Project summary
Youth and structural unemployment is a central concern of Europe. VET can play a central role in facilitating young people’s entry to the labour market and meeting the needs of the business to employ qualified people. Yet, the European youth and the business and industry requirements for defined skills is meeting challenges and needs support. CEDEFOP Research evidence illustrates that the SMLEs train their workers (93%, 81% and 63% respectively), but both VET schools and workplaces need to increase visibility of each other.
- Fostering partnerships: Partnerships of public and private institutions are not only a source of education funding but also of mutual learning, joint policy development and implementation. Partnerships present an opportunity to develop skills agendas in a targeted, innovative and sustainable way and to include those directly involved in the provision, application and updating of specific skills. Partnerships must involve all stakeholders, including representatives from teachers’ organizations, social partners and student bodies. The partnership approach is a key factor for the success of Youth Guarantee schemes. Education and training institutions need to be part of a concerted effort with other stakeholders to put in place such comprehensive schemes.
- Enhancing matching demands: According to the last Communication from the Commission to the EP, the Council and the EESC and Committee of the Regions, “Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes”, by 2020, 20% more jobs will require higher level skills. Education needs to drive up both standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labor market during their career.
- Supporting individual research. According to the latest study of “Think Young” “Skills Mismatch” on the usage of VET, the labour market deficits and youth engagement, the most common information source when deciding which educational programme to pursue is individual research (70% in France and 66% in Austria). Analysing the key information sources, and influencers, of their decision to undertake general education, individual research was the most common source across the board (60%), followed by family (47%), school advice (23%) and only 2% from the careers fair.
- Focusing on VET perceptions: According to the responses from the international sample across the board (Cf. EURYDICE (2015), National student fee and support systems 2014/15), the most prevalent perception of VET was that higher education was seen as a more prestigious education choice (41%), followed by the perception of VET as being more practical (21%), and the view that both choices were equal (19%). Additionally, 17% of respondents felt VET was a more prestigious and important education path, 14% felt higher education was more likely to ensure future employment and only 7% felt VET was a second choice for students with a weaker academic performance.
The project target groups are substracted from the needs analysis and are divided into primary and secondary target groups. Primary target groups of the project are:
-Students in VET institutions up to 18 years;
-EU NEETs up to 29 years;
-Teachers in EU in the field of VET, training professionals;
-VET formal/infromal networks.
The secondary target groups of the project are:
-Organizations in the EU, which scope of work is linked with youth unemployment – policy makers, public institutions, media in the job search, youth organizations, etc.
-VET providers;
The creation of the web platform “Vocational Guidance” will meet the identified needs of the sector and will fill the communication gaps between the actors in the VET sector in all project partner countries. Targeting of the NEETs across Europe and taking the challenge to deal with the youth unemployment rates denotes the project within the transnational and EU-context activities.
The project aims to facilitate the partnership between the VET actors, through creation of a media platform for enhancing the match between users and providers, supporting the individual research efforts and promotion of initiatives, and good practices. The platform would meet the needs of the VET actors, by achieving the following specific objectives:
- Fostering the partnerships between the VET actors, through establishment of viable online and offline environment for communication and interaction;
- Enhancing the demands of the VET suppliers and labour market, through filling the gap between the search and supply of skills in the labor market and addressing the structural unemployment issues;
- Supporting the individual research of VET users, through providing comprehensive, clear, updated and customized information to the youth;
- Focusing the VET perceptions, through providing concise information for the VET actors.
Relevant topics addressed by the project:
– Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment
– Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education
– Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)
Target groups
The participants in the project, besides the experts, will be youth, with a focus on those who are unemployed and will include also young people who are socially and/or geographically disadvantaged (marginalized youth). These young people will participate in the project both as participants in the multiplier events and as target group. The partnership identifies two target groups – primary and secondary. In the first group are included the direct users and beneficiaries of the project (VET users). In the second group are included organizations that could be beneficial to the first group (VET providers). The secondary group will be contacted mainly during the needs analysis, before and after the piloting phase with the aim of receiving ideas and feedback, for making contacts with the trainees, for spreading the project results.
1/Primary target group of the project are:
– Students in vocational educational institutions up to 18 years;
– EU youths – not employed, not in education and not in training (NEETs) up to 29 years
– Teachers in EU in the field of vocational fields in secondary schools, private organizations, professionals in who want to introduce the training modules and practices in their work.
2/The secondary target groups of the project are
– Organizations in the EU, which area of work is connected with youth unemployment – policy makers, institutions such as employment agencies, organizations, intermediaries in the job search, youth organizations, etc.
– VET providers;
The young people themselves will participate in defining their needs with guidance from the experts. During their active interaction with the web platform, there will be emphasis on innovative thinking and entrepreneurship, skill building, participating in media activities and using this experience to as a springboard for employability skills, motivation, and building of self-confidence, personal empowerment, lifelong learning skills, active citizenship, self-organization, communication, and decision making. The facilitators of the platform will be peer leaders and youth activists with some international youth work experience that are involved in community councils and are members of community forums.
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