Cooperation for fostering Education and Employability Erasmus Project

Project Title

Cooperation for fostering Education and Employability

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 : Capacity Building for youth in ACP countries, Latin America and Asia

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

Project Summary

Youth unemployment has become a major issue for many organizations in European and non- European countries. We believe that well-performing education and training systems, with better synergies with the labour market, can help to tackle these challenge. The partnership of this project, made of 8 organizations from 7 different counties (DE, BE, ES, IT, CO, BR, ID), reflected on how to provide the younger generations with competitiveness, know how and professionalization in a field where we can offer our expertise: coffee. The group is made of NGO´s active in the youth field, business realities and a school institute.

During the project 4 mobility involved 110 youth workers (21 of them with fewer opportunities) in a professionalizing course on coffee. Aim of the project was to offer participants and post fruiters a newly developed training concept about the whole coffee chain; as well as a multidisciplinary and international experience for the youth workers of the partner organizations. Main topic of the trainings was coffee production but the participants acquired in addition also confidence, personal skills, motivation and valuable workplace interaction. Our challenge was the development of social capital among young people, the empowerment of young people and their ability to participate actively in society.

Innovative elements:
− Result-oriented learning and competence-based educational systems.
− Depth cooperation between industry and education.
− Internationalization of teaching approaches.
− Support the professional development of trainers and youth workers and the development of innovative educational approaches across Europe.

The participation to the project empowered the participants not only as professionals but as citizens as well, making a cultural experience of sharing and communicating with people from different cultures and languages and provide them with a better understanding of the European and International Community.

As a long-term benefit the project:
• Combatted unemployment by providing participants and post fruiters with new skills and increase employability opportunities for participants and organization´s local members.
• Created and developped better European and international networks in the coffee world, providing opportunities for cooperation among stakeholders and the exchange and transfer of knowledge and know-how in different areas,
• Improved the quality and recognition of youth work and non-formal learning and enhance synergies and complementarities with other education systems and most of all with the labour market.
• Promoted values of sustainability, fair trade and ecology.

Measurable indicators:
• Published articles in trade press: 4
• people trained during the mobility’s): 112
• post on partner Facebook pages: 225
• followers: 185.728
• training book (barista handbook): 1
• video / films during the mobility’s: 17
• Video tutorials / online courses: 7
• documentary film: 1
• Training material in PDF on the web: 20
• Multiplayers to who we talked to the project: 840
• Project Website: 1 (www.coffee.starkmacher.eu)

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 149968 Eur

Project Coordinator

STARKMACHER EV & Country: DE

Project Partners