-
Home
-
European Projects
-
Sharing and Collaboration Offering Practice Exchan..
Sharing and Collaboration Offering Practice Exchange - Strategic Partnership Supporting the Exchange of Good Practices
Start date: Nov 1, 2016,
End date: Oct 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
The Council of the European Union (2009) has as a key strategic objective the promotion of equity, social cohesion and active citizenship. It outlines that 'education and training policy should enable all citizens, irrespective of their personal, social or economic circumstances to acquire, update and develop over a lifetime both job-specific skills and the key competencies needed for their employability and to foster further learning, active citizenship and inter cultural dialogue' (pg. 119/4). It also sates that all learners including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with specific needs complete their education through second chance systems and more personalised learning. This project seeks to share best practice methods and approaches which could be adapted to meet the needs of job seekers, particularly those aged 18-24yrs who are engaged in varying levels of drug use. The SCOPE project aims to develop a transnational partnership with organisations working in an employment, guidance and/or VET setting with client’s who have drug misuse problems, and who are currently providing services to enable them to re-integrate into society through education, training and employment progression pathways. The overarching aim of this partnership will be to share current practices, methods and experiences with similar EU organisations, with a view to establishing a model of best practice and guidelines for implementation, that could potentially be piloted in VET associated organisations.A core objective will be to document and strengthen quality standards in career guidance and job seeking support for this extremely marginalised group. Partners will use appropriate opportunities to disseminate, create awareness, start dialogue and highlight best practices with the main objective of improving the VET and employment focused services delivered to clients engaged in some level of drug use, from the young unemployed to clients recovering from misuse. These clients should be able to access services which can respond to their needs and enable them to avail of VET and employment, and ultimately improve their quality of life and income. The will be achieved through the following actions:1. Sharing knowledge, visiting/understanding best practice approaches: partners will identify best practices in their own country which could a) be transferred from drug services into employment services and b) be transferred geographically to other EU countries. Partners will learn about these best practices at each transnational meeting through visits to the organisation providing the service, through observation, or through a presentation. 2. Identifying elements of each approach which could be replicated in partner countries: Partners will discuss if the practice is transferable, what elements could be transferred and what types of adaptations would be required for the practice to be replicated in the employment service and in the various partner countries. 3. Building a model of best practice in terms of approach, activity, skills of practitioners, specific interventions: Partner will discuss not only the transferability of the practice but also the skills required by the practitioner to implement the approach.4. Building a network: a group of relevant stakeholders from each partner country, including guidance practitioners, job seekers, service managers and other interested organisations will be invited to participate in focus groups so as to inform the model of best practices from the bottom-up. A total of forty two focus groups will take place across the lifetime of the project.5. Identification and review of quality standards in terms of guidance provision for this client group: Quality standards in Guidance provision e.g. EGUIDE QA, European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN) will be reviewed and their appropriateness for this client group will be established. Recommendations for adaptations to existing quality standards in Guidance will be made. 6. dissemination in partner countries (Website, publication, seminar): a website and dissemination materials will be produced outlining the best practices and justification for their incorporation into employment services Six organisations representing six countries (Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Romania, Germany and Italy) will participate including VET providers, employment services, community based organisations, and research consultancies. The Impact of this project will be at service delivery level, most specifically in terms of career guidance and VET. Partner organisations will gain increased capacity in terms of appropriate services and understanding of client needs. The potential impact on job seekers in the longer-term is increased well-being both physical and psychological, and improved support enabling access to VET and quality sustainable employment.