AMICO: A new Alliance for Mobility InComing and Outgoing Erasmus Project

Project Title

AMICO: A new Alliance for Mobility InComing and Outgoing

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries

Project Summary

AMICO is a strategic partnership that gave rise to an alliance among the pivotal actors of the knowledge triangle in order to translate into concrete outcomes the ET2020 principle “Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality” and tackled the mismatch of the ICT competences at European level.
According to various EC reports, intra-EU mobility of workers can tackle the mismatch of qualifications in Europe, reduce markets unbalances and foster economic growth. However, data show that the rate of intra-EU labour mobility is still quite low, although significant numbers of European workers state their willingness to work in another European country. The discrepancy between the high propensity to mobility and actual low mobility rates is in part attributable to an insufficient provision of services and qualified professionals in support of transnational mobility.

The AMICO project has facilitated the labour mobility among European countries. To this end, it articulated an entire process for:
1. enhancing the professionalization of job counsellors, especially in relation to international job placement, designing an innovative curriculum for “Job Mobility Counsellors”;
2. strengthening the skills matching at international level, with a set of tailored tools;
3. improving the provision of services in support of intra-EU labour mobility, designing processes and procedures for their implementation and management.

The project addressed:
– Universities that could benefit from the curriculum, including it in their educational offer
– Young graduates or students interested in a career as job counsellors, who could find in AMICO an innovative training opportunity
– Employment services that could take advantage from a set of tools to expand and enhance the services offered by their organisations as well as on an increased offer of duly trained people
– ICT job-seekers and enterprises that could find in the Mobility Welcome Service and in the Mobility Job Counsellors an important support in all issues related to labour mobility and international hiring.

The audience of indirect beneficiaries also includeed:
– ICT enterprises that develop innovative services and/or products and that have difficulties in recruiting qualified human resources according to their needs
– Public and private employment services, which wanted to re-qualify their staff in relation to the management and the promotion of mobility.
– Labour unions and association of enterprises that wanted to activate services for enterprises and workers in support of training/job mobility.

The tangible outputs of AMICO can be summarised in 5 products, realised through synergies among enterprises, universities and employment services:

1. Mobility Job Counsellor Curriculum, consisting in a handbook containing the curriculum’s structure and objectives as well as all the didactic materials for its delivery;
2. Toolkit for the Validation and Quality Assurance of the Mobility Job Counsellor Curriculum, which allows the transnational transferability of the curriculum, defining shared recognition and validation tools and quality assurance procedures;
3. Transnational Job Placement Toolkit, which includes i) tools for assessing business needs, and ii) tools for evaluating job-seekers skills in relation to the ICT sector. Both are designed in a way to be internationally comparable;
4. Mobility Welcome Service Handbook, providing practical guidelines to install the service;
5. Mobility Welcome Service Management Toolkit, consisting in a set of tools for managing effectively the service.

The results of the projects have been:
– an enhanced educational offer for job counselling;
– an increased provision of services in support of transnational labour mobility;
– strengthened networks between universities, enterprises and employment services;
– strengthened networks for international job placements;
– increased professionalisation and internationalisation of job counselling professions.

The potential long term benefits are:
– contributing to realise a real free movement of workers across Europe and to fulfil the goal of the European Single Market;
– Contributing to the modernisation of Higher Education with the activation, at national and European level, of an educational offer specialised in mobility, able to contribute to the creation of a joint labour market;
– Contributing to the diffusion of a mobility culture as an opportunity of personal, training and labour development;
– Contributing to reinforce EURES and its networks.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 448323 Eur

Project Coordinator

E.RI.FO.-ENTE DI RICERCA E FORMAZIONE & Country: IT

Project Partners

• RINOVA LIMITED
• FUNDACION CENTRO ANDALUZ DE INNOVACION Y TECNOLOGIAS DE LA INFORMACION Y LAS COMUNICACIONES
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA
• HOCHSCHULE DER BUNDESAGENTUR FUER ARBEIT
• ADECCO TT
• Smallcodes srl