, able to put to use their experience in dissemination to the benefit of the project. Their connections with a range of public and private organisations, especially the Provincial Directorates of Migration Management and NGOs have ensured a wide audience is reached by the project’s activities and is aware of the results developed. Also, each partner is responsible for disseminating, exploiting and sustaining the intellectual outputs at local, national and EU level. The results were displayed on the project website both inside and outside the instutituon, and printed and online news published on local and regional mass media. The results were presented during local and international project meetings and local networks of partners were invited or visited at these meetings: Local Authorities such as Citizenship Offices and Immigration Bureau, Municipalities, VET organizations, Employment agencies, Education authorities, social enterprises, NGOs. Multiplier events were organized to include the local community in project matters. By multiplier incidents, partners disseminated information about the project process and its outcomes at different local, regional and national actors. The European dimension lies at the heart of our expansion strategy. We invited local and regional actors to become experts in our international meetings and events, thus providing a very practical experience for participants in Europe. Dissemination materials were posted to 81 governorates and 25 public bodies in Erzincan, 9 municipalities, 30 headmen of neighbors to display on their showcases and also were distributed at the events attended by the partners in order to increase the visibility of the project and extend our network and contacts. Social media is a very dynamic environment and one of the most popular and fastest ways to promote the project and increase its visibility; For this reason, Erzincan Governorship's social media accounts were used and nerarly reached to 5000 person. During the dissemination process, we runned press releases, videos, Power Point presentations, brochures, publications and other materials that can be easily accessed. We could reach people from other countries through the Internet and social networking. In addition, the results were shared on the dissemination pages of other partners or related persons / organizations. The project logo is one of the most important elements of the project's identity. Its main purpose is to directly and effectively represent the core message of the project. That is why it is one of the basic means of the dissemination strategy. This logo captures the vision, mission and objectives of the EMMR project, and therefore the project logo has already been designed in the first month of the project. Project logo was designed by Erzincan Public Education Centre’s designer, while designation all partners opinions were asked and current form was chosen. This logo has been used on all the documents used in meetings, pilot courses, posters,flyers,e.t.c. After the project logo was designed, templates were prepared for different document types (doc.,exc.,ppt). The templates ensured a uniform representation of the project. All templates are available to consortium partners in the shared folder. Project website is the centre of all dissemination activities. All resources produced throughout the project uploaded and openly accessible to all interested parties in English. Every partner’s website is linked to the project website. Videos, press and online articles, meeting agendas, photos, materials collected during the transnational mobilities and local activities, posters realized, to reach a lot of people at local, national and international level and also thanks to the project website and social networks information is shared easily everywhere. Each partner will undertake direct promotional activities within its own network. They use their own social media accounts, such as Facebook as well as already existing websites, newsletters,contacts to local and regional press to spread news and outcomes of the project to relevant stakeholders. Erzincan Public Education Center is in the city center so o much people goes in and out in a day. All Project roll ups, banners and broschures are visible everywhere throughout Project process and still. Daily 300-350 people visits our instution and see these Project materials and slide Show on tv. An average of 600 people see our facebook posts, and we shared the EMMR project events from this account as well. Our official web page has 30000 visitors yearly. Web page is one of the our dissemination channel. We met 600-700 people with our EMMR project by instagram account. Our EMMR project was selected as an example in the field of Adult Education Strategic Partnerships Innovation Development at the Erasmus+ Regional Information Meeting held in Erzurum on 12 November 2019, and the project was introduced by our contact person, which is a plus for dissemination. The number of refugees/migrants who attended the courses in our institution during the project is 1238. Some of them directly participated in our EMMR project activities, while others were informed. Valnalon websites, www.valnalon.com and www.valnaloneduca.com, receive well over 12000 visits per month so they were our mainlydissemination channels. Project news were also be spread on Valnalon Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/valnalon/) currently reaching 950 users. As regards face-to-face dissemination, Valnalon participates in a huge number of entrepreneurship-related events on a yearly basis at regional and national level. As indicated in the partner description, Valnalon has implemented joint-projects with organizations providing support to migrants and refugees. They have well-established links with regional media and newspapers. During the project process, they used these strong connections to cover the news about our EMMR project in local printed/online newspapers. EDUNET works in a large partnership with the local and regional authorities and organizations : Regional Teachers Training Centre , School Inspectorate of Dolj county, Authority for Public Health - Dolj county, Romanian Nurses Association-Dolj Branch, General Direction for Social Assistance and Children Protection -Dolj county, Save the Children Romania , NGOs , training providers and many schools from Craiova and Dolj county. Through these relations, which continued during the project process, these institutions had information about the project in a formal and informal way. Edunet had a multiplier event reached 46 participant face to face. Our partner Edunet introduced our project to 285 people face-to-face at national/regional/European dimensions through informative sessions, seminars and conferences. Edunet reached EMMR Project 2126 people via press release.EduNet disseminated EMMR to 8958 visitor trough facebook and instution’s official web page. In addition to the web site the dissemination is based also on posters, articles on web and paper, banner and leaflets, dissemination materials(notebook, pencil, hat,etc) distributed to target groups at project activities. The conferences during the multiplier events and the dissemination campaign involved the target groups, national and international decision makers, local stakeholders. The related materials have published and distributed on paper and on the web. The participants were informed that they can access the intellectual outputs of the project free of charge by introducing the project web page emmr.eu. AzM-Lu will assure that the web platform to be freely available at least 2 years after project completion, to be used both for individuals and adult and VET training providers. The 30 trainers participating in Joint EU training workshop acquired new training methods having increased skills for creating the necessary personalized learning resources, learning methodology and increased skills to conduct learning community. The project team and staff participating in the project gained new experience of management and organization of transnational partnerships, intercultural dialogue and cooperation, having increased language and intercultural skills increased capacity of working in partnership and European level and sharing experiences and best practices at transnational level. The project had an important impact on the participants by implementing activities that promote the integration of the refugees in the host society. The impact on the target groups is the key competence throughout their lives, and the target groups are to develop and update the target groups. The most important impact of the project is to promote and enhance the inclusion of facilitating the access to the participants, including the migrants, refugees, asylum seekers who have linguistic adaptation and cultural inclusion difficulties in the society, people with limited social skills. The project may impact systems or policies in participating countries and in Europe, by inspiring changes in the national occupational standards for tutors and in company trainers, changes in the training curriculum for their training, new programs for training and qualification of tutors. Transferring the intellectual outputs created in the project to e-learning platforms may result in a brand new project. With this project: -Encourage people to explore the roles they play in their own vision of how they fit their values and communities at local, national and global levels; -We hope to increase mutual tolerance. The most comprehensive prospect of the project will be in the future: a professionally more sophisticated and socially more integrated society.