(1) Support refugees, migrants and asylum seekers (RMAS) in Europe in acquiring and developing digital skills and key employability competences for the digital sector: Transfer knowledge and good practices to establish a fully-running tech academy for RMAS in Madrid; Develop and improve existing tech academies within the partner organisations by sharing experiences and best practices & conducting qualitative research on how to improve partnerships with the private sector; Develop a network of organisations working towards labour inclusion for RMAS within the tech sector. (2) Accelerate labour market integration of RMAS in Europe: Conduct qualitative research on how to develop impactful partnerships with the private sector, especially directed towards beneficiaries employability; Disseminate the results of the research conducted and contribute to developing other employability projects within and beyond this project; Share experiences and best practices for teachers and youth workers to implement training on soft skills and employability in tech academies for RMAS; Foster socio-educational and personal development, as well as participation in civic and social life of RMAS at a European level.
The two main needs that we wanted to address with this project were the Demand for digital skills in the EU and the social inclusion of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. During our research phase, we found that more than a third of the European labour force lacks basic digital skills and digital skills gaps are emerging (Digital Economy and Society Index, 2020) and that 80% of companies in Southern and Eastern Europe found difficulties to source valid candidates for their ICT positions (DSJC, 2020). On the other issue, youth unemployment in Europe is at almost 20% and Greece, Spain and Belgium are counted among the 5 European countries with the highest unemployment for non-EU-born people, with 29.0%, 19.9% and 13.8% respectively (Eurostat, 2019). Tackling these common needs with the expertise of the created consortium for this project, our approach was to establish a fully-functioning Tech Academy in Madrid to target these needs at a local level.