Reset Restart Newsletter Issue 1
Project Partners:
Kilcooley Women’s
Centre, UK (Northern Ireland) – leading partner
ARES, Italy
Open Europe, Spain
Social Life Volunteers, Turkey
IEDS, Romania
EMPLOYABILITY SUPPORT TRAINING PROGRAMME
EMERGING ISSUES RESPONSE POST COVID19 PANDEMIC
Credits: Dan Perjovschi
COVID-19 led to business failure, the mass population in lockdown in houses with the whole economy in a standstill, around the world a common problem has arisen of mass redundancies. As a consequence of mass redundancy, the first who are the most affected are people of low income, refugees and immigrants, people from disadvantaged areas, the disabled, vulnerable women & unemployed youth (i.e. NEETs). This pandemic situation found us unprepared from an economic & social point of view. Life will never be the same & being in continually changing circumstances have to RESET & RESTART our lives and careers.
The partnership consortium of five partner organizations from Italy, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and the UK (North Ireland) had identified a common problem and obvious need in the domain of employment. Therefore the project will contribute to the new start of those people who lost their job & who suffered psychological/mental health changes in their professional lives & their life routine as a result of COVID19.
The project´s main objective is to provide psychological/wellbeing support & professional guidance in the process of employability. Adult educators will mentor people on how to re-orient their professional careers & to discover together which job is more suitable for each of them. To learn how to adapt to this new lifestyle & to embrace new challenges in their professional lives more easily. To ‘RESET & RESTART‘.
We will focus on a set of services, activities & tangible solutions, which allow disadvantaged people to make decisions on their education, training & occupations, & manage their careers, which are OUTCOMES focused. The project will extend & develop educators’ competencies through training of trainers & creating a legacy to deliver quality courses and services, and with the training course & modules collectively worked.
The project is addressed to adult educators, psychologists & social mentors. Trainers will learn to provide information about the labor market & employment opportunities. It will help disadvantaged people to understand their aspirations, interests, competencies, personal characteristics, qualifications & skills, link them to desirable work opportunities.
Se tu hai una mela, e io ho una mela, e ce le scambiamo, allora tu ed io abbiamo sempre una mela ciascuno. Ma se tu hai un'idea, ed io ho un'idea, e ce le scambiamo, allora abbiamo entrambi due idee.
P A R T N E R F R O M
I T A L Y
ARES is a VET organization that has been working since 1988 in Campobasso (Italy) providing services both for private and public organizations. It is an accredited body for VET by the Italian Region of Molise. Its main expertise is in career guidance for people of different age and employment condition. Vulnerable groups such as long- term unemployed, migrants and NEETs became the focus of ARES interventions, as they need targeted, well designed personalized support. In the last five years ARES managed several courses for unaccompanied foreign minors in order to help them to find a job.
For ARES staff participating in the activities of the ‘RESET & RESTART‘ project will be an opportunity to increase their skills in the field of job search and relocation of people to work in the post-pandemic period.
The lock-down period was not an easy period for ARES staff because most of our activities deal with contact with public and with public relations as we provide courses and organize activities in presence for the most part of our projects. But after a first moment of confusion, we decided that we could not give up but adapt ourselves to the new situation. So, we designed a positive communication campaign addressed to our customers and turned all our courses face-to-face in online courses
P A R T N E R
F R O M S P A I N
In our organization we provide all kinds of training for all ages. Specifically and related to the objectives of the project, we provide advice to young people who want to start their own business, and we also provide advice to people who are not studying or working, in order to continue with their working/ professional life. We also carry out different trainings for people with disabilities and for newcomers to our country, to teach them our language and our legislation
For our organisation to participate in the Reset & Restart project is an opportunity
to continue increasing our expertise in the field of helping young people to find their professional place in the labour market. To be in contact with other organisation and to share how is the situation in each country is amazing, especially in this hard moment after the pandemic period.
The lock-down period was really shocking for all of us, because our activities were always in contact with people, face to face. The first months were a bit confusing, but, after this confusing period, we decided to work on all the same activities, but online. And finally we succeeded, so this pandemic situation taught us how to organize the activities online.
P A R T N E R F R O M
T U R K E Y
Social Life Volunteers (SLV) is an NGO located in Sivas that aims to develop social lives of the members and the society. We organize activities to create opportunities to socialize our members working in a busy schedule in their daily lives. Those activities contain sport, art and cultural activities and events. The NGO is registered to the National NGO network and supervised by NGO authority. The NGO also provides support in terms of the need of the society. During the pandemic we tried to support people who are in need during the quarantine days. Our volunteers made great things for those in need either psychological or economical.
Our volunteers expect to gain some real life coaching skills and the project aims people who are in need after the pandemic. Our team want to help and assist them while they are looking for a job or try to learn a new skill. Career guidance and counselling those people are the things that make our member and volunteers excited. The main motivation is binding up the wounds of the post pandemic period as many people suffered from it.
To be honest we gained while we lose. At the beginning it was a night mare to stay in as many of our activities were outdoor and face to face. It was too difficult being at home and stay closed. But like other institutions and people we turned it in to an opportunity. We organized cyber meetings and reached more people than before. We organised online contest while people are at home and the attendance is far more than we expected. Sometimes some difficulties force use for new challenges and new opportunities. Once we thought we lose everything but the time healed and showed us that we might even do more things when are away.
P A R T N E R F R O M
N O R T H E R N
I R E L A N D
Kilcooley Women’s Centre has promoted the Project from the outset, to maximise all dissemination opportunities. This has included:
- Project branding.
- Social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter accounts).
- Organisational marketing (www.kilcooleywomenscentre.co.uk).
- Creation of promotion and marketing materials.
- Promotion at events, meetings, and conferences.
KWC held a Christmas event for key agencies in Bangor on 17 November 2021, where the project was promoted to policy and key decision makers from local Government, business and the education sector.
KWC will adopt the training toolkit into our mainstream training programme, utilising its results to continually develop the skills and opportunities for local people. The project will not only assist us tackle the challenges which have arisen due to the ongoing pandemic, but will enable us to provide training for the new ‘blended’ training approaches which require digital expertise for trainers.
Lock down has been very challenging. During the 18 months of this crisis, some staff has moved on to new jobs, some were clinically vulnerable so have been working from home. Lockdown has been a challenge for our team, as it has also been one of the busiest times in recent years. Rotating between working from home and in the office, the staff responded to a huge increase in requests for support, not only in relation to training but for welfare and social support for those most in need.
P A R T N E R F R O M
R O M A N I A
IEDS NGO (Together for Education and Social Development Association/Asociația Împreună pentru Educare și Dezvoltare Socială) is an organization founded on the strong belief that education is the path to evolution and social development.
We are here to inform and educate for having a developed and integrated community by also promoting and protecting human rights.
Our goal is to continue and improve our activities in the career guidance field. Our beneficiaries are vulnerable groups such as long-term unemployed, immigrants and NEETs. It is a big need for disadvantaged people to have access to career guidance services, hence we want to deliver these services out of cost because our purpose is to give equal chances for a better life to everyone.
We consider this, a big opportunity to develop a strong system of career personalized guidance for helping people from vulnerable groups. In this strong partnership we can create a multicultural and divers program suitable for people all over the world, taking into account their backgrounds.
It was a difficult time, during this pandemic, because we missed face to face meeting. It was a big challenge to work with people when they do not have less technological information’s or devices to connect to. We had to postpone some activities and meetings due to restrictions, but we never gave up on keeping our people closed to us. Was a difficult period for all of us, but with laughs and strong will, we overcame it. Now we are hoping for the best. Having a small and united community, the physical interaction was missed. The team is not big but is a strong one. Although we needed to meet more on zoom, we understood how important is our mission. We remained positive and we worked on to develop and implement our projects and activities for people in need.
How we chose the partners
All countries around Europe are struggling with almost the same issues that emerged after COVID-19. Across Europe, the most affected were Italy and Spain. Therefore, this partnership was formed from the need to cooperate based on the needs of this critical situation. One of our objectives is to bring all the expertise and experience of our partners to come with innovative solutions to overcome this period.
Kilcooley Women’s Centre – has led numerous Erasmus + programs previously and engaged in many EU projects. The KWC team can bring financial management and administrative experience to the project delivery team. KWC has extensive employability projects, experience in delivering and supporting long-term unemployed persons re-entering the workforce in Northern Ireland, including the delivery of regional European Social Fund projects.
Social Life Volunteers – (Turkey)- has experience in Erasmus+ and has partnered with Kilcooley Women’s Centre on several Erasmus+ programs previously and have an established relationship and rapport.
Open Europe (Spain) – has a vast experience in Erasmus+ and has partnered Kilcooley Women’s Centre on many Erasmus+ programs previously and have an established relationship and rapport. They have experience working with youth and adult education, employability, and language development and exchanges.
ARES – Italy (Italy) – provides services both for private and public organizations. It is an accredited body for VET by the Italian Region of Molise. It has a quality system and certification according to the ISO 9001:2008 for training and services. Its principal expertise is in CAREER GUIDANCE for people of different ages and employment conditions.
IEDS (Romania) – is a new organization to Erasmus+. Through the activity of its members and volunteers, it comes to the aid of people in difficulty so they can develop professionally, socially, and personally by facilitating access to education and information. Due to the pandemic, the region of Bihor is facing unemployability.
The scope of the association is to facilitate the access of vulnerable people to information and education in order to gain knowledge, abilities, and skills enabling them to have a decent and active life at the personal, family, and community level in full accordance with the rights ensuring their personal development and social inclusion.
The European Commission is not responsible for the content of this publication
