SIMPLY INCLUDED. Social inclusion of migrants in vocational education and training Erasmus Project

Project Title

SIMPLY INCLUDED. Social inclusion of migrants in vocational education and training

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

SIMPLY INCLUDED aims to raise awareness for the need of social inclusion of migrants in(to) companies and VET and to deal with diversity in a positive way. Moreover, it will promote the idea of more inclusive work placements and enhance the willingness of companies to employ migrants and refugees, as migrants should be seen as future skilled employees. Therefore, migrants need to be empowered to promote themselves and their strengths in a proactive and individualised way which will help them to integrate into the labour market.

The project builds upon the former project SIMPLE which aimed to promote the use of peer learning techniques for fostering integration of newly arrived refugees into VET. During SIMPLE we found that migrants are often not reaching their own full potential but find themselves in a harsh competition with EU born citizens. Manuela Geleng, head of the “European Commission’s employment and social policy Refugee task-force” points out that in terms of employment refugees need in average 15 years to catch up with EU citizens. In order to provide equal access to the labour market for everybody we need to help migrants become self-effective to attain vocational education and training and employment according to their skills. SIMPLY INCLUDED will empower and sensitize migrants to recognize their own skills and competences and enable them to compete with EU born citizens which will lead to an active participation in the labour market and a more inclusive labour market. Furthermore, migrants will learn how to promote themselves in the digital application process by using digital tools.
The project will provide pedagogical tools and materials for teachers which will equip them with multicultural education methods, especially creative, critical and active cooperative learning methods preventing social exclusion of migrants in VET and later on the labour market. Companies will learn and receive information about the potential of migrants and gain a better understanding of the importance of promoting inclusive work teams. The project will finally create empathy in society and promote social inclusion. The project is designed for three different target groups:

1) Refugees and migrants
2) Teachers of VET who work with migrants
3) Companies and instructors

All three groups will be involved in different activities of the project by being part of the national focus groups to contribute to the creation of the IO’s; by participating in the joint staff training C1; by being beneficiaries of the IO’s.

SIMPLY INCLUDED contains the production of three intellectual outputs which will be jointly developed, produced and tested by young migrants, teachers and companies and made available to the public. Two out of three outputs will focus on video
production and new technologies since it will allow an easy access for migrants who are familiar with the use of social media and smartphones instead of text-intensive outputs.

IO1: a multimedia video collection. The videos will contain personal stories of migrants and companies and concentrate on the positive aspects of storytelling to transfer a strong message which will create empathy within the topic of social inclusion of migrants. It will enhance the willingness of companies to employ and work with migrants and empower migrants themselves to participate actively in the labour market. The results of IO1 will be used to implement a social media campaign for social inclusion.

IO2: a toolkit for VET teachers. It will focus on the creative, critical and active cooperative learning methodology and on multicultural education and enable the teachers to prevent social exclusion of migrants in VET and later on the labour market

IO3: a videokit. It helps the users to approach the process of discovering their own potential and to present it to others by using digital tools such as an application video.

The project will focus on multicultural education by using creative, critical and active cooperative learning methodology which has not been used much in VET and this transfer of non-formal methodologies into formal education constitutes the project’s innovative aspect.

The desired impact on the large scale will be an increased awareness within society for the importance and need of social inclusion of migrants in(to) the labour market and VET. This impact will be aspired for direct and indirect beneficiaries. Beyond increased awareness and acceptance, the target group of migrants will also become self-effective and learn how to promote their skills, especially their soft skills, in a new and efficient manner by using digital competences. This will lead to a larger variety of applications in VET and an increased quality of active participation in the labour market. These impacts will help to turn Europe into a more inclusive working and living habitat.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 204874 Eur

Project Coordinator

KulturLife gGmbH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Grm Novo mesto – center biotehnike in turizma
• ASOCIACION DE CENTROS DE FORMACION TECNICO PROFESIONAL DE INCIATIVA SOCIAL DE EUSKADI HETEL HEZIKETA TEKNIKOKO ELKARTEA DE DURANGO (BIZKAIA)
• MOBILIZING EXPERTISE AB
• Elazığ Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi
• InterCultural Ísland