As outlined in the initial project proposal, the labour market is changing rapidly, and in order to prepare young people for it, it is necessary to provide them with the knowledge and skills required in this particular field. More concretely, the project aimed: - to provide a profound job orientation for youngsters from socially disadvantaged communities - to provide them an overview about content and requirements of IT/coding jobs on the Austrian and Hungarian job market - for young people to develop soft skills that are necessary for the job market in general (communication skills, teamwork, commitment and motivation, stress resistance and resilience, etc.) within the scope of a Training Week; this will make sure that also young people who will not pursue a future training in the IT sector will highly benefit from participating in the FUTURE SKILLS project - to enhance cooperation between Austrian and Hungarian youth/educational organizations and IT/coding organisations in order to intensify collaboration in the future
Due to advancing digitalisation within the labour market, IT jobs in general and coding/application development in particular are among the most crucial job sectors in the present and future. However, many adolescents do not obtain sufficient job orientation within this area in their schools and communities due to a lack of expertise regarding these relatively new jobs. Many young people do not have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with this field due to the inaccessibility in their communities and environment, resulting in them being restricted from the great opportunities such educational trainings offer. The FUTURE SKILLS project provided practical insights into the IT world and equipped youngsters from disadvantaged communities with skills needed to continue a vocational training within this job sector. Besides the specific IT-related content, the youngsters went through a thorough training on the development of soft skills, equipping them with skills essential for a proper integration into the labour market. Furthermore, the participants attended the training in Vienna, AT, which further expanded their experience of working in an international environment, while also learning about a different country and culture.