M.O.T.H.E.R. Project (Mobility Opportunity Training for an Higher Employment Rate) is a strategic partnership in the field of Erasmus Plus YOUTH sector which involves a consortium of 6 partners representing 6 countries: JUMP (IT), Municipio de Lousada (PT), FACE (MK), Ecocenter Alapítvány (HU), AKTYVISTAI (LT), IED (GR). From Sept2020 to Aug2022 a team of experts in the actual labor market and in the international dimension of working in Europe, with specific competences in e-learning, e-coaching, social entrepreneurship, marketing, digital and social innovation, communication and business acceleration will recruit 240 disadvantaged and unstable young people 18-30 years old (40 per partner) divided into 2 main groups: the MOTHER workers and the Free Workers Online (FWO). So-called "atypical" and precarious workers who are not - at moment - categorized in any repertory of the actual labour market. From one side all what is considered the future of ICT professions: smart workers working everywhere, with a laptop and Internet connection, using foreign languages, as individuals or in small teams, responsible for their timetable, free-lances, precarious and paid depending on the reached goals or daily based. From the other side, the MOTHER workers: linked with the "mother land" and the local context, using hands and creativity, producing concrete objects, aiming at selling and develop small business, working in familiar environments especially in the field of craft, agriculture, food-agrarian chain but also health, beauty, wellness, textile, cooking. MOTHER partners represent for them a support team for a concrete virtual and physical meeting through the creation of an intellectual output: the "MOTHER social platform for business of youths". MOTHER Platform is a virtual space to MEET, create an innovative professional profile, get to know each others and be guided with the goal to develop successful cooperation at local and international level. The mobility plan of the project foresees: 2 Learning Mobilities: A training for e-coaches in Portugal, and "the M.O.T.H.E.R. Social Economic Forum - Calabria 2021" for potential MOTHER workers and Free Workers Online (FWO) in Soverato who meet after having started to use the platform to consolidate the cooperation and plan future developments. Coordinating partners organise 4 Transnational Project Meetings in Skopje, Hatvan, Kaunas and Larissa assuring an efficient management and a dynamic coordination 2 series of Multiplier Events aimed at increasing the number of involved youths. MOTHER idea was born in the deep South of Italy, in Calabria, which is the context more “in need” due to the highest youth unemployment rate of Europe (55.6% of the population unemployed between the ages of 15 and 24). Partners represent other local contexts with similarities and differences but at European level they are all part of the wider European framework characterised by a new emergent "youth unemployment". At the base of MOTHER project there's the state of the art that the worldwide labour market is changing faster than legislation and policies which don't sustain a real sustainable development where youths play a central role. Media and ICT are powerful tools if used in the proper way; potential workers escape from the motherland to find new opportunities and jobs without knowing that, maybe behind the corner, there's the person who can give them the right and competent “impulse” they need. MOTHER workers are stable and rooted to land traditions but they don't know foreign languages, they would need a colourful attractive website but in the small town there's no the right web designer. A Free Worker Online is somewhere, sitting in a studio and could be the missing piece to complete the “business puzzle” of the MOTHER worker. Methodology is based on organization of several local meetings, recruitment of youths moving to their local contexts, use of digital tools, e-coaching, e-training and online support to meet and work. GOALS: 1support new youth workers to enter and be sustainable in the actual worldwide labour market; 2strengthen in youth strategic competences and softs kills increasing their entrepreneurial activity and the realisation of new ideas, 3develop social and digital innovation connecting two and more sectors of the actual youth employment framework, 4develop a social platform where MOTHER workers and FWO can meet and develop concrete cooperation, 5create a kit of tools useful for many youths to become new empowered entrepreneurs who can learn from home supported by experts and new partners, 6develop a European network of creative and smart people able to increase the employment rates in Europe, 7start a long term process of growing and learning among 6 partners interested in widening the network reaching at least a member per Country of EU 8create an intergenerational dialogue and cooperation between more and less experienced in the field of entrepreneurship.
With the project we aimed to: - give as the titled says, Opportunity and Training to young people including Mobility - create a syllabus of innovative and high level training modules to be delivered through a digital platform - set up the digital platform named "M.O.T.H.E.R. Platform for the Business of Youths" containing the modules appealing for the target - change the mindset of the young people reached developing their entrepreneurship competences (foster a more entrepreneurial mindset in young generations of our local contexts) - reach at least 240 young people 18-30 who were or potential entrepreneurs or willing to be, divided into digital workers / new digital nomads (originally called Free Workers Online) and M.O.T.H.E.R. workers, who are workers connected with the land where they live - empower our consortium with new internal competences in the topics we chose to develop as interactive training modules - employ internally new young people working on the project - coach and mentor young people along the process making them feel guided by motivated semi professionals which we called "e-coaches" - invent and shape this new key figure defined as "e-coach" creating a team of 24 international e-coaches in 6 countries
M.O.T.H.E.R. was born much before its approval, precisely in January 2017 in Skopje. The story behind the project is a story of friendship and common intents among partners. Firstly between JUMP, FACE (North Macedonian) and IED (Greece) already involved that year in a project on social entrepreneurship for youths, "SO-VET project". We worked together on the topics related to entrepreneurship and our main goal as organisations is to fight youth unemployment. JUMP represents the most disadvantaged and poor area of the consortium, the Calabria region, where the level of youth unemployment is very high. Thanks to the positive results of the previous project we decided to submit a new project idea and the title M.O.T.H.E.R. is not casual. M.O.T.H.E.R. stands for Mobility, Opportunity, Training for a Higher. Every word is a pillar of the project reflected in the main output produced, the M.O.T.H.E.R. Platform for the business of youths. But this title also means literally "mother" like "la mamma" which is a deeper and universal concept. The idea was born in fact in front of a beautiful fountain in the square of Skopje while it was snowing and the fountain represents all mothers in different forms. We addressed to young people as mothers