These innovative experiential methodologies propose to stimulate the activation of soft skills and help motivate learners in the active search for employment (empowerment). The development of these methodologies will lead to a paradigm shift in pathways for unemployed adults, from a perspective based on the concept of 'employment' (having a job) to one based on the more important and fundamental concept of 'employability', i.e. the ability to find and keep a job. i.e. the ability to find and keep a job that is in line with one's expectations and priorities. In fact, employability indicates the ability of people to be employed or to be able to actively seek, find and keep a job: it therefore refers to the ability to obtain employment (a first or a new job) when necessary, making transitions from a condition of non-employment or from a previous, different employment. Assuming that soft skills cannot be separated from the social and cultural practices in which they are experienced, learnt and/or used, they cannot be thought of as transferable content through lectures.
The phenomenon of job loss in adulthood emerges as one of the most characteristic issues in EU countries. Eurofound analysis (2020) highlights how the Covid-19 pandemic has had a greater impact on female workers, as they are employed more in the sectors most affected by the crisis. Statistics Eurostat show that, between April and September 2020, the unemployment rate for women rose from 6.9 per cent to 7.9 per cent, while that of men rose from 6.5% to 7.1%. If gender inequality in the world of work was already a critical issue, now after a global pandemic, it has become an eu priority. the project aims to develop, implement and disseminate of an innovative education model for the target group of long-term unemployed women over 40 for the acquisition and evaluation of transversal skills. The project promotes new educational methods for female empowerment complementary to the development of soft skills. By developing innovative methodologies and improving women's key competences, innovative learning offers based on the development of soft skills, adapted to their situation, are to be developed