Erasmus + project 2014-1-HU01-KA200-002376
Young people (16-24 years) in Europe, belonging to the group of NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training - Not in Employment, Education or Training). The RLG project focuses on the development of social and entrepreneurial skills. Complete details of the project can be seen at the project website https://rlg.edunet.hu/project/news
The project team developed a complete tool of the
Originally, the phrase ‘Lost Generation’ was used to describe the generation that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Hemingway. But since the financial crisis of 2008 young people with limited employment and career prospects have also been described as members of a ‘New Lost Generation’. An OECD report of 2012 warned that due to their lack of skills, motivation and self-worth this ‘lost generation’ might have difficulties in entering the workforce even when the recession ends and demand for employees is higher. (OECD Employment Outlook, 2012)
The project addresses the issue of the very high number of young people between the ages of 16-24 who are not in employment or training, by developing entrepreneurial skills in hard-to-help groups across the four countries participating in the project. After discussion, the partners came to the conclusion that although the countries may be at differing levels of economic development, the issues for young people are the same. This project looks at the development of an educational programme that can help to promote the entrepreneurial skills of disadvantaged young people in the widest sense, moving them from reactive to proactive behaviours.
The levels of youth unemployment in Europe reached a new historic high of 23.5% in February 2013, more than twice as high as the adult rate, with some 5.7 million young people affected. Young people who have only completed lower secondary education (early leavers from education and training) bear the highest risk of unemployment. In 2012, the EU average youth unemployment rate was 22.8%, but reached 30.3% for low-skilled youth (Eurostat, LFS).
Our project concentrates on the low skilled young people, often classed as NEETs (not in employment, education and training) in each of the partner countries. We are developing a 12-week training programme that promotes the skills, behaviours and attitudes to turn the target group into proactive members of society with the ability to move forward into education, training, employment or self-employment.
The project is designed to have measurable outputs throughout. An initial assessment of the candidates is carried out to gain a base line on where the candidates are with regards to motivations, behaviours, self-esteem, self-confidence and preferred work style. At the end of the 12-week training programme a further testing process follows to assess improvements in the same areas.
The cyclic nature of the testing process will ensure a robust and tested quality of the teaching and learning materials. At the end of the first testing period each country will test the tools jointly developed and provide feedback about the strength and weaknesses of the training packages. As a next step the developers will change the components that did not work in practice for more effective materials.
At the second stage the testing process will take place in each country at different periods supported by permanent professional consultation, so that the users can utilize the new experiences of the previous implementers. A one year follow-up period will continue after the training to continue the link between the educators and the participants.
In the end the programme will run eight times in this form and the final product will be tried, tested and shared with other educational and training organisations in Europe.
February – July 2016
The RLG programme connects closely with the basic activities of ETC for the German partners, which offers the likelihood that local practice will preserve the results of the project in an organic way.
The components were jointly developed and built in as a module into the training of those young people facing career choices. Each year the labour centre commissions the ETC to support these young people into work. More recently, supporting young migrants arriving in Germany without adult relatives has become a new state-financed task of schools since the beginning of 2016. The experts of the ETC have simultaneously tested the exercises of the programme in other institutions.
Secondary schools providing general education tested several exercises of the RLG programme with students aged 12-13 on their career orientation days of December 2015 and April 2016. The exercises were tried out by 18-20 persons. The social composition of the students represented the urban average – with a relatively high ratio of migrant and disadvantaged students. Experience however shows that the exercises functioned fairly well in this environment. Students have enjoyed the activities though they have found the exercises to require a high level of concentration.
A special school tested several exercises in March 2016 with participants aged 12. The German colleagues tested various levels of difficulty while adjusting to the special features of the children. They verified that some of the exercises could be well adjusted to the capabilities of students with special needs and the participants enjoyed them.
ETC started working with young refugee people in February of 2016. The first group – most of them boys aged 16-21 – was a group of 12 who were from African and Asian countries. They had acquired some trade skills in their home countries, it was however difficult to assess the level and content of their expertise due the low level of their German language competence. They had traumatized mental states and were without family ties or official guardians. The RLG exercises can be included in the ten month Bridge Year programme which aims at integrating them into German culture and society though learning. The aim is to prepare these young people to be able to find a trade within the labour market. ETC staff want to make the migrants familiar with everyday customs (social conventions and roles, forms of behaviour, etc.), fields of labour (ways of getting employed, expectations, etc.) – while they can acquire practical experience in various trades. Considering their composition and needs this makes these groups very similar to NEET young people which the programme aims at.
It is a serious challenge for them to gain development in various competence fields with their low level language skills in German. The exercises of RLG programme which focus on practical skills in work are emphasised in their training.. They need to acquire problems solving skills most of all. Those activities which focused on self-presentation were particularly important for the participants because they help them develop deep knowledge and self-confidence.
RLG activities have been occasionally used within prisons since December of 2015. The participants are exclusively males between 25 and 70. They make a fairly mixed group as far as their education is concerned. Most of them are trained people, you can however find some who are illiterate and people with higher education in this group as well. 6-14 persons participate occasionally in the activities. They are characterized by some sort of mental isolation due to being imprisoned for a long time. After being encouraged to cooperate they have however enjoyed the exercises.
The most important general experiences of testing that might be built into the development process were as follows:
Elaborating the topics of the RLG activities in a workshop proved to be fairly productive for groups cooperating permanently and preparing for a career choice. The English and German language board game Business Master has been a great success and it is considered as the country specific component of the programme. The game has been financed by Bavarian firms and aimed at developing entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
The programme for those newly arrived young people who were delegated by the labour centre has continued since the autumn of 2016. An assessment day of ETC competences was organized for 31 participants in three new groups in September.
The project aims at developing complex tools which can be used without constraints and will help us to assess and develop the business competencies, in wider and measurable terms, of NEET young people who live in various regions of Europe. The project will also encourage young people to abandon their typical reactive attitudes and move towards more proactive behaviour.
After reviewing professional literature and holding a number of personal meetings and online consultations, the project partners have finally agreed that maintaining the healthy and positive self-assessment of the young people is one the most important conditions for them to reach their goals. There are some personal traits and motivations which are of particular importance in relation to success in business.
A few important personal traits:
Personal motives may also play important roles:
The whole programme aims at strengthening the traits mentioned. The partners have however described/delineated ten content areas to be handled independently within the wider area of business competencies. They are as follows:
The full set of tools of the RLG programme, supporting the skills of the areas mentioned above, contains four bigger units which were developed in parallel:
Based on the testing experiences the set of tools will be enlarged and shaped while carrying out the project. It is planned that the set of tools will gain its final form during the last stage of the project. After finishing the programme it will be available in four languages: Hungarian, English, Polish and German.
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