Website: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2019-2-CY02-KA105-001635
Start date 01-08-2019
End date 31-05-2020
Budget: 24.039,00 €
Coordinator: matrioskas CY
Partner: ICSE & CO (IT) , ASOCIACIÓN PAIDEIA – PAIDEIA ASSOCIATION (ES) , Radosa apvieniba VISI 2 (LV) , DreamTeam (EL) , MOJE KRZYSZKOWICE (PL)
Objectives
The main aim of the project YOU(TH) POWER FOR EMPLOYMENT is to discover, develop and strengthen the soft skills as a tool to reduce youth unemployment and how to enter the labor market more effectively and efficiently. Why Soft Skills? Because soft skills, defined as personal attributes you need to succeed in the workplace and related to how you work with others, are linked to the 8 Key Competences defined by the E+ program.
The project based on non-formal education methods will highlight the importance of the 8-Key Competences empowering young people to develop and improve their soft skills to become more competitive in the labour market and to encourage them towards their own initiatives.YOU(TH)POWER FOR EMPLOYMENT aims to help young people to understand and define what are soft skills in general as well as observe, discover and improve their own skills to fight the unemployment locally and globally.The main objectives of the project are:
-to analyze, discuss the main issues/events in EU and how they affect (increase or decrease) the risk of youth unemployment; define causes and possible solutions towards positive youth employment;
-To improve the most important soft skills that most employers are looking for: Communication Skills, Critical thinking, Leadership, Positive Attitude, Teamwork, Work Ethics, self development, creativity
-To empower youth with skills that can practically be used to find a job or create their own job
-To promote the European job experiences letting participants discover what EU is doing to face youth unemployment (ie. visit at Eures office)
-To empower young people to become new European entrepreneurs; trough study visit to local social entrepreneurship and startup
-to encourage cooperation between organisations/ participants with new tools/methods dealing with topics: soft skills and youth unemployment in rural/ remote areas
-To improve active participation and active citizenship at local, regional, national, European and global level (among young people with fewer opportunities)
-to promote E+mobility opportunities and equip participants with the basic knowledge and experience to organize future E+ projects on various topics: youth opportunities locally/globally, youth unemployment, improvement of soft skills, key competences, intercultural dialogue;
And many more (please visit the first section of this project application)
Activities
Project YOU(TH) POWER FOR EMPLOYMENT involves 36 young people (5 participants between age 18-30;plus a group leader without age limits per each country) from Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Latvia, Italy and Poland. They will meet in Larnaka, Cyprus for the Youth Exchange 26/10/2019 – 01/11/2019 (7 days of activities plus two days/ of travel).
A The Advance Planning Visit is planned,from 13/09/2019-14/09/2019 (plus one day of travel), by common decision among the partners involved in this application, in order to ensure quality to the project and avoid any misunderstandings and errors (in terms of time, activities and resources) during the project.
The expected outcomes of the APV are:
-adjustment of activities, in case of changes observed during the preparatory phase of the participants
-confirmation of activity timetable and the timing needed, methods used and any other practical arrangements that should be taken into account.
The effort of the Project YOU(TH) POWER FOR EMPLOYMENT is to involve young people in creative activities based on non-formal education principles, that will allow them to define, develop and improve their skills (soft skills), abilities and knowledge required to successfully enter the local and European labour market.
There are many activities, study visits and interventions with experts that will allow young people to find themselves and discover how essential soft skills are in European labor market nowadays. Participants will analyze the issues related to the youth unemployment in Europe basing on the situations within the participating countries. Individuals will learn to use tools needed to create state-of-the-art CVs and stand out in the local and global labour market. Participants will have the chance to discover the possibilities of mobility tools for young people offered by the Erasmus plus and EURES program.
We have designed and created activities for the dissemination of the final results including the creation of open source multimedia elements and the creation of a manual of good practices that can be shared with the communities of the partner associations.
The beneficiaries of this exchange are not only the participants but also think about local and international institutions, high schools and universities, employment agencies and local associations. All the activities are based an implemented on non formal education methods
APV (A1) will be attended by the 6 group leaders (that will take part to the YE) from all 6 partner countries ( Cyprus, Latvia, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain) together with the members of Matrioskas.CY.
Group leaders are youth workers actively involved in their local communities with great experience in Erasmus+ program and work with youth facing unemployment or other social, economical and geographical difficulties.
The participants of the Youth Exchange (A2) come from different cultural, geographical and economic backgrounds. They are youth unemployed despite a quality university education and there are participants who have made their way into the labour market thanks to the development of soft skills (these are the Group leaders who will have the role of facilitated during the project).
Moreover we have involved participants with reduced possibilities – such as young people from the marginalized/ vulnerable groups with educational difficulties (early school leavers, learning difficulties, low educational level etc), cultural differences (language differences, migrant/ refugee background etc) facing social, economic and geographic obstacles – as a priority of the erasmus plus program and as direct beneficiaries of this youth exchange.
Impact
During the seven days of the project, people from different cultural, social, professional backgrounds, etc. will exchange ideas, thoughts, habits, experiences and will be able to build new relationships, friendships and will develop new skills. Through the theoretical and practical activities they will become aware of the situation of the youth unemployment in other European countries. With the use of non-formal education methods participants will acquire tools and knowledge, which will allow them to develop their soft skills and their ability to work both, independently and in an international team.
Overall the participation in this project will make a positive impact on any young person’s life and career, which can first of all be associated with the following competences: Self-esteem and self-worthiness, Entrepreneurship, autonomy and leadership skills by taking up a project of their own by young jobseekers; Team-work and feelings of responsibility; Strengthening transversal key skills and an entrepreneurial mindset; Acquiring basic concept of what entrepreneurship is and how it can be a viable career option etc…
The self confidence gained by them stimulates them to dare to take new challenges; dare to go to a job interview, dare to participate in courses, exchanges and other activities they never participated in before, dare to talk to people from another cultural background.
THE PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS that are at the base of this project have collaborated in order to:
1)Experience existing non-formal education methods and tools; gain and create new ones in order to develop and improve soft skills among young people and combat the youth unemployment within their local communities;
2)Know the economic situation of other countries that are part of the partnership;
3)Strengthen the partnership in terms of quality (dissemination) and quantity (duration over time); Increase the chances for future collaborations and produce new, quality international mobility projects,
4)Educate (new) generations of youth workers / trainers within local organizations; create new contacts and personal/ professional relationships;
Larnaka is quite small community which ensures that the impact on the local community will be more visible and meaningful.
The impact at the local, regional, national, European and/or international levels are
1)Raise awareness on the Erasmus+ program among young European citizens; Promote the benefits of the opportunities European Union is offering to young people ( EVS/ ESC, EURES, TC, YE etc.)
2)Created a new European identity among the young people of Larnaka, Cyprus and include the local youth to European and international associations and processes
3)Encouraged local young people to active citizenship by taking part in all the opportunities offered by the Erasmus plus program
4)Share with local authorities such as schools, institutions, training centers, local companies, etc. the results of our activities so that they can be used in local youth;
5)Create a network of contacts between young people from different countries sharing the concept of European citizenship in long term
The impact at any level (local, regional, national, European and global) is strongly linked to the personal development and improvements of youth. Their raised self-esteem, increased knowledge of opportunities, motivation to act as active citizens are functioning as multipliers of change in the society with a domino effect. Individuals share their positive experiences within their environments and organizations keep collaborating with partner organizations from other European countries. In this way quality international projects will be implemented which ensures never ending improvement of the tools and methods, based on non-formal education principles.
