"The Social SELF-I Project, with the creation of a strategic partnership formed by ASPIC Lavoro (Italy), HdBA (Germany), INSUP (France), EOPPEP (Greece), carried out its activities in a 2-year period referring to central issues of European relevance, priorities in the countries of the beneficiaries involved, in relation to aspects assumed by the migration phenomenon in these years, still an urgent issue. The project is based on the evidence of numbers (more than one million asylum seekers arrived in Europe during the year of the beginning of the project), on the new training and qualification demands, and the need to appropriately equip professionals whose work has an impact on the inclusion processes. The latter is a central theme, in the individual, social and work aspects of specific target groups (refugees, asylum seekers and segments of the adult population experiencing career transitions in conditions of vulnerability and risk of exclusion, e.g. mental and health issues, low-skilled; it is crucial to develop the methodologies for identifying skills, guidance and personal and professional empowerment. The activities of the project made a contribution to the capacity of welcoming and inclusion the individuals identified above, sharing the best training, methodological and orientation practices, an intense training program, involving testimonials and invited experts of great personal and professional value, and developing ""recommendations and methodological indications"" stemmed from a common work and shared reflection on these issues. The methodological and operational inputs, knowledge and know-how, were aimed at professionals, operators, lecturers and researches involved in teaching and training career guidance practitioners, trainers and consultants, teachers of L2, project developers, belonging to training and employment organizations and agencies, extended also to national and local stakeholders, local associations, in order to increase the mastery of approaches, tools and new targeted qualification paths. The main activities consisted in 3 training events in a 4-day period (Bordeaux, Mannheim and Rome), with intense and continuous cooperation. The focus of the contents concerned three key themes: methodologies, tools and processes of guidance and career counseling as ways to support self-empowerment; the Identification of skills to define the personal, training and qualification profile, as well as to manage transitions and analyze skill and qualification gaps; the transversality and transferability of methodologies, practices and tools in individual practices, with respect to purposes, contexts, recipients. The recommendations, consistent with the issues of the project, highlight how the different methodologies (relating to the transparency of skills and qualifications; career counseling, orientation, psycho-social intervention approaches, etc.) require adaptations and to be “tailored” with respect to formal standards and requirements as well as more calibrated procedures in terms of timing and implementation methods. They also put emphasis on the importance of developing the transversal skills necessary for operators and professionals working in very diverse contexts. Particular emphasis was given to the helping relationship, the ability to build a relationship, the ""understanding of needs"" (each person is different, from the other, has his or her own particular history, skills and competences); ""active listening"", ""'empathy"", ""respect for diversity"", ""multicultural perspective and competence"", as well as being able to deal with cases of traumatic experiences and vulnerable situations, which may be associated with the target groups addressed. Beneficiaries of the activities were staff and members of the partner organizations with expertise and experience in different disciplinary fields and professional roles (university professors, experts from national public agencies, members of non-profit associations, professional psychologists and psychotherapists, guidance consultants and trainers, researchers in the economic and sociological field). Precious was the presence of staff, trainees, indirect participants, experts invited to the training sessions who contributed with testimonials and feedback to the extension of the impact of the project activities in heterogeneous local and national contexts. In each training event direct incoming beneficiary participants worked together with members of the hosting organisation, indirect participants, experts and stakeholders involved in the training activities. High commitment to disseminate contents and results to various audiences (reaching over 1500 people), also through training activities, seminars, conferences and workshops at different levels, testimony of an impact on partner organizations, on the personal and professional know-how of the participants as well as on the dimensions of training and work policies through the events."

ContextEuropean labour markets and societies face various challenges and transitions such as the refugee crises, demographic change and future jobs, having a big priority e.g. in the EU Horizon 2020. Guidance practitioners play a key role in adressing these challenges successfully. Their tasks comprise individual career guidance and client counselling for unemployed as well as employed persons who want or need to reorient themselves, profiling, skills assessment and training delivery. Furthermore, they match people to job profiles, and offer services to employers, as well as care catering for those furthest removed from the labour market. To perform this range of tasks competently, a high-level qualification and transnational training as well as state-of-the-art information on effective concepts and approaches and networking of practitioners on a Europe-wide level is essential.ObjectivesOn this basis, the Academia+ project supported the exchange of experiences and transnational trainings of counsellors in Europe. To do so, the project partners developed, piloted and evaluated 3 research-based online Counsellors Study and Training Exchange Programs (C-STEPs) for qualified career counsellors that reflect a transnational, European perspective and meet the needs of the target groups.Each of the C-STEPs focused on a current key challenge, and combined theory, research and practice of guidance: Counselling migrants and refugees, Future jobs, Demographic change.Through the trainings and a learning environment, the project supported provision of better services and guidance on competencies and qualifications and helped to raise the profile of international cooperation within guidance.Undertaken activitiesThe topics of the C-STEPs and their units built on literature and resources reviews from all partner countries, a transnational synthesis with recommendations, online questionnaires answered by counsellors, practitioners and experts regarding the topic from several European countries as well as reviews of the unit structure plans. All C-STEPs were transnational online trainings integrating the knowledge and experiences from a variety of experts and speakers, coming from different European countries with different personal and professional background, providing specific knowledge about several approaches, perspectives and innovation on career guidance.The project developed an innovative and detailed media centre and learning environment based on course units containing all presentations, videorecordings, group work tasks and results, discussion protocols and further material. The project also created a website in four different languages for course participants and trainers including different outputs from the C-STEPs.To promote and disseminate the project and to support international networking the projectteam connected to several networks with the focus on counselling/guidance, published information in frequent newsletters, on websites and in journals, hosted a LinkedIn-group for discussion throughout the project timeline and organized a multiplier event at the end of the project timeline.ParticipantsIn total 257 persons from 22 different European countries (Belgium, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain) and 13 Non-European countries (Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijani, Australia, Egypt, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Russia, Uganda, UK) participated in the trainings. The project partners acquired 47 participants for C-STEP1 (EU-countries: 11; Non-EU: 3), 89 participants for C-STEP2 (EU-countries: 16, Non-EU: 10) and 70 participants for C-STEP3 (EU-countries: 12, Non-EU: 5).The participants had a wide variety of professional backgrounds e.g. professional career guides from local, governmental and non-govermental organisations, local private businesses or freelancers, psychological institutions, universities and higher education departments, refugee organisations and small NGO’s, but also students and some unemployed persons with a professional background rooted in Career Guidance.Results/benefitsThe C-STEPs reached 257 participants and involved over 40 speakers. The learning environment and media centre functions as a stand-alone resource for non-participants and trainers who like to multiply the event. Email, newsletter, website information and articles in journals addressed more than 10.000 persons.Professionals directly participating in the training or recreating it from the learning environment benefit from the training, so they can better advise and integrate the workforce, unemployed and jobseekers. This enables their counselling organisations to focus strongly on the problems of the respective countries.This has a positive effect on the national labor market, which strengthens the EU.

Mental illness affects around 27% (83m.) of Europeans annually (European Social Work, 2013). Three quarters of mental illness begins by age 24 (WHO), affecting the social inclusion and, due to stigma, the work integration of a big number of young citizens in the EU. While many EU projects have focused in facilitating work integration of European NEETs (young people Not in Employment, Education or Training), little attention has been paid to young people with Mental Health problems that are not in Employment, Education or Training ('MH NEETs'), and in the same time they have to face a lot of extra challenges on their way to education and the labour market. Mental illness is likely to be both a risk factor for becoming NEET as well as a consequence of NEET status. Youth with prior mental illness are likely to terminate school early. Mental disorders are also likely to impede the transition into the labour force due to employment restrictions and social stigma. It seems that, at the moment, there are not any specialized tools facilitating the work integration of MH NEETs. Furthermore, all the main actors involved in this procedure (MH NEETs themselves, mental health professionals, career counsellors and informal carers) are not sufficiently educated, in order to provide the support needed. The big number of MH NEETs remaining outside the labour market constitutes an urgent call for the development of efficient strategies, as well as, the appropriate educative solutions and methodology to integrate MH NEETs in the labour market.Work4Psy has as a main objective to enhance the work and education integration of MH NEETs through the creation of specialized career counselling methodology and the education of the four main target groups involved in this procedure: (a) MH NEETs themselves,(b) Mental Health Professionals, (c) Career Counsellors, (d) Informal Carers (such as family members).In order to achieve that, all the partners will be involved in activities such as a comprehensive literature review, an educational needs assessment, focus groups implementation, creation/translation/adaptation of learning content, career counselling tools and other resources/material, in order to create:1) The first European Career Counselling MH NEETs Toolkit (ECCpsy-KIT)The toolkit will provide Mental Health Professionals, Career Counsellors, MH NEETs and their Informal Carers, local agencies and authorities and all other interested parties, with the necessary knowledge and Interactive Career Counselling tools, in order to enhance MH NEETs work and education integration. The tools will be practical, easy to use and oriented to each target of the project. The ECC psy-KIT will guide all interested parties through the work and education process of MH NEETs from the first stage of self-assessment to the final stage of on-going monitoring, aiming to achieve a higher number of MH NEETs in the labour market and education.2) The European Work and Education Integration Curriculum for MH NEETsThe Curriculum provides the didactical framework of the Toolkit, including details in terms of each unit’s objectives and learning outcomes, the content to be covered, the unit’s structure, teaching and learning methods, didactic methods, the approximate workload, tips and advice on the use of activities of the Toolkit, how to apply resources (e.g. video clips, interactive career counselling tools), etc.3) An Open Learning PlatformThe platform, based on the didactical framework of the Curriculum, including all the information and interactive career counselling tools of the Toolkit, as well as a variety of extra resources and material aims to become a digital environment where MH NEETs, Mental Health Professionals, Career Counsellors, Informal Carers and everyone interested will be able to find every information, material and resources needed regarding work and education integration of MH NEETs.All outcomes will be produced using the Co-production model, which involves MH NEETs and their family members in every step of the procedure (through participation in transnational meetings, focus groups, educational needs mapping and design of all outputs), as they are considered experts by experience, having important knowledge of their needs.Multiplier events, as well as, a strong dissemination plan will lead to a wide diffusion of all project’s results all over Europe. The European work and Education Integration curriculum and the Open Learning Platform will also guarantee the sustainability of the project, themselves, as they ensure that members of the target groups and every other interested parties who will not have been part of the project’s core partnership are able to use the Toolkit and all the material produced beyond the project’s eligibility period (e.g. transfer to further countries, organisations or new staff members within a partner’s institution).

<< Objectives >>In 2021 the European Parliament called for research on sheltered workshops to support compliance with EU and United Nations inclusion targets. Include³ will, in an inclusive and co-productive process, develop resources and a curriculum to create individual pathways for people with intellectual disabilities from targeted vocational and educational training into sustainable employment and decent work, thereby contributing to inclusion by linking sheltered VET more strongly to labour market needs.<< Implementation >>Based on a curriculum for the Include³-method, career guidance professionals working in or for sheltered workshops will engage in seminars with people with intellectual disabilities, employers and the workshop’s vocational education and training specialists. The aim is to personalise vocational training so that a tight fit with labour market needs is achieved. Piloting and evaluation of the seminars will ensure that the method can be established sustainably in different European countries.<< Results >>Include³ will result in the development of a process to harmonise sheltered vocational education and training with individual needs, capabilities and aspirations of people with intellectual disabilities and with labour market opportunities. A curriculum and resources available through a fully accessible web portal will ensure the applicability and dissemination of this process, so that vocatioal training sheltered workshops can better contribute to the target of labour market inclusion.

<< Objectives >>The objective is to develop a HE curriculum that readies CGC (Career Guidance and Counseling) professionals for their pivotal role in mastering the challenges of digital transformation. Through the HE course they will acquire the necessary digital and networking skills to implement multi-actor sequential CGC processes with employees, jobseekers, employers and TVET providers. The process aims to assess and develop digital training skills in a targeted way that increases the digital resilience.<< Implementation >>Combining two innovative learning processes, we will implement a multi-actor sequential CGC process of iterative consultations: “CGC roundabouts for digital transformation” which overcomes existing information barriers. We will build an HE curriculum for CGC professionals from this experience, which will integrate academic reflection on digital transformation, the acquisition of state-of-the-art digital and networking capabilities, and creative engagement with field-tested professional practice.<< Results >>Through the combined implementation of a praxis model for digitally capable and networked CGC on the ground and an HE curriculum preparing practitioners to apply and develop this model as well as finding their own solutions, CGC will be better tackle the challenges of the digital transformation. As an effect, CGC will find personalized solutions for their clients and thereby increase their digital readiness and resilience as well as provide the economy with a digitally more literate workforce.