Child and Youth Caretakers Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

Child and Youth Caretakers Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Skills

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

The consortium consisted of 6 partners coming from 5 different countries. The partnership had its strength in the diversity of the involved partners. CYCLES involved field-based institutions, network organisations and one academic Partner (FH JOANNEUM) each having a different focus of expertise but complementing each other. The social organizations participated were: SOS Jeunesse (France), Bundestherapeutische Gemeinschaften (Austria), IKJ Mainz (Germany), FICE Bulgaria and Fundajca Samodzielni Robinsonowie (FSR).

On the one hand side child and youth care systems in countries across Europe provide decent support for children and adolescents with complex needs. However, in most countries care ends at the age of 18, leaving the so called young care leavers (YCL) to stand on their own feet and have to earn a living. On the other hand side child and youth care practitioner (CYCPs) such as youth workers, social pedagogues etc. are true experts in facilitating the social development and welfare of children and adolescents. They do outstanding work and contribute substantially to the integration of vulnerable groups such as young care leavers into society. CYCPs are – by education and experience – equipped with a wide range of skills. However, a majority of CYCPs are lacking economic competences which also includes financial education and entrepreneurship skills given their education.

The main aim of the project was an increase of the skills and competences of Child and Youth Care Practitioners (CYCPs) on financial education and entrepreneurship through an innovative offline and online Training. The CYCPs should be able to act as multiplier and teach young care leavers. This should lead on the one hand side to higher skilled CYCPs and further also to an increase of skills on how to cope with daily life issues connected to finances and entrepreneurship for the secondary target group of young care leavers.

The consortium started with intellectual output 1 to find the needs and gaps of CYCPs concerning financial education and entrepreneurship. A focus group interview and a desk research were used to find the needs and gaps in each country. Then, a skill card was prepared in order to get a first impression how to fill the needs and gaps of CYCPs (intellectual Output 2). The skill card was conducive for the preparation of the Curriculum (Intellectual Output 3). The consortium went further into detail during the preparation of the curriculum.

A very crucial intellectual output in the CYCLES project was intellectual output 4. The target was to prepare the training materials, to implement the training and to evaluate the implementation of the training in each participating country. The training materials were prepared according to the curriculum. The consortium asked external experts about the quality of the training materials and got a very good feedback. Then, the training was implemented in each country. The target was to make a training for trainers and a training for trainees. Both trainings have been done in each country. Finally, the implementation of the training was evaluated through all participants. At the training we had more than 80 participants at the “Train the Trainees”-Events in the participating countries and at the “Train the Trainers”-events we had 5 participants in each country. The participants at the “Train the Trainers”-events were CYCPs and social managers and at the “Train the Trainees”-events we had CYCPs from youth Centers or from foster care organizations. The Impact of the CYCLES Training was especially strong in Bulgaria, but also in the other participating countries. Other organizations are interested to incorporate the CYCLES training (see below). So, the Impact of the CYCLES training was really good.

Finally, it was the target of Intellectual Output 5 to deliver a transferability of the training materials to other organizations and countries. The consortium prepared a “Transferability and Evaluation Handbook”. After finishing IO5 the consortium collected supporting letters from different organizations of participating countries, but also from FICE Europe (an organization supporting all organizations in Europe dealing with young care leavers and CYCPs) and from FICE international (an organization supporting all organizations in the world dealing with young care leavers and CYCPs).

The project consortium was also very active concerning dissemination activities. The Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/cyclesEUproject/) of the project became very popular and has more than 230 likes and many interesting contributions for the community. The homepage of the project (http://cycles.fh-joanneum.at/) may also contribute significantly to the sustainability of the project. It is for example possible to download all training materials in English.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 177798,28 Eur

Project Coordinator

FH JOANNEUM GESELLSCHAFT MBH & Country: AT

Project Partners

• Fundacja Samodzielni Robinsonowie
• BUNDESVERBAND THERAPEUTISCHE GEMEINSCHAFTEN OSTERREICH VEREIN
• Sdrujenie za pedagogitcheska i socialna pomost za deza FICE-Bulgaria
• Groupe SOS Jeunesse
• IKJ Institut für Kinder- und Jugendhilfe gGmbH