BRIDGE – Building up Regional Initiatives to Develop GuidancE for low-skilled adults Erasmus Project

Project Title

BRIDGE – Building up Regional Initiatives to Develop GuidancE for low-skilled adults

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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

Offering quality guidance services to all citizens at any point in their lives is an important challenge for regions. All regions participating in the ERASMUS+ strategic partnership BRIDGE have established guidance systems that support the access of citizens to training and further education. However, these guidance services didn’t reach all target groups to the same extent. Above all, only a small number of low-skilled people used lifelong guidance in BRIDGE regions and the participation of low-skilled adults in up-skilling training activities was significantly low.

In order to raise the percentage of lower-skilled target groups in guidance and up-skilling activities new innovative concepts were needed. The BRIDGE project was designed to find such new ways of reaching lower skilled persons. As specific objectives of the BRIDGE project partners aimed at

1. analysing the access to and quality of guidance services for low-skilled adults in Baden-Württemberg/Germany, Bretagne/France and Jämtland/Sweden from different perspectives and with different methods and activities and to adapt, test and transfer best practice tools and processes in the field of guidance from one region to the others,
2. describing ways of addressing low-skilled adults e.g. through guidance in cooperation with companies,
3. analysing and increasing the quality of guidance services by learning from the partners’ experiences and from the results of two surveys, by transfering tools and strategies and by training professionals in using these tools and strategies,
4. developing self-evaluation tools that help to evaluate the access to and quality of guidance for low-skilled people.

Long term goals of the project were …
1. to strengthen guidance networks, co-operations between organisations and measures to support low-skilled target groups through European mutual learning,
2. to innovate the access of low-skilled adults to lifelong guidance in participating regions and beyond,
3. to improve the quality of guidance with a view to the needs of low-skilled adults by supporting professionals in guidance services and,
4. consequently, to increase the participation of low-skilled adults in up-skilling activities.

Seven organisations from four European countries participated in the BRIDGE project as full partners. In addition, four silent partners contributed to the project. The following institutions were full partners of the BRIDGE consortium:

Volkshochschulverband Baden-Württemberg e.V. (Co-ordinator) as the biggest provider of adult education in the south-west of Germany and the co-ordinator of the regional guidance network Landesnetzwerk Weiterbildungsberatung Baden-Württemberg (LN WBB).

Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport Baden-Württemberg which founded and finances the LN WBB.

FONGECIF Bretagne whose mission is to inform, advise and support employees in their professional transition and development, e.g. in phases of reconversion, graduation and professionalisation.

Région Bretagne that has in place a regional network of several hundred information centers which can offer basic information about training opportunities and orientation to more specialized guidance services.

Lärcentrum Östersunds kommun, responsible for all matters regarding adult learning for citizens in the area including education and career guidance.

IUC Z-Group which is a cooperation between manufacturing companies in the county of Jämtland, provides and verifies training and education to member companies.

EARLALL, the European Association of Regional & Local Authorities for Lifelong Learning.

During seven project meetings, the BRIDGE project partners investigated best practice measures and tools of guidance in the participating regions, described and analysed the measures and worked out success factors. Around 20 activities were followed up in detail. Powerpoint presentations on the different activities and reports were produced.

The reports formed part of a study and handbook which collects information, good examples and suggestions on successful educational and career guidance. The study addresses several thousand professionals working in the field of guidance in the participating regions and beyond. It offers an overview on existing measures to reach low-skilled adults in the BRIDGE regions and puts the findings of the BRIDGE project into a broader context. The study and handbook also includes results of two surveys among counselors and low-skilled people, it defines key-performance factors for counseling as well as self-assessment-tools for institutions that are active in the field of guidance.

The BRIDGE regions have successfully implemented several of the best practices in their guidance structures, used project results in policy processes and provided financing for new guidance strategies. In one European and three regional multiplier events results of the project were spread to other regions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 161618,76 Eur

Project Coordinator

VOLKSHOCHSCHULVERBAND BADEN-WURTTEMBERG EV & Country: DE

Project Partners

• ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE DES AUTORITES REGIONALES ET LOCALES POUR L’APPRENTISSAGE TOUT AU LONG DE LA VIE AISBL
• Lärcentrum Östersunds kommun
• FONGECIF DE GESTION DU CONGE INDIVIDUEL DE FORMATION DE BRETAGNE
• REGION BRETAGNE
• MINISTERIUM FUR KULTUS, JUGEN UND SPORT BADEN-WURTTEMBERG
• IUC Z-GROUP AB