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INTEGRATE - storytellINg To promotE miGRAnTs Entrepreneurship

2020-1-SE01-KA202-0778702020Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and trainingfinalized
Countries: SE|BE|CY|DE|IT · Grant: €235,811
Inclusion - equityEntrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship educationNew innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project summary

CONTEXT: One of the main societal challenges in Europe is the integration of migrants creating long-term and future proof solutions. As Europe remains a favorite destination for people seeking international protection a greater number of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, is trying to start a new life. Though the Member States are developing various integration measures, there is little attention towards their integration into the economic system. This is particularly evident, especially for migrant women. The non-existence of policies for the integration of migrants in the labor market or their upskilling towards entrepreneurial oriented solutions highlights also the need for business stakeholders to understand better the integration barriers this group faces and the need to invest in their integration. The migration challenge can be turned into an opportunity to create more growth and jobs and to promote more inclusive societies: Europe needs all its talents and migrant entrepreneurs represent a source of untapped potential for the creation of new jobs. Already 6.6% of self-employed people in the European Union were born outside of their country of residence, which is more than 2 million people. Of these foreign-born self-employed people, 47% were born outside of the European Union10. Some studies show that on average immigrants are more prone to set up their own business compared to EU citizens with a non-migrant background. Therefore, INTEGRATE Project aims to use the impact of personal stories to change individual and societal attitudes towards migration and to foster migrant’s entrepreneurial engagement. GENERAL OBJECTIVES: The proposed project will deliver entrepreneurial training with a special focus on Storytelling to exploit the cultural background of migrants and foster their social inclusion. The aim of the training courses is to provide entrepreneurship and innovation education activities, particularly to improve their communication ability to build confidence, provide migrants with skills to design their professional plans or ventures, evaluate the feasibility of their ideas, and acquire skills to start and run a successful new business. Finally, the proposed project will develop an innovative ICT tool to transfer competences to the target group. The proposed project will develop an LTTA that will combine face-to-face training courses with online education. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: - Promoting entrepreneurship to support the social inclusion of migrants in Europe. - Developing innovative entrepreneurial training course for Migrants based on the most recent communication strategies to exploiting personal cultural background Through the definition of the specific objectives, the Intellectual Outputs of the project were then defined: IO1: Training course for migrants focused on storytelling and entrepreneurship that will include migrant entrepreneurs video stories IO2: Guidelines for trainers on how to support migrants through INTEGRATE training IO3: Online Platform to foster entrepreneurship spirit exploiting personal cultural background. TARGET GROUPS: -Migrants Entrepreneurs/ Migrants with an Entrepreneurial spirit -VET Teacher/trainers/coaches -SME's/ Organization supporting entrepreneurship -Policymakers (secondary target) TRANSNATIONAL DIMENSION: Approaching cooperation on a transnational level will be critical for the project activities since only a European confrontation as well as cooperation among the actors involved will boost the adoption of effective innovations, systems, competencies, and new professionalism. The integration of migrants in the labor market is intrinsically a transnational effort since most of the European countries are facing similar problems but the knowledge base they need in terms of new skills, digitalization and communication cannot entirely rely on one country’s intellectual resources. For these reasons, INTEGRATE includes 7 partners from 5 different countries: CCIE Sweden (Sweden), NOVARE (Sweden), i-strategy (Italy), CNOS-FAB (Italy), CBE (Belgium), WISAMAR (Germany), EMPHASYS (Cyprus).

Objectives

INTEGRATE aimed at promoting entrepreneurship to support the social inclusion of migrants in Europe. This project aimed at developing innovative entrepreneurial training course for Migrants based on the most recent communication strategies, and with a special focus on Storytelling, to exploiting personal cultural background. The objective of the training courses was to provide entrepreneurship and innovative education activities, particularly to improve migrants’ communication ability, and to build confidence, providing them with skills to design their professional plans or ventures, evaluating the feasibility of their ideas, and acquiring skills to start and run a successful new business. An innovative ICT tool has been developed, to transfer competences to the target group. General and specific objectives have been reached through the implementation of the following Intellectual Outputs: IO1: Training Course for migrants focused on entrepreneurship and storytelling IO2: Guidelines for trainers on how to support migrants and provide training IO3: Online platform to foster entrepreneurship spirit exploiting personal cultural background

Background

One of the main challenges in Europe is the integration of migrants creating long-term solutions. As Europe remains a favorite destination for people seeking international protection, many migrants are trying to start a new life. Though the Member States are developing various integration measures, there is little attention towards their integration into the economic system. The non-existence of these policies or their upskilling towards entrepreneurial-oriented solutions highlights the need for business stakeholders to understand the integration barriers this group faces and the need to invest in their integration. The migration challenge can be an opportunity to create more growth and jobs and promote more inclusive societies. Already 6.6% of self-employed people in the EU were born outside their country of residence, more than 2 million people. Of these, 47% were born outside the EU. Some studies show that, on average, immigrants are more prone to set up their businesses than EU citizens with a non-migrant background. Therefore, INTEGRATE Project aimed to use the impact of personal stories to change individual and societal attitudes towards migration and to foster migrants’ entrepreneurial engagement.

Project partners (7)