The project “Show your skills” is a 24-month strategic partnership that aims at supporting adults looking for jobs to acquire, develop, recognize and value the skills and abilities obtained throughout their lives to improve their employability and contribute to its full development. In addition, it will allow the transition between unemployment and employment, facilitate professional reorientation, and improve the transition between different jobs. One of the products that we intend to create is a digital platform where beneficiaries can recognize, value and validate the skills acquired in different contexts and educational fields that are not only formal. This will make it possible to match between job offers and the demands of unemployed people in a way based on skills and not on professional experiences, which in the long term will lower the unemployment rate among job seekers, as well as help companies who struggle to recruit. This project is motivated by an observation and a concern shared between 3 Mediterranean countries with similar realities concerning the problems experienced by vulnerable populations, with regard to their legitimate needs for social and professional integration. Indeed, since the crisis began to hit the labor markets in 2008, 5.6M jobs have been destroyed in Europe. The so-called vulnerable populations are the groups, which have suffered the most severely from the effects of this crisis. However, 12 years later, the crisis continues to affect a large number of people. In 2019, even if the unemployment rate in Europe has fallen, that of the 3 partner countries, Spain 13.6%, Italy 9.7% and France 8.1%, remains among the highest in Europe; the euro area average is 7.9%. The objectives of the project are: - Identify, analyze and exchange good practices in terms of recognition and development of skills, for vulnerable groups - Create new tools to facilitate job search based on skills rather than formal experiences - Strengthen the capacities of actors in the fields of recruitment and support towards employment to define the different alternatives for the recognition of key skills. - Create a network of organizations working on the recognition of key skills, in order to promote a sustainable transnational approach to support beneficiaries from different countries. - Provide a digital platform to offer personalized, flexible, rewarding recruitment or training solutions that promote skills rather than formal experiences. The project “Show Your Skills” will work on three groups of participants. 1. Learners who are at risk of social exclusion (unemployed, seniors, NEETs, people looking for a professional reorientation ...) 2. Professionals responsible for supporting vulnerable groups (orientation counselors, advisers in skill assessments, professional coaches, social workers, etc.) 3. Recruiters (recruitment agency, companies, etc.) These groups will carry out various activities, such as: - Work on a common method for skills assessment - 3 transnational meetings and 1 training - Experiencing the common tools developed with the learners - Design, create and launch the digital platform and integration of the tools developed: o Training tools for actors in the employment fields to define the different skills recognition alternatives o Support tools for beneficiaries at risk of social exclusion to strengthen and enhance their skills o Help in writing CVs that highlight skills rather than formal experiences o Job offers from recruiting firms involved in the project (June 2022) - Dissemination of results, visibility and sustainability of the project The project “Show Your Skills” will have an impact that goes beyond the participants and partner organizations, at a local, regional, national and European level. Our beneficiaries, will acquire new skills which they can exploit and use thereafter to improve the quality of their work, and launch activities where the key skills of adults are recognized, valued and validated and thus improve the socio-economic situation of their communities and lower the unemployment rate. The creation of a network of contacts, the analysis of needs, obtaining new knowledge, the exchange of good practices, the new tools created, will make it possible, thanks to a crossed look on different parameters, to enrich knowledge, understanding and capacity building of actors who work in favor of targeted vulnerable groups.
The objectives we wanted to address in this project were: • Identify, analyse and exchange good practices in terms of recognition, evaluation and development of skills, for vulnerable groups • Create new tools to facilitate job search based on skills rather than formal experiences • Strengthen the capacities of actors in the fields of recruitment and support towards employment to define the different alternatives for the recognition of key skills • Create a network of organizations working on the recognition and evaluation of key skills, in order to promote a sustainable transnational approach to support beneficiaries from different countries • Propose a digital platform to offer recruitment or training solutions that promote skills rather than formal experiences
This project was motivated by an observation shared by 3 countries with similar realities concerning the problems experienced by vulnerable populations, with regard to their social and professional integration. This observation has been greatly intensified with the migration crisis and especially with the COVID crisis, which has contributed even more to the difficulties of the vulnerable populations. Today, and even though unemployment in Europe is decreasing, it remains one of the highest in the 3 partner countries. Spain 13.6%, Italy 9.7%, France 8.1%. The average in the euro zone 7% People who are considered vulnerable have a problem of socio-professional integration. This population can’t recognise, evaluate or value the acquired skills, and this prevents them from developing new skills. 90% of the learning methods of this population are informal. • Implicit: socialisation • Fortuitous: non intentionally sought • Self directed When the only way to find a job is to create a CV based on formal experiences, and we have seen how much is it difficult for our beneficiaries to value their skills, we have decided to exchange our best practices and to develop innovative products, also promoting active citizenship and social cohesion.