Fast Lane to the Labour Market Erasmus Project

Project Title

Fast Lane to the Labour Market

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition, transparency, certification; Integration of refugees; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The repercussions of the ongoing war in Syria and the unstable situation in the Middle East and parts of Africa have led to a high number of refugees in European countries. All countries are faced with the challenges how to integrate them into society and the labour market.
An approach is needed that addresses refugees’ competence right from the start, matches them to the labour market’s needs and further educates and trains them in order to enable them to start in their respective occupations.

In the project ‘Fast Lane to the Labour Market’ eight partners from five European countries worked together to develop an innovative approach. In the approach, we brought together principles of Work-based learning (WBL), ECVET as well as content and language integrated learning (CLIL). The aim is to shorten the time span from the refugees’ arrival until the point of entrance into the labour market because it combines the acquisition of language skills, social and cultural integration as well as vocational qualification. The project encompasses all phases that members of said target group have to pass through: arrival and orientation, qualification and education as well as integration into the primary job market.
These are the concrete outputs of the project:
• Quick Scan – a wbl oriented competence check to assess migrants’ skills, which avoids the linguistic obstacles of so far used assessments.
• Curriculum – including a task database with practical tasks right to use and a learning log.
• Trainer Material – which contains workshop sessions to train teachers, trainers, companies in intercultural awareness, teaching professional competences and orientation on the job and labour market
• A tutorial video which explains our developed approach and it’s goals
• Monitoring Tools

The approach follows an integrated method as it starts with an early assessment of competences (Quick Scan) which meets each participant at the place he/she is. Through the description of an individual educational plan the actual training begins, for which is used the Curriculum material. This material does not only contains professional training but also reflection on behaviour, social skills and most important the continuous preparation and reflection on language. Further, the “Fast Lane” approach also focuses on the perspective of employers and trainers and helps them to reflect their own processes and sensitise in working with the target group of refugees or newcomers in general.
The developed material is offered as an open source in word format so that other institutions can easily use and adapt it regarding their own needs, different institutions in different member states are confronted with different realities and obstacles.
At the beginning, we developed for each country “state of the art reports” that are describing the following aspects:
• Overview of the national situation
• Policy trends regarding integration
• Access to the labour market
• Integration system
• VET-system and other vocational training forms

From these reports the partners derived success criteria, which form the basis for the development of the intellectual outputs and the project monitoring. After the development of the Intellectual Outputs (see above), we organised a teaching activity to present the material and to make other staff members familiar with the approach. We collected the feedback of this activity to adjust the material.
Subsequent to this we conducted in total five pilot projects and monitored the implementation of the defined success factors in companies and training centres such as the usage of the Fast Lane material and the effects on learning by interviewing wbl-coaches and participants.
In the end the project partners organised five Multiplier Events in each participating country to present the Fast Lane approach and the material to the target group of teachers, trainers, VET-Institutions, wbl-providers, companies, employers and official institutions included in the integration process of migrants.
The consortium consists of eight partners from five different countries (DE, NL, BE, AT, IT). Coordinator Gewerkstatt and DeLift are training centres working mostly on behalf of official institutions. ITTA brought in the scientific expertise on language learning and data collection to monitor the project outcomes and impact. Together with Scalda and Alfa, both VET-schools they developed the Curriculum. Especially Alfa and Scalda brought in their whole expertise in teaching and developing tasks and materials for teachers. Diaconia Valdese accompanies asylum seekers in Italy during the arrival and application process, so they entered their expertise on working with the target group, social aspects and intercultural competences. Sterpunt, functioning as an umbrella organisation for VET Institutions in, hast a wide network of Multipliers to disseminate the Fast Lane material. Best, expert in training delivered the methods for the Trainer Material.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 293444 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gewerkstatt & Country: DE

Project Partners

• De Lift vzw
• Scalda Stichting voor middelbaar beroepsonderwijs en educatie
• ITTA UvA BV
• COMMISSIONE SINODALE PER LA DIACONIA
• Sterpunt Inclusief Ondernemen vzw
• BEST INSTITUT FUR BERUFSBEZOGENE WEITERBILDUNG UND PERSONALTRAINING GMBH
• Stichting Christelijk Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum Noord- en Oost Nederland