Youth Employability Competences Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth Employability Competences

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Young people are often encouraged to develop the technical skills needed to enter the labour market, but competencies on how to conduct themselves in the workplace, as well as create opportunities for employment mobility for themselves can be neglected, despite disadvantaged young people having few opportunities to be exposed to these key skills. The YEC project aimed to help young & youth worker professionals identify key gaps in employability competences & address these through youth worker led training modules.

The objectives of the project were to:
Increase the employability of young people
Increase the validation of young people’s employability competences
Increase the engagement of young people and employers in competency tool development
Increase the focus on young people’s employability among young people and their practitioners
The partnership was drawn together to create a diverse range of partners who have an evidenced commitment to youth engagement, upskilling & training of youth workers/practitioners & young people along with validation of these skills, as well as sharing and promotion of best practice in the area of youth work and employment.

The project set out to:
• Develop and pilot a methodology which creates a space for dialogue between young people, employers and the project partnership when developing project tools.
• Create a suite of employability competences training modules for young people, with focus on the personal, social & learning to learn competency from the Council of The European Union.
• Create a train the trainer course with specific focus on youth workers & guidance practitioners engaging with young people who are seeking employment
• Create a guide for youth workers and practitioners to map the modules from the train the trainer course, or any employability skills training, onto current validation systems under ET 2020.

The final products developed by the YEC Project through 4 Intellectual Outputs:
IO1 – Youth & Employer Advisory Boards – The partnership created a Methodological Guide which includes case studies of the YEC experiences of advisory board participation. This can be used as a “how to” guide for external organisations who which to develop and run their own youth or stakeholder participation schemes, resulting in more organisations having information to include young people in programme development.
IO2 – Employability Competences Training Moules – a full suite of Training Modules, which are dynamic in nature and practitioners can utilize either in totality or pick selected modules according to the groups or young person needs has been developed. The modules can be used in either a classroom or online setting and have been piloted with young people in Ireland, Italy, Finland and Poland, increasing their employability. These modules also enhance the skills of youth workers and practitioners who partake in delivering them. IO2 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish.
IO3 – Employability Competences Train the Trainer Course – A Train the trainer programme including a training compendium, tool development documents and module session plans, so that anyone delivering the modules has access to step by step guidelines on how to do so. This will also result in a sustainable rolling out of the YEC tools post project due to master trainers within the partnership committed to providing training to youth workers who request it and meet the competency criteria set out. IO3 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish.
IO4 – Competence Validation Guide – The YEC tools have been mapped onto European & National frameworks where they are applicable, resulting in any young person who partakes in the training course having validated skills after completion. This guide will also promote the use of validation methods within the field of youth work and increase the use of these scales among partner organisations and anyone who chooses to download the guide. IO4 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish.

A clear dissemination strategy is in place to share our tools with youth practitioners and young people across all partner countries and more widely at European level. All final products along with a number of videos showcasing the work of the project were produced and are available on the project website www.yecproject.eu

The partners had 5 transnational meetings to collaborate on the development of the above outputs. The tools were all piloted in each partner country before they were finalised. The advisory boards were responsible for reviewing each IO before they signed it off as being complete.

Evaluations of the effectiveness of the advisory boards were carried out internally and also by an external evaluator whose role was to draw conclusions on the added value of facilitating youth and employer advisory participation. A copy of the final report is attached and available on the project website.

Project Website

http://yecproject.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 193290,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

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

Project Partners

• Stowarzyszenie Rozwoju i Integracji Mlodziezy
• RINOVA LIMITED
• C.I.O.F.S. FORMAZIONE PROFESSIONALE
• Turun kaupunki – Åbo stad
• METROPOLISNET-EUROPEAN METROPOLIS EMPLOYMENT NETWORK EWIV