"Isolated and labeled" often as "different", young people with learning difficulties and autistic people risk being excluded from society. An exclusion where an important determinant is given by the absence of work. And especially for those who live in hardship and disability, work is not only a vehicle of economic independence but also a tool for realizing oneself as "active people", inserted in a community, its absence a vector of isolation. WeAR (We Are Reality) aims to support the social and work inclusion of young people with learning difficulties (DSA) and autistic young people (17-29 years) through the improvement of training and mentoring methods in WBL, in specific paths VET oriented to job placement with the involvement of various subjects: trainers, educators, companies, young people from organizations from 3 countries: Italy Germany Portugal. Specifically, the project involves the design and implementation of a job placement module for young autistic and young people with learning difficulties which provides a classroom path and a 3 months WBL (IO1 Module PIL). The classroom path will be characterized by empowered approaches, transfer of skills through the use of experimental tools that will be designed and developed during WeAR and which represent some of the innovative elements of the project: augmented reality application for the acquisition of procedures to operate in safety (IO2) and an escape room for didactic use for the enhancement of transversal skills (IO3). The real challenge of WeAR will also be to propose a path by investing in the relationship between two very specific targets sharing the learning difficulties, autistic and young people with learning difficulties, contrary to the tendency to keep the first "blocks". Another innovation is in the involvement of the target in a path oriented purely to job insertion that uses a methodological syncretism including the TEACH approach and the task analysis created to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills in autism, which instead are adapted for both groups of young people, an empowerment approach with a job orientation, practical experiments also in simul-business environments, approaches to support co-working. The job placement module will be tested during the WeAR course with the involvement of 10 young people in each territory (Tot 30) and 10 VET trainers / educators (tot 30) who will be involved in a training course for trainers characterized by 2 learning activities, training on site and reinforcement via webinar. A kit (IO4) for multidimensional assessment of VET pathways aimed at facilitating job placement for young people with disabilities (in particular autistic people and young people with learning difficulties) designed, tested and validated during the project will allow to detect the real impact of the experimentation. The Kit (which will also make use of IT tools) will allow you to verify the change initiated by the young person himself and the impact of the experience on a series of dimensions relating to the young person and to all those actors without the involvement of which the insertion and the inclusion of our target would not be possible: families, businesses, institutes and training agencies. Other tangible results of the project: Training booklet for trainers on methodologies to support the job placement of young people with learning difficulties and autistic young people, Operating instructions for the use of augmented reality applications, Operating instructions for the design and preparation of an educational Escape room (multilingual), The history of WeAR: final project report, Dissemination and diffusion report, WeAR the short: the story told with videos and images. Among the main impacts: insertion of the work placement module into the system by the organizations involved (in particular LARISO, IB, ATC) as a proposal for young autistic people and young with learning difficulties; use of the job insertion form within the training courses intended for young people in general by other VET agencies in the 3 territories; use of escape rooms, augmented reality and evaluation kits by VET agencies and institutions of the territories involved beyond the conclusion of the project; greater awareness of the communities of at least the 3 nations involved, compared to the possibility of job placement of young people with difficulties. The invitation to Multiplier events of representatives of VET agencies from other countries will contribute to the dissemination of results also in other territories and to greater sustainability and transferability.
WeAR aimed to design and develop a support model for job placement for autistic and young people with learning difficulties by directly involving trainers and VET operators. Specifically, it wanted to support the social and work inclusion of young people with learning difficulties and young people with autism (17-29 years) through the improvement of training and mentoring methodologies in WBL, in specific VET courses oriented towards job placement with the involvement of various actors: trainers, educators, companies, young people from 3 countries: Italy, Germany, Portugal WeAR also wanted to "win" the challenge of proposing a shared path between autistics and young people with learning difficulties, in contrast with the tendency to keep the former "isolated" and to involve the target group in a job placement course using a methodological syncretism between the TEACH approach and task analysis, born and used mainly in autism, an empowerment approach with a work orientation, practical experiments also in simul enterprise environments, and support for co-working.
"Isolated and labeled" often as "different", young people with learning disabilities and autism are at risk of being excluded from society. An exclusion in which an important determinant is the lack of employment. Especially for those who live in fragility, work is a vehicle for economic independence but also a tool for self-fulfillment as "active people", included in a community. The unemployment rate of the disabled (including those with learning difficulties) is instead 4 times higher than that of the "able-bodied". In autism, 1 in 10 has a job (ISFOL 2010). In most countries, support ends with "compulsory schooling" and with this the end of a daily commitment and an, at least formal, inclusion. This is why WeAR was born. The project aimed to address some of the problems that determine the difficulty of job placement (Recommendations -AE 2016): lack of awareness of the characteristics and needs of the target, limited attractiveness and effectiveness of VET pathways not adapted to the target's difficulties, lack of specialist training of trainers and company tutors.