Ready for Life 3
Start date: Jun 1, 2016,
End date: May 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
Ready for Life 3 is an Erasmus+ VET project carried out by Alliance Youth Exchanges to support the secondary level vocational education graduates’ professional skills, employability, international mobility and personal development. The project follows on the footsteps of two previous Ready for Life-projects. By providing opportunities to gain work experience the project aims to meet the current societal needs by supporting young graduates’ transition into working life after their studies. The project also aims to decrease youth unemployment and the risk of social exclusion. For those interested in entrepreneurship, the project provides opportunities to do an internship with entrepreneurial emphasis. The project aims to provide international mobility opportunities especially for those young graduates who have not previously had the opportunity for it. The project also aims to support personal development, intercultural know-how and the learning of modern European languages.The project provides 50 young adults an opportunity to spend 4 to 12 weeks either in Spain, Ireland, Italy, France or Germany. The mobility period is a combination of internship and linguistic and cultural learning. The internship placements are found based on the applicants’ preferences and educational background. Participants will be sent abroad either individually or in small groups. The project will be carried out between 2016 and 2018.Participants need to be 18 to 35-year-olds and graduated from secondary vocational education within one year. Sufficient skills in English at the fewest are required. In participant selection the emphasis is given to the applicants’ background and priority is given to applicants with fewer international experiences or opportunities and to those who are unemployed or at risk of unemployment and exclusion.Allianssi Youth Exchanges will recruit and select the participants and organize necessary training before the departure. Allianssi Youth Exchanges will also participate in travel arrangements and will support participants throughout their stay abroad. After the mobility period Allianssi Youth Exchanges will instruct and support participants in their final reporting and will carry out an overall assessment of the project. Allianssi Youth Exchanges will also organize meetings for the returnees, conduct a follow-up survey for the participants with in a year after the mobility period and spread the results of the project to other young people and other relevant stakeholders.The host organizations are responsible for the internship, accommodation, language course and training arrangements. They will also provide participants support services and follow-up throughout the mobility period and take part in the final evaluation. Additionally, the host organizations will also act as contact persons to the internship companies. The internship companies will provide the participants a mentor who will be responsible for the internship, instructing the participants and evaluating the work.Each participant will set individual goals for themselves before departure. They will keep a learning diary, blog or a video blog during their stay abroad and evaluate the achieving of their goals and participate in the final evaluation. After returning to Finland, the participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences by visiting schools, fairs and pre-departure trainings.The project will primarily boost the employability of the participants and develop their professional skills. It will also support a seamless transition to the working life after studies. The entrepreneurial program will offer participants new ideas, viewpoints and competences to start their own companies. Social empowerment as well as the development of language skills and intercultural competences are the non-formal and informal outcomes of the project that will also support the young adults’ personal and professional development. The international work experience provided by the project will increase participants’ job opportunities both in Finland and abroad. In the long run the project aims to meet the needs of the needs of the globalizing labor market and strengthen the competitiveness of the vocational education. On European level the project will strengthen the participants and other stakeholders’ European identity, intercultural knowledge and understanding.