Careers Advice and Pathways to Employment Erasmus Project

Project Title

Careers Advice and Pathways to Employment

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 vocational education and training

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; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Since 2008, the EU economy has experienced the deepest, longest and most broad-based recession in its history since the 1930s (European Commission 2009).The average youth unemployment rate in most Member States is more than twice as high as the rate for adults. Almost 5.4 million young people under 25 are unemployed in the EU-28 (EC May 2014), representing an unemployment rate of 22.8% i.e. more than one in five young European job-seekers cannot find a job. 7.5 million young people aged 15-24 are not employed, not in education and not in training (so-called NEETs).More than half of young people without jobs say they simply can’t find one, while businesses across Europe insist they struggle to find young people with the skills they need. One reason for this is the failure of employers, education providers and young people to understand one another, they operate in “parallel universes” (McKinsey 2014).A set of European benchmarks, agreed by Member States for 2010-20, include that that lifelong guidance should be embedded into lifelong learning and employment strategies. However although teachers, trainers and counsellors are skilled people in their own area of expertise, they lack the knowledge and competence to embed careers guidance into the learning process.
The CAPE project aimed to address this situation by bringing together good practices in employer engagement from across Europe and through the establishment of employer forums and networks, encouraging VET providers and second chance schools to improve dialogue and activity with enterprises. The CAPE consortium aimed to share good practices from across Europe and across sectors (VET , second chance and informal learning)to ensure teachers, trainers and counsellors have the necessary knowledge and skills to support young people to develop career management skills (CMS). CAPE trained teaching staffs, improved links with employers and developed resources to support and improve careers advice and guidance given to young people at risk of ESL.
The CAPE consortium consists of 9 partners from Poland, The Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Cyprus,Spain and Portugal, all who are experienced VET providers or specialists in second chance education and have experience of working with young disadvantaged people who are NEET or at risk of NEET. The CAPE partnership set up employer forums and networks to bring together education providers and enterprises, conduct research on existing good practices and a training needs analysis of teachers & trainers. A training the trainer programme was developed and was tested among the partnership. The accompanying Training Handbook and teaching/learning resources will support the teacher alongside an e-learning platform and Employer Engagement Handbook. The expected impact is an improvement in teacher/trainer competence and knowledge of the job market and current career options, enabling young people to develop career management skills and make better career choices. The long term benefit is that lifelong guidance will be embedded into life-long learning.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 241984,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stowarzyszenie Profilaktyczno-Wychowawcze Fenix & Country: PL

Project Partners

• STICHTING EURICON
• CESIE
• Intercollege
• Fogyatékos Személyek Esélyegyenlöségéért Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft.
• ANESPO
• CONFEDERACION ESPANOLA DE CENTROS DE ENSENANZA ASOCIACION C.E.C.E.
• EUROPEAN FORUM OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING