Unemployment is a steady concern and a challenge across Europe for the past years. Even more so as a large number of people, especially young and from migrant background, can’t find a way to enter the job market. The challenge becomes more acute as the presence of immigrants and refugees in the EU countries call for measures towards integration, the most powerful one being employment. Through employment the cycle of social exclusion can be broken for EU and non-EU residents especially socially excluded youth, NEETs. This Partnership consisting of VET and youth organizations came together in order to contribute to these challenges that all of us are facing everyday on the field. With a clear focus on Vocational Training and the need for on the job training, this project aims at the creation of tools for employability and soft skills to support the youth along with a number of job placements for youngsters. Additionally, it aims in enhancing the knowledge of the professionals (youth workers, educators, coaches and trainers) who work with NEETs through capacity building and training in order to be able to facilitate job placements for socially excluded youth. The objective that guides this proposal stems from the partner organizations’ everyday professional reality that shows a clear need for a holistic approach to facilitate the employment opportunities of socially excluded youth. According to the Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation, the reduction of inequality and social exclusion in Europe (80 million people at risk of poverty, 14 million young people not in education, employment or training) remains one of the biggest challenges for the future of Europe. Tackling unemployment rates of 14,9% for youngsters in 2018 (Eurostat, 2019) calls for holistic approaches in an EU level in order to properly address the problem. Therefore, the project targets two interrelated groups: the socially excluded youngsters themselves and professionals working with them and professionals working in companies responsible for internships. The goal is to provide capacity building to both groups of professionals so they can cooperate and support the training and the pilot placement of disadvantaged youngsters in a comprehensive, innovative pilot approach that can then be transferred to other organizations through our extensive network. The outputs of the project that is focusing on disadvantaged youth are targetging the professionals working in the provision of services and their own up-skilling by the creation of a handbook and toolbox for them specifically. The disadvantaged youth themselves will be addressed through the creation of an educational module following EQF standards for Employability Soft Skills that can then lead for a specific number of youngsters to a pilot intervention "Assisted Training Scheme" which will give the opportunity to around 30 disadvantaged youngsters to be allocated in trainships. They will enhance work based learning through the mediation of youth workers/ educators/ coaches/ trainers/ counselors who serve as a guide towards improved work based learning and therefore enhancing employability opportunities. Thirdly, output will be created through the development of a guidelines handbook to be used for policy recommendations, guide for practicioners but also for companies so for all to improve their everyday working experience. All of the materials that the project aims at creating will focus on promoting the possibilities of the youngsters to enter the labor market through a solid comprehensive innovative methodology stemming from diagnosed needs complemented by easy to use tools. All the tools of the project can be used separately or combined depending on the needs of the beneficiaries. All materials of the project will be easy to adapt to the different national contexts and beneficiaries and in this way to improve the sustainability of the project's results being included in the participating organizations and networks everyday activities. Therefore, the consortium consists of 7 organizations all active in the field fo youth and VET provision coming from 6 countries (Germany, UK, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Romania) forming in that way a strong partnerhsip of different national contexts that can improve the end products' quality being tested in different environment, assure the outcomes sustainability having been put to test by a variety of organizations and ensure the outcomes sustainability after the end of the project.
Our partnership consisting of VET and youth organizations came together in order to contribute to these challenges that professionals face daily on the field. With a clear focus on vocational training and the need for on-the-job training, this project focused on the creation of tools for employability and soft skills to support the youth along with a number of job placements for youngsters. Additionally, the project aimed at enhancing the knowledge of the professionals (youth workers, educators, coaches and trainers) who work with NEETs day-to-day through capacity building and training in order to be able to guide youngsters and facilitate job placements for socially excluded youth. Besides the socially excluded youngsters themselves and the professionals working with them, the project targeted also the professionals working in companies and are responsible for internships. Our goal was to provide capacity building to both groups of professionals involved in training schemes, so that they can cooperate and support the training and the pilot placement of disadvantaged youngsters in a comprehensive, innovative pilot approach that can then be transferred to other organizations through our extensive network.
Unemployment is a steady concern and a challenge across Europe for the past years. Even more so as a large number of people, especially young and from migrant background, can’t find a way to enter the job market. The challenge becomes more acute as the presence of immigrants and refugees in the EU countries calls for measures towards integration, the most powerful one being employment. Through employment the cycle of social exclusion can be broken for EU and non-EU residents, especially socially excluded youth, NEETs. The “Employable Youth: It Works!” project was our response to the raising need for on the job training. We focused on the creation of tools for youth professionals and young NEETs to support youth employability within training assisted schemes. The consortium brought together 7 organizations, all active in the field of youth and VET provision coming from 6 countries (Germany, UK, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Romania), very different regarding their economic performance, welfare infrastructure and VET systems. We formed in that way a strong partnership of diverse national contexts, and we tested the final products' quality in different environments, thus assuring the outputs sustainability after the end of the project.