Apply and employ. Ways to enter the European job market. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Apply and employ. Ways to enter the European job market.

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

The background of this project was the current situation regarding youth unemployment in Europe. One in five young people in the labour market in the EU is unemployed today. Next to the obvious reason of the aftermath of the financial crisis, there are also factors such as lack of entrepreneurial, language and intercultural skills, mismatching in the labour market, lack of understanding of how to join the European labour market outside one’s country, and the inability to promote oneself within the current and future employment contexts. Through cooperation and exchange we wanted to minimize and overcome these obstacles and contribute to a more dynamic and flexible labour market where youth unemployment decreases.
Staff, teachers and students wanted to increase their entrepreneurial, language and intercultural skills, improve understanding of how the European labour market works, avoid employment mismatching, increase the possibility to work and study in a European context, and increase the ability to promote oneself.
The project had five participating countries who, by using and sharing their own qualities and qualifications, each contributed in their unique way to the future objective of reducing youth unemployment in Europe. The participants are Institut Tarragona (Spain), Gymnasium Marne (Germany), Levanger vidaregående skole (Norway), Srednja poklicna in strokovna sola Bezigrad (Slovenia) and Istituto Superiore “Lorenzo Federici” (Italy). Institut Tarragona is a general studies school in the city centre, with students from mostly middle class families between the ages 12 to 18. The school is very interested in developing various European project associations as tools to strengthen their students’ employability. Gymnasium Marne is an Upper Secondary School in a rural area, with about 60% of the students from the age of 10 to 19 from surrounding villages where agriculture is their main industry. The school has also taken part in many European projects such as Comenius and Erasmus +. Levanger vidaregående skole is an Upper Secondary School with general and vocational studies. The social background of the students is widely spread, from working class to highly educated parents. The age group is between 15 and 18. The school has an international profile and has cooperation projects with Montenegro, Tanzania, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and Latvia. Srednja poklicna in strokovna sola Bezigrad is a vocational and technical school. In the last ten years, the school has been actively involved in the process of renewal of vocational and technical education in Slovenia, with a strong emphasis on mastering key competences and developing closer cooperation between education and the labour market. The school offers unique learning opportunities by working closely with craftspeople and a variety of companies and industries. Istituto Superiore “Lorenzo Federici” is a High School situated in Trescore, a village in a highly industrialized area. The students’ ages range from 14 to 18, and after their final exams, they are qualified to study at university. The school has developed a European and international profile with a wide range of activities such as international project work with Erasmus+ projects and group exchanges with European schools, work placement in Spain, Germany and Malta, and Learning Weeks in English on particular topics.
The activities for this Erasmus+ project included meetings between students and teachers, presentations, workshops, writing blogs, creating an informative website, and creating and implementing a dissemination plan. The five steps of the structure and implementation of the project were as follows:
1) Studying the financial crisis of the last 10 years, collecting news, newspapers articles, and personal experiences involving different categories of workers: entrepreneurs, employees, and apprentices/trainee workers.
2) Collecting statistical data about employment agencies; comparing students’ dreams and the reality of the ideal and their expectations regarding the actual career.
3) Collecting experiences from start-ups and young workers and entrepreneurs; learning the process of products from inception to sales-pitch.
4) Finding information about and understanding the value of competences a young person must have to work abroad; comprehending the real possibilities for him/her; using the Europass; writing an application letter and learning proper conduct in a job interview (help from video tutorials); managing a concrete interview with real employers in role play (Italy); being aware of theemployment laws; developing competences and using them in a concrete job situation; and applying SWOT analysis on themselves and on a proposed job vacancy (Italy).
5) Preparing a final product that describes our study process (workshops), which is a website that is flexible, so it can be updated, and freely accessible to anyone who wants to learn about these topics.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 75925 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Marne & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Institut Tarragona
• Istituto Superiore “Lorenzo Federici”
• Strokovni izobrazevalni center Ljubljana
• Levanger videregående skole