Project title: KFC - Knowledge For Career Applicant organization: Youth Club Active Partner organizations: Latvijas jauniesu attistibas centrs (Latvia) and SDRUZHENIE ALTERNATIVI INTERNATIONAL (Bulgaria). Project dates: March 2021: Kick-off meeting in Estonia. March-April: Advertisement, form groups, find out the needs of the groups, start preparation meetings. April - September 2021: Introduce the project and the programme to the group, get to know each other, lectures Online meeting with initiate team, another pair of events (Excursion to universities, Job Shadow, visit career centres, simulation game,) August: participants’ feedback, meeting with initiate teams, a study visit to Bulgaria (midterm summary, exchange of experience, and methods). August-November: Making a website and a booklet, making visual materials November 2021: Presentation of website and booklet, summarize meeting with initiate teams. November2021-February 2022: dissemination of the project by 25 participants/pupils and initiative team members. Each partner organisation has to manage 1 public event. March 2022- April 2022 - project evaluation and sum up results, final report Main aim: The main goal is to increase practical and theoretical knowledge among youngsters in the field of career, thanks to which they can be competitive on the Estonian, Bulgarian and Latvian labor markets, which will allow them to choose the career path most preferable for them, further to let them express their thoughts and opinion about career education at schools and make suggestions in an open dialog with decision-makers. The project will reach the following objectives: - to give relevant skills and knowledge for being competent on the labor market in Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia as well as on the European level - through non-formal methods to raise key competences for finding a preferable career path - to raise the question of the quality of school lessons about career education and let youngsters discuss it with decisionmakers in an open dialog with different target groups - to organize a forum where representatives will be invited from schools and from governmental instances who deal with development of career education at schools - to inspire youngsters to continue their education and in the future to have a job in Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia by showing them the rich variety of possibilities that their home country offers - to make contacts with successful people who have started a career path in Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia as well as to make contacts with each participant of the project to have an opportunity for cooperation in the future Description: The idea of the project appeared after we decided to ask youngsters about their knowledge on the topic of career, how informed they are, and what competencies are needed for finding a job in the future. Answers in our survey as well as in personal talks with youngsters were not as positive as we expected, we know that the majority of schools offers a subject on the topic of career education, so we decided to raise the question of the quality of the subject as well as the effectiveness of other governmental instances that teach career to youth. Thus the project was born, we want to facilitate youngsters and give them relevant skills for being successful and competent on the labor market in the future, further, our goal is to let them express their opinion about the quality of the subject and compare it to methods used during our project, moreover, we plan to organize a forum for this specific reason where representatives of schools and decision-makers in this field will be invited so that they could discuss the topic with youngsters and among themselves. During the project would be selected per each country 25 participants from different schools, who will be involved to the experiment of the life-long learning process, which will show them through non-formal methods that career is about themselves. They will have the opportunity to be a part of a very intensive programme and later share their feedback via video interview, which would be posted on the project website. By youth workers and initiative team members would be managed second visual result as learning booklet which will consist in used practical non-formal methods, which will be a focus on the topic how to build a future career for youth after school.
The project has reached the following objectives: - to give relevant skills and knowledge for being competent on the labor market in Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia (focus on the career education through non-formal methods) - used non-formal methods to raise competences for finding a preferable career path - visual and technical aim - to produce a booklet, with non-formal methods from the practical trainings which each partner country developed on the topic career. The booklet consists in methods from 3 countries (Latvia, Bulgaria and Estonia). - inspired youngsters to continue their education and in the future to have a job in Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia by showing them the rich variety of possibilities that their home country offers - made contacts with successful people who have started a career path in Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia as well as to made contacts with each participant of the project to have an opportunity for cooperation in the future - analyzed different risks, that come along with education and working, focused on lifelong learning and 8 key competencies. Reflection among participants through the video interview during trainings participation. Create a big video with all interviews.
When the idea of creating this project was only in its infancy, among the participants of the initiative group, the idea arose to check its relevance of this idea. A large survey was conducted among secondary school students, teachers of the subject "career counseling" and employees of state career centers, which not only confirmed expectations but also showed how poorly the communication system is established between schools and other state institutions. The absolute majority of school students stated that this subject is taught very poorly and is of no practical use in the future, teachers argued that they do not have enough manuals and materials for the better conduct of these lessons, to which employees of state career centers said that they have many, but no one addresses them. The initiative team from Youth Club Active, enterprising guys decided that it was possible to draw up the same manual for teachers so that it would be easier for them to improve the quality of teaching their subject. This is how the idea appeared, according to the needs of the initiative team. Why do we decide to apply KA2 transnational youth initiative? Because we had previous international experience and with our partners we had similarities.