Foreword
“Investment in education and training for skills development is of fundamental importance for stimulating growth, as these are the skills that determine Europe’s ability to increase productivity … European systems of education and training do not always focus on the relevant skills for employability and do not collaborate sufficiently with companies or employers to bring the learning process together with vocational reality. The gap between supply and demand for skills is a growing concern for the competitiveness of European industry… In the long term, skills can foster innovation and growth, help to move up the value ladder, boost the development of high level of skills in the Union and influence the evolution of the labour market… “, COM (2012) 582.
It is from this observation that among the priorities of the European Union in the “Europe 2020” strategy and the new Erasmus+ programme, particular attention has been paid to the fight against youth unemployment and to the support of initiatives to ease the transition from full-time education to working life, combining the promotion of learning in the workplace, the development of partnerships between multidisciplinary bodies and agencies, and increased investment in youth mobility.
“Erasmus+: The renewal of transnational mobility, a new opportunity for people looking to enter the labour market and for businesses” is a project that is at the intersection of these three areas of development. It aims to make a methodological contribution to the questions posed by life-long learning and current practices for counselling and career guidance by encouraging the long-term insertion into the job market of people in career transition through successful transnational mobility experiences recognised by all stakeholders of the labour market.
Objectives & Results
“Erasmus+: The renewal of transnational mobility, a new opportunity for people looking to enter the labour market and for businesses.” Erasmus+ RMT is a project born from the experiences that come from the implementation and management of mobility projects by members of the partnership over many years in a framework of national and regional and European funding to support and enhance the employability of people looking to enter or get back into the labour market.
Developed over a two year period, one of the project’s major objectives is the finalisation of a “methodological toolkit for transnational mobility”, both complementary to European tools for the accreditation of transnational internship experiences and innovative thanks to its methodological basis.
The first methodological advance is to propose activities for the “capitalisation of experiences” prior to and throughout the guidance process, thereby innovating on current practices which traditionally takes place at the end of the process.
The second novelty lies in the mix of contributions that define the contents because the theoretical approach will be derived from the results of two comparative research studies that will be conducted in the five countries represented in the partnership: firstly, to list the European practices and tools developed during in recent years concerning transnational mobility. Secondly, to investigate the views of European companies about the added value of benefits and skills acquired by participants in an international context.
In line with the priorities of the European Union and the impetus of life-long learning, the RMT project will:
– Contribute to the recognition of periods of mobility as a means to acquire qualifications and develop personal and professional capacities,
– Increase / enhance the employability of target groups looking to enter the job market – students, postgraduate students, adult jobseekers – by providing guidance pathways which permit a full valorisation of experiences gained after a period of mobility,
– Provide advisors, trainers and, more transversally to European service providers in the area of careers and job market guidance, recognised support tools to enable them to make full use of pedagogical resources and to integrate them in their professional activities,
– Strengthen the involvement of European businesses in particular before the mobility experience in order to identify common detailed assessment methods and the certification of transnational skills, usable by all stakeholders in careers and job market guidance,
– Promote the harmonisation of current practice and improve the quality of collaboration between inter- and intra-country organisations in the implementation of transnational mobility experiences.
European Network
To integrate the cross-sectorial strategic dimension promoted by the Erasmus + programme, the “Erasmus+ RMT” Project includes 7 qualified partners from fields of activities that are both diversified and complementary – education, carers guidance and access to employment, development of public policies – with shared goals and a common area of intervention: implementing local and transnational initiatives to improve the skills and employability of groups looking to gain access to the labour market by involving stakeholders from the world of work and especially businesses, in this process.
The partnership is also based on the stability of collaborations established over a number of years, identifying complementary ways of working and synergies between our fields of activities. Thus the project, coordinated by IERF of Paris, benefits from the expertise of two public bodies from ‘Ile de France,’ the ” Regional Department for European and International Partnerships,” and the Nanterre Centre for Employment and Training in addition to 4 four European partners – CEDIT from Italy, BERLINK from Germany, ESMOVIA from Spain and EPN from the United Kingdom – all of who have been involved in the management and implementation of Leonardo da Vinci and European Social Fund projects, as well as being active in the development of comparative European research and in supporting the mobility of highly diverse target groups.
Activities
To achieve the planned results and disseminate them during and after the implementation of the project, the programme of work for the “Erasmus+ RMT” project includes the production of five deliverables and two major dissemination events:
The “Erasmus+ RMT” Website: this communication system has been designed to allow all direct and indirect recipients to discover the purpose of the project and follow he progress and results of the different phases via the News section and the dedicated Facebook page. Accessible for a period of ten years, it will also allow the download of intellectual outputs over and above the contractual duration of the project thereby encouraging dissemination and sustainability.
The cross European compendia of good practice and the methodological toolkit for transnational vocational mobility : Three comparative research activities are planned within the “Erasmus+ RMT” project: The first is to report on the current practice of support professionals for transnational mobility in the five countries of the partnership. The results of this research will be presented in the ” Cross European best practice compendium of tools for transnational mobility.” The second proposes to examine the added value of mobility experiences from the point of view of European businesses, both in terms of the benefits and the professional development of the participants. The results of the survey will be published in the “Cross European best practice compendium of host businesses: perspectives on the valorisation and capitalisation of the benefits of transnational mobility”. Finally, the range of bibliographic research and country-specific contributions will allow the production of a “methodological toolkit for transnational vocational mobility”, a guide focused how to valorise and capitalise on the benefits of transnational mobility, aimed at support professionals and candidates prior to departure.
These outputs, available in five languages of the partnership, will be uploaded to the Products Section along with a summary of each individual deliverable.
A “Project Assessment Report” will be managed and produced by the Ile-de-France Regional Council. This will outline the methodology and the assessment / monitoring tools developed during the project. This will be developed throughout the full contractual life of the project and the report will be a “transferable tool” for the implementation of similar cooperative initiatives or programmes. Aimed at underpinning the qualitative implementation of the activities and relevance of the results, this process, written in French, will be an integral part of the Final “Erasmus+ RMT” Project Report “ and will be available on request from the Ile-de-France Regional Council.
Dissemination Events : Two end of project seminars for the dissemination of the results are planned in Paris in June 2016. Organised by the Ile-de-France Regional Council, the first seminar is intended primarily for public and private bodies, responsible for employment and training as well as support professionals involved in the guidance and support of groups looking to enter the labour market and and mobility service providers.
The second organised by the Nanterre Centre of Employment and Training, will primarily target the businesses that have participated in the surveys in addition to territorial policy decision makers in regard to employment.