Sharing and Collaboration Offering Practice Exchange – Strategic Partnership Supporting the Exchange of Good Practices Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sharing and Collaboration Offering Practice Exchange – Strategic Partnership Supporting the Exchange of Good Practices

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: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Quality Assurance; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

The Council of the European Union (2009) has as a key strategic objective the promotion of equity, social cohesion & active citizenship. It outlines that ‘education & training policy should enable all citizens, irrespective of their personal, social or economic circumstances to acquire, update & develop over a lifetime both job-specific skills & the key competencies needed for their employability and to foster further learning, active citizenship and inter cultural dialogue’ (pg. 119/4)
The SCOPE project aimed to develop a transnational partnership with organisations working in an employment, guidance and/or VET setting with client’s who have drug misuse problems, & who are currently providing services to enable them to re-integrate into society through education, training & employment progression pathways. The overarching goal of this partnership was to share current practices, methods & experiences with similar EU organisations, with a view to establishing a model of best practice & guidelines for implementation, that could potentially be piloted in VET associated organisations .A core objective was also to document & strengthen quality standards in career guidance and job seeking support for this extremely marginalised group
The activities carried out by the project partnership to achieve theses aims & objectives were:
• Focus groups with jobseekers, stakeholders and practitioners: In total 42 focus groups were carried out across the partnership. These focus groups acted as a knowledge exchange & gathering exercise, to appreciate the current VET provision of services for high support, drug dependent jobseekers, along with the clients experience of engaging with these services.
• Transnational meetings & study visits: these study visits and meetings were an opportunity for partners to engage with the best practice models for supporting the target client group through the VET system. Over 12 best practice study visits were arranged during these meetings.
• Case study compilation: the partners carried out local desk research to establish alternative best practices that could not fit into the meetings agendas. This bolstered the numbers of case studies to collate appropriate information for, ensuring a broad range of client, practitioners and stakeholder experiences were accounted for.
• Widespread dissemination activities took place through local, regional, national and transnational target groups. This dissemination has resulted in long term impacts and ongoing sustainability of the project results. The project also created a website https://scope.home.blog/, 2 project newsletters and a project leaflet to support this dissemination.
Throughout these activities the project has achieved a number of deliverables and resulting impact:
• Scope Best Practice Framework: a framework of best practice has been created to engage marginalised clients, who have ongoing or potential drug misuse problems, in the most appropriate way through VET services. Using exchange of best practice, study visits, along with focus groups with jobseekers, practitioners and stakeholders, the Scope partnership have developed a new methodology for engaging these clients. This methodology focuses on five principle of best practice in which VET service should always seek to utilize when providing services to these at risk clients. These principles are bolstered by a full framework of implementation, along with a client threshold which identifies the most appropriate level of intervention according to the client’s profile.
• Scope Website: the website acts as an ongoing dissemination tool and information resource for VET organisations who aim to implement the results of the Scope project
• Implementation: a number of organisations have already begun to pilot the results of the Scope project; in 2018 the City of Stockholm adopted a new program surrounding policy’s regarding alcohol, narcotics, doping and tobacco. The program contains different goals and activities for the entire city. Amongst them is creating a strategy for the city regarding young adults using drugs where Jobbtorg Stockholm will be one of the partners. It is planned that the results of the Scope Project, including the framework will be utilized, directly impacting the program design.
6 organisations (Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Romania, Germany and Italy) participated including VET providers, employment services, community based organisations, and research consultancies.
The Impact of this project is evident at delivery level, most specifically in terms of career guidance and VET. Partner organisations have increased capacity in terms of appropriate services and understanding of client needs. The potential impact on job seekers in the longer-term is increased well-being both physical and psychological, and improved support enabling access to VET and quality sustainable employment.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 72600 Eur

Project Coordinator

BALLYMUN JOB CENTRE CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED & Country: IE

Project Partners

• AGENCIA PIAGET PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO
• Johann Daniel Lawaetz-Stiftung
• Arbetsmarknadsförvaltningen, Stockholms stad
• C.I.O.F.S. FORMAZIONE PROFESSIONALE
• EU-ROM TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY SRL