Skilling Marginalised people to Enter Labour Market Erasmus Project

Project Title

Skilling Marginalised people to Enter 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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Access for disadvantaged; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The unemployment rate of the partner countries is among the highest in Europe (IT 9,7 % -SRB 12,1% -MK 16,6% – Cy 8,2% – SP 14,1% – BU 5,8% – FR 8.9% ; source taken from national statistics). And homeless, migrants, people in marginalized conditions are the more affected from this lack of employment. Their condition of marginality is often due to lack of opportunities, economic possibilities and stimulus. On the other side, the areas covered by partners, metallurgic/enterprises and welder, are strategical sectors where new and increasing skilled labour force is required. In the last years, the job offer is augmented and had to face a diminishing job demand, as young people are not considering VET as a possible career for their future.

The SMELT project- : Skilling Marginalized people to Enter Labour Market, is aiming to face the paradox of job vacancies that are available but cannot be filled, by promoting a new model for solving this workforce shortage and support vulnerable and marginalized people in acquiring and developing key competences strategical for the labour market.
Marginalisation, is often due to a lack of adequate education and/or specific technical skills, which contribute to cut off those people from the labour market and, as a consequence, exacerbates their social isolation and marginalisation, which in turn, further hinders their access to the labour market. This vicious cycle perpetuates inequality, marginalization, poverty and isolation.

Combining expertise and experiences of association/NGOs working with marginalized people, enterprises, VET centres and educational institute proceeding from 7 countries, the project is expecting to promote the access to VET and low-skilled professions (in the specific the welder one) through organizing specific training courses.
The training course will be shaped for this specific target group mixing/merging technical workshops to learn the welder profession and classes to increase digital skills and soft skill to facilitate people’s access into the labour market and, more in general, into social tissue. Specific courses will be carried out to explain how to create a CV, where to send it, how to find job offers and to reach the job center. The idea at the basis is to foster their inclusion and participation in the society.

The project is addressed to people living in situations of social marginality, namely vulnerable people who are normally excluded from the labour market, as often as a consequence from the society as well, because of their age or their lack of skills, homeless, migrants, people who do not have access to training or have not the possibility to acquire specific professional skills.
The project foresee the realisation of 3 IOs: a training to explain vulnerable people the most fundamental information on rights in the workplace, principal contact of where to find a job, a training course, how to write a cv and hoe to send it, which will end with the co-creation of an Easy handbook on the Labour Market, accessible and easy to read to all; a more technical and practical training course “VET for all – training new welder workers” aimed at increasing job opportunities and developing specific skills in the welder sector; and the IO3, indeed, will be a ITEM to Improve The life of Marginalised people, namely the creation of an item, useful in the daily life of vulnerable people, co- created by the participants of the welder course and specialised workers.

The innovative aspect resides in the formula of the training and its aims. We believe in an active participation of the direct beneficiaries of the project as well as in their essential contribution to create effective products able to impact their lives and those of people living in the same marginalisation.
For this reason, the training modules proposed are followed by a moment of co-creation where participants, educators and trainers will give birth to innovative outputs able to trigger a solidarity mechanism – where people can give back something to the society.

The SMELT project is expected to improve vulnerable people lives and support them in find their personal path, increasing their self-respect and giving back their dignity, enabling them to form social connections, enrich their knowledge, engage with professionals of the field, familiarise themselves with training, getting the opportunity to ask questions and seek meaningful support.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 209333 Eur

Project Coordinator

Samarcanda società cooperativa sociale Onlus & Country: IT

Project Partners

• ASSOCIATION DES AGENCES DE LA DEMOCRATIE LOCALE
• ASOCIACION MAR VIOLETA
• SYNTHESIS CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION LIMITED
• Center for Democracy Foundation
• SSOU MOSHA PIJADE – Tetovo
• SDRUZHENIE YUNI PARTNERS
• Ecor International S.p.A.