This year, in the frame of our big anniversary project, we wanted to put a spotlight on some of ENTER Recommendation by, each month, initiating or communicating on 1 action related to 1 recommendation. 1 month / 1 recommendation / 1 action. This month, we take a look at Employment and Occupation!
ENTER recommendation #3:
Employment and Occupation.
For 25 years now, Youth Express Network has organised more than 100 projects focused on all kinds of issues and topics. Employment and Occupation has been one of them. We thought that this Action Day could be an opportunity to present two examples of projects we did focusing on this topic.
2011-2012: You(th) are the Champions!
“You(th) are the Champions: Strategies for youth employment” was a multi measure project aiming at changing the situation of youth employment in Europe. The project gathered 153 participants, representing 22 partners organisations and coming from 15 different countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.
One topic: YOUTH EMPLOYMENT!
The objectives or the project were:
- To support young people’s access to employment
- To provide tools to empower young people
- To assess the transferability of competencies acquired or developed through volunteering
- To promote young people’s sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
18 monts to inspire Young People
The project lasted 18 months and was composed of 5 different actions. All activities were based on non-formal education methods and on the needs and contributions of the participants. Some methods used were: individual work, small discussion groups, plenary work, group dynamics, co-operative games and personal challenges (outdoor education), Open space technology, theoretical inputs, practice (coaching), experiential learning and artistic workshops.
The 5 actions were:
- Feasibility Visit « In the Starting Blocks! », Spain, September 2011: building the partnership
- Training Course « Coach Me If You Can! », Portugal, November 2011: working on knowledge, skills and attitudes in the field of coaching towards empowerment and employment of young people
- Seminar « Jump In! », Romania, April 2012: identifying key competencies developed during volunteer activities and how these competencies can improve young people’s employability
- Training Course « Take a Risk! », Lithuania, August 2012: using experiential learning and Outdoor education to show how taking risks can be a motor for personal and professional development
- Evaluation Meeting: « Cross the Finishing Line! », Croatia, October 2012: measuring and disseminating the results
Motivated Young People and an institutional recognition
This project had beautiful results:
Y-E-N’s own working culture was improved;
- 53 participants trained, skilled and motivated to work on coaching young people towards employment and therefore actively fight for youth employment in Europe;
- Links with new organisations and opportunities for new European cooperation between youth organisations;
- Recommendations made at European youth policies level for training young people to have more social, interpersonal skills and practical competencies in order to help them reduce the education gap between school and labour market, or recommendations for more mobility opportunities for young people in Europe and for more recognition of non formal education;
- Recognition as a best practice by the European Youth Forum and its Youth Employment Action platform (where Y-E-N was an active member): www.youthemploymentaction.org, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
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2018-2019: “EntreprenEUrship for CultYOUre” (EU4YOU)
This year, Youth Express Network and our 8 partners will embarked on an international project for 2 years. Together, we will share good practices and develop innovative complementary pathways for boosting employability of young people through social youth entrepreneurship. We will also provide each other with tools for cultural entrepreneurship.
This project gathers social workers from 8 different organisations coming from Argentina, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Lithuania, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam. We had our first meeting in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, at the end of January.
READ MORE ON THE FIRST SEMINAR
EU4YOU will be composed of several phases of work and collaboration (see timeline bellow for more detail):
- Kick off meeting merged with a Capacity building seminar on Social and Cultural Entrepreneurship in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.
- Seminar on cultural management education and development of learning tools in Cancun, Mexico.
- For a period of 2 or 3 weeks – Job shadowing mobility aimed developing toolkit on Cultural Entrepreneurship.
- Development of a toolkit
- Final seminar in Strasbourg, France, to evaluate results and present toolkit to public.