ICT is the Future – Integration through Competence Testing and Training Erasmus Project

Project Title

ICT is the Future – Integration through Competence Testing and Training

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Integration of refugees

Project Summary

ICT is the Future – Integration through Competence Testing and Training was developed by three partner organisations: AiCS – Associazione Italiana Cultura Sport (Italy), CEPROF – Centros Escolares de Ensino Profissional, Lda (Portugal) and ZAUG – Zentrum Arbeit und Umwelt Giessen gGmbH (Germany). The strategic partnership was established for the exchange of good practices in competence development and social promotion, focusing in particular on digital and vocational education in order to strengthen key competences among disadvantaged target groups and enhance their opportunities for labour market integration and social inclusion.
The foundation of the partnership for the exchange of good practice was the drive to create solid cooperation structures among the project partners and to jointly make a long-term contribution at European level in order to respond to the challenges of vocational training due to a changing labour market and ongoing migration movements.
Refugees and migrants are one of the most disadvantaged demographic groups. Therefore, the need for digital education, which counts as one of the eight key competences required to achieve employability, is very high among this target group, as well as other socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Acquiring ICT skills, along with other basic skills, is essential for the future employability of these target groups as well as for their social inclusion and personal development in today’s information society.
Accordingly, the focus of the project was divided into two long-term sub-goals, the improvement of the digital educational offers for these target groups in the respective regions and an improved integration of refugees and migrants in vocational training and the labour market 4.0, as well as the strengthening of their social integration.
The project team consisted of a non-governmental organisation in the field of sport and culture promotion with a focus on the social integration of refugees (AiCS), a vocational school for youngsters with an adult education centre for qualification and certification with an ICT focus (CEPROF) and a vocational training provider with a focus on professional qualification and labour market integration, in particular of refugees and migrants (ZAUG).
Over the course of two years, the project partners shared their expertise in all relevant areas such as digital education, vocational qualifications, competence testing and certification, labour market integration and social inclusion of refugees and migrants as well as other target groups that are considered digitally excluded or disadvantaged. The professional knowledge and methodological competences of each individual partner complemented the specialisations of the other partners and thus enabled a comprehensive exchange of good practices in all areas addressed, stimulating new ideas for transferring and adapting approved methods for implementation in the regions and countries of the partners and beyond across Europe.
The consortium developed a set of criteria for identifying and evaluating good practices, which includes certain quality indicators that the project partners considered relevant for their good practice collection purposes. Based on these criteria, the partners identified good practices that they or their partners have recently implemented and presented them to the consortium. The partners selected the good practice examples from a large number of practices, taking into account the evaluations of these by regional project advisory boards, which promised high relevance as well as great potential for transferability to the respective regions. The advisory boards consisted of associate network partners representing young and adult educational institutions, communal authorities, NGOs and experts working in relevant fields.
The results of the ICT is the Future project are a catalogue of criteria for identifying and evaluating good practices in the areas relevant to the project and four collections of good practices with strategies for transferring and adapting to other target groups, vocational training areas and countries. This includes three national collections of good practices and one collection of good practices for European-wide use.
Future projects that combine individual components of the various examples of good practices and develop them further so that they can be implemented in a larger European framework and in new fields of application are planned.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 33909,34 Eur

Project Coordinator

ZENTRUM ARBEIT UND UMWELT GIESSENER GEMEINNUTZIGE BERUFSBILDUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG & Country: DE

Project Partners

• ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA CULTURA SPORT
• CEPROF – CENTROS ESCOLARES DE ENSINO PROFISSIONAL LDA