Competences in Enterprises on Integration Erasmus Project

Project Title

Competences in Enterprises on Integration

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Integration of refugees; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

Despite the challenges caused by millions of refugees seeking for shelter in the European Union, this flux also provides an opportunity to invigorate labour markets since many refugees show a high level of education and qualification.To back-up and support the initial integration programmes and initiatives driven by state and administrative stakeholders, tailor-made support measures are needed for “integration in employment”.Only through the direct integration in the local economy, the migration threat may be transformed into an opportunity and may contribute to improving the European work force, which, in parallel, has been shrinking and gets dramatically old.National and regional solutions may provide financial, legal and administrative structural support, however, they do not influence the situation on the local and interpersonal level where real integration takes place. The COME IN – project (COMpetences in Enterprises on Integration) acted exactly on this level.European employers, be it SMEs or large-scale enterprises and organisations are still hesitant to hire and employ refugees due to their unclear professional and personal situations. To integrate refugees at the workplace (be it in full time, part time, supported employment or internships) European employers need practical and direct support that responds to the uncertainties related to the legal, social and working status of refugees, as well as to intercultural and psycho-social issues. This was the starting point of the COME IN project, which aimed at creating and applying a comprehensive training to support enterprises and organisations and their responsible staff members in integrating refugees at their workplaces.The COME IN approach consists of:- face-to-face workshops- an Open Learning Space with training materials and usable information – a validation system to assess and document the developed competences.The COME IN consortium was composed of a multi-actor partnership of seven partners from six countries; among them countries that receive most refugees (“entrance countries ”), and countries where most refugees claim asylum (“target countries”)The partnership consists of:- a regional authority (Landkreis Kassel, DE) responsible for the integration of more than 3.000 refugees and for the economic development and the coordination of SMEs and larger enterprises- two HR consultancy agencies (TRENDHUIS, BE; Catro, BG)- two labour market agencies and vocational and adult education providers (die Berater, AT; and BUPNET, DE)- two large NGOs whose daily business is to support incoming refugees in their countries (CESIE, IT; 4 elements, GR) that will ensure that refugees’ needs and perspectives will be fully taken into account and adequately addressed.The partners did work along six main work packages and intellectual outputs in COME IN:In the stocktaking phase (O1) best practices regarding the integration into the workplace were identified and support and training needs were derived.The COME IN Curriculum (O2) defined learning and training contents, learning objectives and a catalogue of aspired learning outcomes for key staff in enterprises and organisations on integration at the workplace.In the COME IN Training Pack (O3) suitable materials, instruments, didactic patterns and transferrable approaches on work-based learning on the topic of integration at the workplace were developed.The COME IN Open Learning Space is a state of the art learning platform. Contents developed as O2, O3 and O5 were implemented here, aiming to create and maintain a constantly growing pool of COME IN learning resources as OER.The COME IN Validation System (O5) was designed based on the LEVEL5 approach which has been developed and applied in more than 150 informal and non-formal learning projects since 2007. It was based on a specific competence framework developed for the target group which is coupled with O2 and O3.The COME IN Implementation Strategy (O6) aims to valorise the approach, the instruments and the materials developed on a large scale European level. It is based on the trainings and pilots in the partner countries that were carried out with more than 180 training participants. The pilots were thoroughly evaluated, best practices derived and a transfer and implementation strategy established. The Implementation Strategy also contains success stories from the project that are also available in multimedia format on the website https://welcomingenterprises.eu/Three additional work packages ensured the delivery of the project results in a high-quality and sustainable way. The project was thoroughly evaluated (WP7) and widely disseminated (WP8) along a mainstreaming strategy to achieve utmost transferability and a high impact in Europe and professionally managed (WP9).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 297799 Eur

Project Coordinator

LANDKREIS KASSEL & Country: DE

Project Partners

• DIE BERATER UNTERNEHMENSBERATUNGS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
• TRENDHUIS
• BUPNET BILDUNG UND PROJEKT NETZWERKGMBH
• CATRO BULGARIA
• ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI ETAIREIA FOUR ELEMENTS
• CESIE