The project aIMS(M) takes inspiration from the Recommendation “A new skills agenda for Europe” (COM 2016 – 381 Final) which urges to up-skill and re-skill the European labour force with digital skills, in order to keep it productive in the jobs and support adults to acquire a minimum level of key competences and/or acquire a broader set of skills necessary to progress towards an upper secondary qualification or equivalent. Then, the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition calls for wide coalitions to tackle the lack of digital skills in Europe, due to the fact that 90% of jobs require some level of digital skills whatever the sector; all jobs will change and many will disappear while one third of the EU workforce has insufficient digital skills. Yet, 20% of them has never used the internet. The Recommendation “Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults” (2016/C 484/01) highlights that also those jobs that traditionally require none or low skills are currently becoming more and more demanding. Moreover, in the near future, the vast majority of the jobs will require a certain degree of digital competences, while an increasing number of elementary jobs will at least require some basic or generic competences. During the project lifetime, 200 low skilled unemployed adult migrants and or refugees will benefit of the pathway as testers and they will contribute, through their experience, to the validation of the final tools within an European dimension. The project aIMS(M) is a pan-European educational pathway for unemployed, low-skilled long-term migrant adults, which intends to: 1. contribute to the digital citizenship, meant as open access and participation in the society with a full digital awareness; 2. contribute to the digital inclusion, meant as quality of opportunities in the use of the network and for the development of a fun-innovative culture. These goals are pursued through the following Intellectual Outputs: IO1 is an online self-assessment that adapt the framework DIGCOM 2.0 to the needs of long term unemployed adult migrants and or refugees, to foster their digital competences, needed to implement work-related activities. The result of this IO is to set learning goals and identify training opportunities in all the areas of the framework. IO2 an online self assessment tool that adapts the framework DIGCOMP 2.0 to long term unemployed low skilled adults. The results of this IO are a MOOC tailored on migrants and adults and completed by guidelines to be used by professional counsellors and educators for adults as well as by all those professional figures involved in supporting activities for job seekers. IO3 is a methodological pathway to collect evidences and appreciative references to support the validation of the learning. The result of this IO is procedural methodology (guide) for the appreciative validation of non-formal competence of low skilled adults. The project provides a blended mobility for adult learners /joint staff training event aiming to lead participants to acquire skills in order to adopt common training activities, according to migrants target group. As many training participants is possible to not be self-motivated and require guidance or coaching to complete a course, this activity will be an ongoing learning process for them, enforcing them especially to improve their training skills. Additionally, train the trainers of linguistics with the use of technological accessibility, will be an advantage for them as trainers but will also give an other perspective on their training methodology to migrants. As ICT services give the opportunity for interaction between worker/mentor and learner, both sides will have benefits. Migrants, who are facing in a major level the unfamiliarity with the language of their host country, will take advantage as indirect benefits of these training session During the project lifetime, it is also foreseen the implementation of the following dissemination tools: - Website: it represents the project identity and will be promoted in the websites of each partner; - Project History Movie: a short video containing interviews with partners, to show the project evolution; - E-Brochure: used for publicising project results; - 4 newsletters in EN and translated into all the languages of the Partnership; - Social Network Report: it summarises the strategy adopted to increase the visibility in social networks; - Strategic mailing list: composed of all the subjects that the project addresses and based on partners’ own networks and the GDPR rules;
The aIMS(M) project aimed to tackle skill gaps in Europe's labor force by focusing on digital literacy. Our objectives were two-fold: improve employability and facilitate social integration, particularly for vulnerable groups like low-skilled migrants and the long-term unemployed. We aimed to upgrade training methodologies, equipping instructors with tools for culturally responsive teaching in the digital realm. We also developed an adaptable aIMS(M) MOOC to assess and validate digital competencies. This MOOC can be incorporated by both public and private employment agencies as well as adult education providers, offering a scalable means to advance digital literacy more broadly. The project's transnational approach, involving partners from The Netherlands, Lthuania, Romania, and Italy, was critical for ensuring wider European relevance and cross-border expertise. Through this multi-country collaboration, we aspired to not just meet, but to set new standards for digital literacy and adult education across Europe.
We applied for the Erasmus+ project to tackle the pressing need for digital literacy identified in European policy documents, including the "New Skills Agenda for Europe" and "Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults." The project was rooted in a timely recognition of the dramatic shifts in Europe's employment landscape, where the absence of digital skills was creating barriers to employment and social integration, particularly among low-skilled migrants and the long-term unemployed. The primary needs we aimed to address were twofold: First, there was a need to improve the digital literacy of low-skilled migrants and the unemployed, who were at a higher risk of social and economic marginalization. Second, we identified a gap in the training methodology used by instructors who were not adequately prepared to teach a diverse group of learners coming from various cultural and social backgrounds. Our aIMS(M) project sought to fulfill these needs by providing a structured educational pathway and assessment tools that could gauge and enhance digital literacy among our target groups. In doing so, the initiative intended to lift barriers to employment, improve social integration, and contribute to the overall competitiveness and inclusivity of the European workforce.