An Empowerment Toolkit for Trainers for the Development of the Social and Cultural Competence and Media Literacy for Low Skilled Migrant Women – EMKIT2 Erasmus Project

Project Title

An Empowerment Toolkit for Trainers for the Development of the Social and Cultural Competence and Media Literacy for Low Skilled Migrant Women – EMKIT2

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Integration of refugees

Project Summary

The EU migrant crisis has a direct reflection on migrant employment rates. The gap in labor market participation at EU level between EU citizens and migrants has increased in 2014 (Eurostat–Migrant Integration Statistics-Employment). During the last eight years, the activity rate (% of active persons in comparison to the total population) of the EU-28 population of non-EU countries has recorded systematically lower activity rates than EU citizens. Since 2009, this gap has increased noticeably (3 % points). Also the unemployment rate per sex and educational background is higher for migrant women with low educational background (Eurostat). Cultural, social barriers, low skills and media illiteracy discourage these women from actively seeking for jobs. As a result the pressure is enormous on the welfare systems and society itself of the EU-28 countries.

Emkit2 Objectives:
EMKIT2 empowered low skilled migrant women by developing 42 digital tools for trainers for implementing innovative workshops to develop the social, civic, cultural and media literacy (SCM) competences to achieve active citizenship according to the Active Citizenship Scale (AC Scale).

EMKIT2 was aimed to:
1. Develop 3 Qualification Frameworks for the Social & Civic (S), Cultural Awareness & Expression(C) and Media Competence(M) (SCM competences) tailored for the specific target group in a specific context (see innovation elements)
2. Based on the Learning Outcomes of the QFs developed enrich activities offered at each stage by designing 42 new workshops for the development of the SCM competences. The activities developed in EMKIT did not tackle the social and cultural capacity of the migrant women which is vital for the succession from one stage to the next on the AC ladder. Also, EMKIT did not deal with the media literacy, a skill that is becoming increasingly important as a result of digital media expanding into the realm of human communication. The ability to use media well is crucial to a person’s participation in the society and active citizenship.
3. Develop 42 digital tools for the newly developed workshops for trainers for the development of the SCM competences and incorporate then in the existing EMKIT online tool.
4. Introduce & develop a digital assessment tool and incorporate it on the existing EMKIT toolkit. EMKIT was developed for women who live in isolation and need to progress through all stages to reach active citizenship. Through the use the EMKIT (for 6 years now) it has been evident that a) a systematized method is needed for an impartial assessment of the stage a woman is in and to avoid unnecessary activities that are tailored for women who are at a lower stage of the scale b) validate the results of the empowerment process. Therefore this project suggested the development of an assessment tool in order to identify the stage of the woman and validate the Learning Outcomes of the activities implemented at each stage.

The direct target group was trainers/mentors who work with migrant women (i.e. trainers in Adult Education Providers imple-menting projects funded by Integration Funds/Daphne & Justice Projects and volunteers/mentors working at NGOs and associ-ations providing guidance and training services to migrants). Trainers have benefited by a more complete EMKIT tool that also developed 3 important context specific competences.

The elaborated deliverables were:
IO1: A Context Specific Qualifications Framework for the Social and Civic Competence Linked to the Active Citizenship ladder
IO2: A Context Specific Qualifications Framework for the Cultural Awareness and Expression Competence Linked to the Active Citizenship ladder
IO3: A Context Specific Qualifications Framework for the Media Literacy Competence Linked to the Active Citizenship Ladder
IO4: 42 Experiential & Innovative Workshops for the SCM Competences
IO5: A Digital Assessment Tool and Guide for trainers on implementation of digital workshops
IO6: EMKIT2: 42 Digital Tools in 5 Languages incorporated in a new EMKIT2 toolkit

About 20 participants took part in the focus group, which allowed the partners to develop IO1, IO2 and IO3. About 21 low-skilled migrant women attended the pilot training which allowed the partners to develop and finalize IO4, IO5, IO6.

Project Website

http://emkit2.projectsgallery.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 259200 Eur

Project Coordinator

STIFTELSEN KURSVERKSAMHETEN VID U-AUNIVERSITET & Country: SE

Project Partners

• VAN DE WINKEL CONSULTANCY BV
• EDITC LIMITED
• DIMITRA EDUCATION & CONSULTING SA
• ASOCIACION INSTITUTO EUROPEO DE ESTUDIOS PARA LA FORMACION Y EL DESARROLLO
• RINOVA LIMITED