The Covid-19 crisis is leading to a global economic depression with a pronounced negative effect on the lives of young people in terms of employment, education and mental wellbeing. Even before that, they were already facing a challenging transition into the labour market and were 2 to 3 times more likely than adults to be un- or underemployed. Now, with the tremendously challenging socio-economic situation created by Covid-19 and the changing world of work, young people’s career chances become insecure and vague. Research shows several factors beneficial for young people’s employability and empowerment in such situations and an essential one is development of skills for work. A significant part of the latter is formed by entrepreneurial attributes, leadership skills, creativity and readiness to innovate, resilience and cultural intelligence – all at the focus of this project not only due to the research evidence of their positive impact on youth employability but also due to their importance at times of crisis and economic recession. Therefore, our main objectives include: (1) to nurture young people’s creativity, resilience and entrepreneurialism, (2) to support their communication and leadership skills, (3) to develop their cultural intelligence and understanding of diversity issues; all of these aiming at increasing youth’s adaptability in highly unpredictable situations, improving their employability and encouraging their entrepreneurial behaviour in a post-Covid world. Our main target group is generation Z (young people, born from late 90s to 2010, who are starting to enter the workplace) and we aim at designing and delivering a training intervention to up to 100 such individuals from all over Europe since research shows that this population is more likely to suffer from low self-esteem, depression and anxiety, which can prevent them from success at work; they also lack optimism, which leads to poorer chances of achievement, and are impatient, so not keen to continuously focus on certain projects, have a hard time hearing negative feedback and, therefore, lack resilience. To support young people to overcome these barriers to career success, we will design an evidence-based training model and deliver an innovative, stimulating and engaging course (comprising four 8-hour long online sessions), incorporating expertise from the realm of business psychology, career coaching, social work, cultural awareness and creative industries. This will help us foster an inclusive and empowering learning environment for young people, where they can acquire and develop the core skills needed for employability in the post-Covid labour market. We will achieve the above goals by using sound pedagogical methods and innovative approaches, engaging participants’ body and mind. We will apply pedagogical techniques with proven effectiveness in the context of generation Z education such as use of ICT, practical activities, experiential learning and tapping into learners’ previous experience, acknowledging their wisdom and turning them into co-creators of knowledge. A special role in this process will be ascribed to the creative aspect of our training, where acting out emotions, role playing, use of poetry, dancing and expressive arts will serve as effective tools to address the psychosocial problems of our young participants and help them acquire skills and knowledge to overcome them in a psychologically safe environment. Not only is this approach appealing to generation Z and pedagogically effective, but it is also a way to foster creativity and teach the skill of resilient and imaginative responding to rapidly changing external stimuli. As a result, we expect to help our young audience to understand the many ways they can thrive in labile and stressful situations such as the one created by Covid-19. This is expected to be beneficial to their mental wellbeing and have a significant positive impact on their employability and entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions. As for our stakeholders, we will raise their awareness of the characteristics and psychosocial needs of generation Z, especially in a post-Covid world. We will provide them with free access to detailed instructional material that they can apply in their work and youth training to support today’s young people’s career development, job hunting and entrepreneurship. A special emphasis will be put on cultural intelligence and awareness of discrimination issues based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability and other reasons and these will also be linked to the matter of youngsters’ psychosocial adaptation under highly unpredictable and rapidly changing circumstances such as those imposed by the pandemic. We expect all these activities to contribute to the sustainable development of local communities and have a positive impact on the local employment rates (incentivizing the local creative industry too) and improve social inclusion of generation Z.
Projekto pagrindiniai tikslai buvo: 1) ugdyti jaunų žmonių kūrybiškumą, atsparumą ir verslumą; (2) plėtoti jų bendravimo ir vadovavimo įgūdžius; (3) ugdyti kultūrinį sąmoningumą, problemų įvairovės supratimą; Šių tikslų siekimas padėjo sustiprinti jaunų žmonių gebėjimus geriau prisitaikyti nenuspėjamose situacijose, pagerinti jų įsidarbinimo galimybes ir skatinti jų verslumą pasaulyje po Covid. Projekto tikslai sudarė prielaidas padėti jaunajai auditorijai suprasti, kad yra daugybė būdų, kaip jie gali sėkmingai veikti nestabiliose ir stresinėse situacijose, tokiose kaip Covid-19. Tikimasi, kad tai bus naudinga jų psichinei gerovei ir turės didelį teigiamą poveikį jų įsidarbinimui bei verslaus požiūrio skatinimui.
Covid-19 krizė veda į pasaulinę ekonominę depresiją, turinčią ryškų neigiamą poveikį jaunų žmonių gyvenimui užimtumo, išsilavinimo ir psichikos srityse, gerovei. Dar prieš Covid-19 krizę jauni asmenys susidūrė su sudėtingu perėjimu į darbo rinką ir 2–3 kartus dažniau nei suaugusieji buvo bedarbiai arba nepakankamai dirbantys. Dabar dėl COVID-19 sukeltos nepaprastai sudėtingos socialinės ir ekonominės situacijos ir besikeičiančio darbo pasaulio, jaunų žmonių karjeros galimybės tampa nesaugios ir miglotos. Projekto pagrindinė tikslinė grupė - Z karta (jauni žmonės, gimę nuo 1990-ųjų pabaigos iki 2010 m., kurie pradeda integruotis į darbo rinką). Tyrimai rodo, kad šios kartos atstovai dažniau kenčia nuo žemos savigarbos, depresijos ir nerimo, o tai gali trukdyti jų sėkmei darbe; jiems taip pat trūksta optimizmo, dėl kurio prastėja šansai pasiekti laimėjimų, jie yra nekantrūs, todėl nelinkę ilgesniam laikui susitelkti ties tam tikrais projektais. Z kartos atstovams taip pat sunku priimti kritiką, jiems trūksta atsparumo. Siekdami padėti jauniems žmonėms įveikti šias karjeros sėkmės kliūtis, projekte sukurtas įrodymais pagrįstas mokymo modelis ir kursas, kurį sudaro keturios 8 valandų trukmės sesijos, apimančios verslo psichologijos, karjeros instruktavimo, socialinio darbo, kultūrinio sąmoningumo ir kūrybinių industrijų patirtis. Tai padėjo sukurti įtraukiančią ir įgalinančią mokymosi aplinką jauniems žmonėms, kur jie galėtų įgyti ir ugdyti pagrindinius įgūdžius, reikalingus sėkmingam įsidarbinimui.