Our proposal is based on Bruges Communiqué declaration in December 2010 strategic objectives and the Consortium organizations working experienced. We have detected that VET professionals when focusing in migrants and refugees in vulnerable situations, lack of knowledge and resources in different areas such as 1) Work-based flexible and blended learning methodologies that can increase the success rate of students and decrease dropouts; 2) The use of intercultural and multicultural background in VET courses; and 3) Collaboration and exchange of knowledge between different organizations. In order to address the abovementioned needs, we have set the following project OBJECTIVES: 1. Strengthening international cooperation in the field of VET between different types of organizations focused on promoting immigrants and refugees’ labor inclusion in the areas of sewing, upcycling, fashion and design 2. Design, implement and test a common work-based Training Programme aimed at VET professionals focused on immigrants and refugees in the abovementioned fields 3. Enhancing access of low-skilled immigrants and refugees to high-quality outcome-based VET, through flexible learning paths including key competences (languages and entrepreneurship) in curricula within an intercultural gender framework 4. Strengthening the use of blended learning approaches combining Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with face-to-face pedagogies, tailored to boost the social inclusion of difficult-to-employ people (DTE) such as immigrants and refugees in vulnerable situations 5. To promote the professional development of VET professionals in NGOs, VET centers, Education centers and Social Enterprises to jointly implement innovative curricula providing a common language between competences acquired in learning and the needs of occupations and the labor market In order to achieve these objectives we have created a CONSORTIUM formed by NGOs, VET providers, Social Enterprises and Higher Education Institutions from Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Belgium, closely linked with the fashion and training sector. According to the project aims the TARGET GROUPS are: - VET professionals (trainers, mentors, practitioners) - Immigrants and refugees at risk - Key-Stakeholders and Public Authorities (local, regional, national and European level) - General stakeholders and public The ACTIVITIES the Consortium will implement to reach the project objectives will be: - Transnational Partner Meetings - Preparation of Intellectual Outputs - Short-term joint staff training events - Multiplier Events - Local Workshops - Transnational Dissemination Campaign - Individual meetings with key-stakeholders and public authorities - Evaluation processes of all the activities and outputs The METHODOLOGY used throughout all the project will be the Dialogic learning approach, which will ensure a horizontal and participatory bottom-up approach in order to actively engage all participants. The project main RESULTS will be the following: - IO1. Competence framework for VET professionals in the fields of sewing, upcycling, fashion and design addressed to immigrants and refugees at risk. - IO2. Intercultural Training Programme for VET professionals in the fields of sewing, upcycling, fashion and design. - 3 Short-term joint staff training events in Barcelona, Bologna and Athens. - 15 Local Workshops in Barcelona, Bologna, Athens, Brussels and Madrid. - IO3. MOOC for VET professionals and practitioners in the topics of sewing, upcycling, fashion and design focused on DTE. - IO4 Handbook for trainers in the topics of sewing, upcycling, fashion and design focused on DTE.. - Fashion4Inclusion National Seminars in Athens, Bologna, Brussels. - Madrid Fashion4Inclusion European Conference. - Counter-narrative awareness dissemination campaign in Social Media. The expected IMPACT in the groups of participants throughout the project results will be: - 404 VET professionals (trainers and practitioners) are involved in the trainings increasing their professional development and knowledge in the project fields - 135 Immigrants and refugees in vulnerable situations are involved in the trainings increasing their access to high-quality VET education and increasing their labor inclusion - 110 Key stakeholders and Public Authorities from the fashion, VET and integration sectors are involved in the dissemination and sustainability activities creating a network at a local, national and European level - 30 Key stakeholders and Public Authorities sign the Multi-stakeholder Agreement in order to capitalize and scale-up the project results in the future - 7.000 Stakeholders and general public are reached through the Counter-narrative campaigns The potential LONG TERM benefit we foresee is that after the project funding all materials produced will still remain accessible through the project website, hence other organization and public administration will be able to replicate it
The objectives of the project were the following: 1. Strengthening international cooperation in the field of VET between different types of organizations focused on promoting immigrants and refugees’ labor inclusion in the areas of sewing, upcycling, fashion and design. 2. Design, implement and test a common work-based Training Programme aimed at VET professionals focused on immigrants and refugees in the abovementioned fields. 3. Enhancing access of low-skilled immigrants and refugees to high-quality outcome-based VET, through flexible learning paths including key competences (languages and entrepreneurship) in curricula within an intercultural gender framework. 4. Strengthening the use of blended learning approaches combining Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with face-to-face pedagogies, tailored to boost the social inclusion of difficult-to-employ people (DTE) such as immigrants and refugees in vulnerable situations. 5. To promote the professional development of VET professionals in NGOs, VET centers, Education centers and Social Enterprises to jointly implement innovative curricula providing a common language between competences acquired in learning and the needs of occupations and the labor market.
As the Consortium organization had experienced in different projects carried out (Mamalyona in ABD, Fabric Republic in IASIS, Social Chic in Mondo Donna), VET professionals when targeting difficult-to-employ (DTE) beneficiaries such as immigrants and refugees in vulnerable situations, lacked of knowledge and resources in different areas such as 1) Work-based flexible and blended learning methodologies that could increase the success rate of students and decrease dropouts; 2) The use of intercultural and multicultural background in VET courses and transversal competencies for social inclusion; and 3) Collaboration and exchange of knowledge between different organizations and fields of expertise around fashion, design, sewing and upycling. By increasing professionals' skills, competences and knowledge, the project aimed at enhancing the access of these migrants and refugees at risk of social exclusion. Besides, the project also wanted to contribute to the lack of common training curricula in this field, enhancing this access to VET training to migrant and refugee people, on the basis that this would be improved with the creation of flexible learning pathways that took into consideration the intercultural interactions.