Increasing Employability Rates

Disadvantaged Young People: A Peer Learning Approach

Duration: From 28th January - 2nd February 2023 in Brussels, Belgium

Project organizer: Increasing Employability Rates of Disadvantaged Young People: YPA – YouthProAktiv, Interkulturalis one of the project partners
Number of participants: 29
Participating countries: : Belgium, Georgia, Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Slovenia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Spain

The Main Aim Of The Project:

Project Increasing Employability Rates of Disadvantaged Young People had two main aims:

  • improve the capacity of youth workers in order to successfully train and help disadvantaged youth to enter the labor market in the post-covid period;
  • increase the employability rate of disadvantaged youth through non-formal education and initiatives that encourage their inclusion in the labor market.

Other project objectives:

  • Raise awareness of current youth unemployment in Europe;
  • Define terms and phenomena such as unemployment, underemployment and the mismatch between available jobs and the needs of young people;
  • Understanding the unemployment rate of vulnerable youth groups;
  • Finding solutions and opportunities for youth workers for easier identification of marginalized groups of young people;
  • Acquiring the necessary skills and competencies necessary for their inclusion in the labor market;
  • Integrating EU youth employment mechanisms and raising awareness of what the EU is doing to promote the inclusion of young workers through various programs such as European digital trainings, Erasmus programs for young entrepreneurs and various internship programs for EU youth in the European Parliament in Brussels or other departments EU.

Project description:

Day 1. – On the first day, the training facilitator, Francesco Tognoni, presented and introduced the project and its objectives, and facilitated non-formal activities enhancing teamwork and collaboration. Afterwards, Daniel Wisniewski, an European Policy Expert introduced us to EU Strategy and Policies to address the employability of young people. He provided us with knowledge, tools, recommendations and resources on the European Youth Guarantee, the Erasmus+ programme, the Youth Employment Initiative and ESF+, among others. The sessions ended with a visit to the Parlamentarium, where we discovered the functioning of the European Parliament through multimedia guides that explained the path towards European cooperation, how the European Parliament works and what its Members do.

Day 2 . – Activity Ice breaking radi međusobnog upoznavanja preko digitalnog alata PadletAfter this, the definition, characteristics and prospects of youth unemployment among young people in Europe were explained, addressing the main concepts and issues. Also, the unemployment rates between the EU and neighboring countries were compared, and the causes of the different rates were analyzed. Complementary, our training facilitator, Marina Angerri focused on unemployment rates among disadvantaged youth groups and participants analysed the possible solutions that could improve these rates previously presented. In the afternoon, three peer learning activities were carried out: 1) We have presented and shared our entrepreneurial experiences related with the foundation of their organization; 2) The CEO of YPA explained the history of YouthProAktiv and its initiative to fight for youth employability; 3) We took part in the skill mismatch activity to enhance their technological and digital skills.

Day 3. - Our facilitator, Berta Tirvió conducted a session which helped participants getting to know each other’s language, brought the youth workers feel closer and to learn words related to youth employability in the different languages. Thereafter, youth workers shared their knowledge about the existing volunteering programmes by Padlet, the platform that allowed us working in a sustainable, cooperative and interactive way. We continued learning about the volunteer programmes through our session, volunteering as a way to improve the integration of young people with fewer opportunities and also to the experiences shared by some of the attendees who had participated in a volunteer program. Following this, a “World Café” activity was organized to discuss an exchange ideas on how each one could integrate the EU Youth Employment Mechanisms in their work with young people. Subsequently, participants took part in the second peer learning activity on skills mismatch, where they presented their preparatory activities and discussed ways to boost entrepreneurial skills and improve the current youth employability. After lunch, another “World Cafe” activity allowed us to talk, debate and discuss about how the industry, education, business and arts sectors will need to adapt their workplaces from now on as a consequence of the evolution and digital transformation. In addition, we brainstormed on how non-formal education prepare young people for future jobs and then made a peer learning activity where presented the best practices and projects for disadvantaged youths and their employability. To finish the day’s sessions, attendees participated in a “Public Debate”, to discuss about strategies and practices that could improve the employment chances of disadvantaged youths. This was followed by a self-reflection and evaluation activity to become aware of the learning process and to assess the knowledge, skills and attitudes gained by participants.

Day 4. - Presentation of the project Jovid19 which co-finances Erasmus+, its web, tutorial, apps, as well as policy recommendations as it can be helpful. Participants then listened to a session on inclusivity and diversity. While holding a "walking debate", the attendees took positions for or against certain sensitive issues of youth employability. The exercise Navigation in Salto Youth enabled us to learn how to use digital technologies to collaborate with other youth workers, how to share knowledge and experiences and how to better use innovative informal pedagogical tools through digital and technological means.

Day 5 - An evaluation of the usefulness of the training was carried out. After all the activities we had the Youth Pass ceremony. With this new experience and knowledge, we will be able to design quality projects that will provide new opportunities for members NEETs across Europe.

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