Towards Higher Employability of Youth. European Approach Erasmus Project

Project Title

Towards Higher Employability of Youth. European Approach

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

The unemployment of young people in Europe has reached alarming rates and fight against it has become one of the most important priorities not only for national government but also for the politicians on the EU level. It is only necessary as the labour markets in the EU countries become more and more connected. However, not only the strategies and tools used for tackling the unemployment have to be accessed from the European point of view, but also the young people and recently graduates have to look at their situation with a wider perspective.

The aim of the THEY.EA project was to raise awareness about the European programmes and tools that can help young people to find job and to integrate to the European labour market.
During the project the partners from the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Poland created three connected outputs around the four topics which were agreed to be the most important for young jobseekers. The topics we choose were the following:
• European Citizenship
• Available funding programmes
• European tools for recognition of skills and qualification
• The work mobility in the EU

Apart from these 4 chapters the partners also focused on collecting Open Educational Resources which can be used by the youngsters to improve their situation on the European job market.

The target group of the project were young people at risk of unemployment and youthworkers who also activelly took part in the process of the creation of the outputs. Most of the partners worked with young people while the Spanish partner mostly worked with youth workers. In the Czech Republic the partners worked with young people from the Bruntál region and with youth workers on national level.

The coordinating organisation was the European Development Agency which is an organisation focusing on educational activities and international projects (especially mobility projects and partnerships). EuDA coordinated the work of other partners and was responsible for creating the final outputs. EuDA also worked with other organizations during the project, especially schools and NGOs with whom EuDA consulted the outputs. During the time of the THEY project EuDA hosted several mobilities for young people from other European countries and had the opportunity to test the outputs with these target groups.

The partner Nr. 1 was the Institute of Regional Development which is a Czech NGO running the Europe Direct Centre in Bruntál. During the THEY project IRD was mainly responsible for communicating with the target group of young people from the Bruntál region. The region belongs to regions with the highest unemployment rate in the Czech Republic. IRD was in the project responsible for the parts of the ouptuts related to the European Citizenship and European Rights.

The partner Nr. 2 was the National Association of Municipal Clercks from Sofia, Bulgaria. This partner hosted the kick-off meeting and was responsible for the chapters about the work mobility in the European Union. During the project NAMCB cooperated with Sofia university so that they could consult the studets about the outputs.

The partner Nr. 3 was CNIPA Puglia, an educational organisation from Bari with offices in the whole Puglia region. CNIPA has experience with vocational education and runs educational programmes for young Italians mainly in cooperation with local administrations. During the project CNIPA hosted the 2nd meeting and was responsible for the topic of the recognition of qualifications in the EU.

The partner Nr. 4 was ONECO Consulting from Spain which is a consulting agency active in the field of European projects and mobilities. They were the perfect partner who could bring know-how about European programmes and financing opportunities. They didn’t really work with young people during the project but more with youth workers. In the end of the project ONECO started cooperation with the Sevilla university where they organized a successful multiplier event.

Last but not least the partner Nr. 5 was the IDZE institute from Warsaw. The experts of IDZE were responsible for the search for Open Educational Resources which they provided for the THEY.EA website.

During the project the partners created outputs which put together 5 important topics with the European added value for young people and youthworkers. All partners already had the opportunity to test these outputs in praxis during their educational activities and events. The outputs are shared through the networks of the partners in the partner countries and beyond. The outputs were created in English and then translated into four European languages so that they can be easily used by youngsters.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 110000 Eur

Project Coordinator

Evropska rozvojova agentura, s.r.o. & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• CNIPA PUGLIA
• ONECO CONSULTING SL
• Institut pro regionalni rozvoj, o. p. s.
• INSTYTUT DLA ZJEDNOCZONEJ EUROPY
• NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPAL CLERKS IN BULGARIA