Blog
FIND YOUR WAY TO THE WORLD OF WORK
- 19.03.2019
- Posted by: iatanasov
- Category: Common
The project is funded by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment.
For detailed information, visit the page: https://eeagrants.org/fundforyouthemployment. The Lead partner is the Autonómia Foundation in partnership with the Spanish Fundacion Secretariado Gitano, the Bulgarian Trust for Social Achievement and Arete Youth Foundations and the Association “Caritas – Social Assistance” Branch of Caritas Alba Iulia Organization.
The project activities will be implemented in four countries: Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain and Romania.
Estimated project duration: 48 months
The project aims at both sharing the existing broad and diverse experience of the partners as well as exploring new methods and approaches in supporting the equal access to quality education and employment of disadvantaged youth in 4 European countries.
Therefore the transnational knowledge exchange and the joint development of new methodologies, guides and policy recommendations on a European level is a strong aspect. Quality employment is interpreted as legal employment on the primary labor market, in positions matching the educational level of the individual.
The main target group is 15-29 year old economically disadvantaged youth, among them numerous Roma, as their presence among disadvantaged youth is very high in these countries, of secondary school age, with completed primary education. Members of this target group are either students in secondary school with a risk of drop-out, or early drop-outs, NEETs (“Not in Education, Employment, or Training”).
In Bulgaria the main project activities will be implemented by the Trust for Social Achievement Foundation in cooperation with Arete Youth Foundation-Bulgaria. The activities that fall under the expertise of Arete Youth Foundation-Bulgaria are:
Creating partnerships with schools
Influence the functioning of schools to retain disadvantaged students, support their work on lowering early school leaving. Support teachers in strengthening pedagogical tools for integrating disadvantaged students, supporting diversity at school and their skills for career orientation.
Career orientation and soft skills trainings
Secondary school students and early drop outs and participants with completed secondary education take part in open days and job shadowing at employers, networking events with employed peers and soft skills trainings to improve skills in communication, cooperation, perseverance, problem solving and reliability, to learn interview technics and develop their CVs.
Mentoring and counselling
Mentoring and counselling of participants and families is an ongoing activity, one of the most important, aiming at identifying all possible factors that can put the participant at risk of early school leaving, hindering employment, holding back from re-entering or continuing education, weakening mobility. The role of the mentors will be to ease as many of these hindering factors as possible, to facilitate supporting family environments, motivating the young participants in achieving higher educational level and better quality employment and persuading families to provide a supporting base.
The project aims at both sharing the existing broad and diverse experience of the partners as well as exlopring new methods and approaches in supporting the equal access to quality education and employment of disadvantaged youth in 4 European countries. The experiences of the project will form the basis of a jointly developed methodological guide.
The EEA and Norway Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway towards a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.
There are two overall objectives: reduction of economic and social disparities in Europe, and to strengthen bilateral relations between the donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics. The three donor countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The donors have provided €3.3 billion through consecutive grant schemes between 1994 and 2014.
For the period 2014-2021, the EEA and Norway Grants amount to €2.8 billion. The priorities for this period are: #1 Innovation, Research, Education and Competitiveness #2 Social Inclusion, Youth Employment and Poverty Reduction #3 Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Low Carbon Economy #4 Culture, Civil Society, Good Governance and Fundamental Rights #5 Justice and Home Affairs.
Eligibility for the Grants mirror the criteria set for the EU Cohesion Fund aimed at member countries where the Gross National Income (GNI) per inhabitant is less than 90% of the EU average.
The EEA and Norway Grants scheme consists of two financial mechanisms. The EEA Grants are jointly financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, whose contributions are based on their GDP. Norway Grants are financed solely by Norway. https://eeagrants.org/What-we-do/The-EEA-and-Norway-Grants-Fund-for-Youth-Employment