Category: News

The CONNETCT Platform (Intellectual Output 4)   for SYMPATIC Project is now up and running. The  platform aims at bringing together employers in a specific sector, tutors and young job seekers. The employers will be able to create their profile and announce their vacancies in a structured way enlisting the specific soft and hard skills required. Young job seekers will be able to create their profile and enlist  their soft and hard skills gained during  their mobilities and VET programs. The tutors will also be able to create their profile enlisting their specialization and making themselves available for online support to young seekers. The platform will   be able to make a match between job seekers and vacancies based on the skills required.

The CONNECT Platform was presented during the online meeting on the 22^nd of September 2021 . A short guide on how to use the CONNECT Platform was also distributed to the partners.

In order to register, log in and use  the main function of the platform follow  the  steps:

1. Type the project’s web page https://sympatic.projectsgallery.eu/
2. Click on CONNECT   Platform
3. Click on Register to the top left of the page and click on Register. Add all your details(fields with an asterisk are mandatory) and then click on REGISTER.
4. Click on Login. Type Username and Password and click on remember Me. Click on LOG IN
5. In order to post your public profile Click on Post my Public Profile and select Post my Job Coach Profile. Add your details. All fields with an asterisk are mandatory. Click on SUBMIT. In the same way I can post as a Mentor or a Candidate.
6. If you wish to search for some information you click on the Search Tab  and you select either Candidates, Job Coach, Mentor, Opportunity. Then Select  the Country from the scroll down list and then the Industry from the scroll down list and click on APPLY FILTER.
7. If you wish to Post an Opportunity you can click on the Post an Opportunity tab  then you type , Short Title, Description, Select Type, County, Industry, Contact details(all these fields are mandatory) and you click on Submit.
8. All members (Job coach, Mentor, Candidates) can like someone, send a friend request and communicate with each other via email.

If you want more information about the project please visit https://sympatic.projectsgallery.eu/ or contact us on

Stay  connected with Mentors, Job Coaches, Young people and Job Opportunities!!! Try the  CONNECT  Platform

 

 

MENTOR KIT

 

NEWS BY CIOFS-FP

The Mentor is a senior and experienced professional who plays a fundamental role in guaranteeing the educational effectiveness of Work-Based Learning (WBL) experiences, as he accompanies the young mentee throughout the whole training path, supervising the activities and supporting the integration within the company.

Traditionally, mentorship is seen as a one-directional relationship in which the mentor passes knowledge down to the mentee.

Nevertheless, the workforce is nowadays largely diversified and the labour market is fluid (millennials are estimated to change job every 18 months to 3 years, often changing industries completely)

These elements imply a widening of backgrounds, needs and objectives, put into question the traditional interpretation of mentoring dynamics.

For this reason, the European project SYMPATIC has developed a Kit for Mentors where mentees will not be presented as mere vessels that knowledge is poured into passively but, rather, as valuable human assets to attract and train in to order face the challenges of nowadays’ world of work.

In this sense, international mobility can be an essential element for the growth of the young people.

Specifically, in the mentor kit has been carried out an analysis of the context and international mobility, that can be used as a tool and catalyst for professional integration. Furthermore, the kit aims at delivering to mentors the basics soft skills development and mentoring schemes with the young people and the job coach, the person interacting regularly with the mentor, the tutor and the young person.

The Mentor Kit is translated into five languages ​​(English, Greek, German, French and Italian) and it is public and open access on the site of the European project SYMPATIC, co-financed by the Erasmus+ program. It can be found at the link: https://sympatic.projectsgallery.eu/it/prodotti-intellettuali/

 

This training was developed within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA2 project #SYMPATIC, funded by the Erasmus+ France / Education & Training Agency and led by Eurocircle (France) with the participation of its five European partners Ubus (Germany), MetropolisNet (Germany), Ciofs FP (Italy), ADICE (France) and EDITC – Education and Information Technology Centre (Cyprus).

During the 3 days of training, more than a dozen youth and international mobility professionals were able to meet and exchange ideas virtually. They benefited from a training to become a job coach (the job coach is the professional who sends young people abroad for a mobility and / or the person in charge of vocational training) in order to strengthen their support to young participants in international mobility in their socio-professional integration. 

This training allowed various European professionals to work in a spirit of co-construction and experience sharing on the definition and role of a job coach, to share possible tools for assessing mobility competences and to exchange on the importance of social networks in the recruitment process. 

On the programme of the three days led by the partners Ubus and ADICE:

Day 1 – Role of the Job Coach

• Presentation of the phases of the Job Coach support during the various mobility actions,
• Group activities and role plays (writing a job offer for a job coach to identify key competences, experiences and tasks; role-playing on what the job coach should do in different situations)

Day 2 – Skills assessment 

• Key competences: identification and valorisation
• 7 scenarios: presentation of the 7 possibilities for a young person after a mobility (entrepreneurship, higher education/ETP, moving abroad, validation of experience, working in the public service, finding a job, participation in another mobility/ETP programme…).
• How to help participants to link their competences to their future scenario? What tools can be used? 
• Group activities and role plays (various profiles of participants: job coach guide through key competences, future scenarios and tools; testimonies of former mobility participants on the impact of mobility on their competences and their future project; adaptation of the 7 scenarios in the project partner countries)

Day 3 – Social networks 

• • Why and how to use social networks?
  • How to control your digital identity? 
  • Recommendations to improve the impact and quality of the use of social networks
• Group activities and role plays (What should a job coach do in different situations?; pitch elevator)

Want to know more? You will soon be able to access the Mobility Pack, which will deepen the various topics covered in this training course. 

In March 2020, when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic and lockdown measures were put in place in the majority of countries worldwide, it became clear that the health crisis would also cause a severe economic crisis. The economic crisis especially hit the branches of tourism, leisure and gastronomy but also many others. Individuals who were most affected were those employed in these branches, low skilled workers and also young people or graduates who were about to enter the labour market.  In general, the economic crisis and the major changes in the way of working, have changed the career expectation and employment situation of many people drastically while at the same time the structures that usually offer Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) to persons in situations of reorientation or job loss were equally affected by the social distancing measures and not able to offer the services as they usually did. 

Before the pandemic, in most countries IAG services were offered in person and in the premises of the organisation while structures for remote or e-guidance were very rare or not well developed. So, at a time when it became very important for many people to have easy access to get career support, information about finding jobs or guidance on upskilling and retraining, many services needed to improvise and worked hard to respond to the needs and find new ways of service provision. In the beginning this meant an increased use of telephone and e-mail, but later on also online one-to-one counselling, webinars, online job fairs or YouTube tutorials related to career guidance and others.

 The successful implementation of these new digital services was highly dependent on the digital skills or readiness of practitioners to work and learn with the new tools, having the capacity to clarify consequences for data protection of these new measures and having financial resources available to introduce new tools or produce content.

The table below shows the results of an international survey from June-August 2020, published by Cedefop, giving an orientation which kind of career guidance activities were adapted remotely and which were discontinued:

Graphic Source: Cedefop; European Commission; ETF; ICCDPP; ILO; OECD; UNESCO (2020). Career guidance policy and practice in the pandemic: results of a joint international survey –June to August 2020.Luxembourg. Page 47

After about one year of offering IAG remotely and often online in different and new formats it is clear that there were steep learning curves of services and practitioners on digital skills and valuable experiences were gained. But so far little can be said in which way the online environment impacts the effectiveness of guidance or how ‘good practice’ of guidance is defined in an online environment and research will need to be done. An obvious risk seems that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on effective-guidance practice, self-reflection of practitioners and collegial advice is falling short as already before the crisis this was expressed as a lack by many practitioners and with all the new challenges time dedicated to learning and training will be quickly filled with gaining further digital competences.

Another challenge that many practitioners faced already before the crisis, was the very high number of clients, they accompanied and not enough time to provide everyone with the support needed. With the ongoing economic crisis these numbers will stay high or even increase. 

The Erasmus+ Policy Experimentation project Good E-Guidance Stories which started in March 2021 wants to respond the current challenges in several ways. It will work with the Artificial Intelligence powered platform Jobiri that for example provides training modules and advice for job searchers, it can match CVs with job postings and also support practitioners in having up to date labour market analysis available. Ideally, this will free up practitioners’ time for actual counselling and personal exchange with clients. Additionally, the same awareness is given to high quality training for practitioners on digital competences as well as on practitioner competences for effective guidance and the building of a transnational Community of Practice. 

Young people and graduates are strongly affected by the crisis losing jobs or struggling to enter the labour market, the need of career guidance rises in many aspects and its form of delivery changed completely. E-guidance and digital IAG services are the key to keep contact with the target group and give hope and relevant, useful guidance. Job coaches have then to be equipped with appropriate tools and a skillset that allow for an accurate online offer.

Eventually, the SYMPATIC project is offering first of all an innovative and Continuing Professional Development courses for practitioners. In the first week of May 2021 practitioners will come together for a three-day training for Job Coaches with a focus on how to best support and accompany young adults that will go on an international mobility and after their return in their professional orientation or finding a job or training. It answers a need for youth practitioners to be more trained on professional possibilities and opportunities for young people and that need is even more an emergency nowadays when the crisis is causing many difficulties to fulfill a professional project. Later, SYMPATIC Connect Platform will allow for a first step into the digitalization of the relations and IAG services between job coaches, young people and mentors in Cyprus, Germany, Italy and France. 

 

Sources:

OECD (2021), Career Guidance for Adults in a Changing World of Work. Getting Skills Right. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/25206125

Cedefop; European Commission; ETF; ICCDPP; ILO; OECD; UNESCO (2020). Career guidance policy and practice in the pandemic: results of a joint international survey – June to August 2020.Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/318103 

Good Guidance Stories 2.0, Methodological Concept (2019): https://goodguidancestories.org/index.php/project/resources/methodological-concept/ 

Good E-Guidance Stories. Erasmus+ Results Platform: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/626152-EPP-1-2020-2-DE-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY

Our European project SYMPATIC is focusing not only on the mentoring process in companies but also on the role of the job coach in order to guide and facilitate professional integration of young people. 

The job coach has even more a key role to play these coming years in regards with the current international pandemic and the changes that our societies are faced with.

Job coaching and emerging professions: adapting to the health crisis

Faced with the new challenges related to the pandemic that we have been going through for a year now, the labour market seems to be adapting to the new dynamics of the crisis with increasing demand in the medical and social environment. The job coach, a key person in advising and accompanying young people in their professional integration, needs to keep track with this rapid evolution in the working environment in order to adapt coaching strategies.

The tourism, catering and cultural professions being strongly affected by this new context, it is then necessary to look for new open windows for young people entering the job market. The medical, construction, digital and delivery fields are now among the most in-demand and are at the forefront of the scene.

The digital, web design and e-commerce sectors, which were already booming before the crisis, and social support sector (children-care, elderly-care, etc.) have been expanding for several months. Added to these areas, there are the so-called “stable” professions, i.e. not so much affected by the crisis such as construction or energy transition.

Thus, in the face of these new opportunities and the reality of the health crisis, job coaching has to become also a support for young people in identifying and promoting transferable and adaptable skills. Are these demanding professional areas attractive for young people? Which skills are transferable to these new sectors? Are the changes in working methods such as home working or smart working appropriate to the profile of the young coachees?

Eventually, volunteerism is also fashionable nowadays with an increase in demand, particularly from young people facing difficulties in finding work and having a growing desire for solidarity and commitment to help others. In this sense, young people willing to involve in this way can discover and develop new professional and interpersonal skills, while making themselves useful to society. Beyond the search for employment, the job coach has to facilitate constructive and useful alternatives for the target group. 

 

New working practices for the job coach

Job coaching is constantly evolving in its practice in light of societal changes. The job coach has also to adapt oneself to the current challenges and needs to acquire new digital skills. The example of new and varied tools for remote communication allows the job coach to keep the link with young people in order to maintain a trustful relationship. 

However, the 2020-2021 health crisis has also highlighted the digital gap that already exists for some young audiences and a lack of access to IT tools that is spreading throughout society. Even with a relatively young target group, adapting to a completely digital world, with online and distant contacts, remains a significant challenge.

Consequently, job coaches are keen to enable their audience to be trained in basic digital tools in order to enable remote communication that can lead to online skills workshops or online pilot tests for job interviews. The latter are becoming a norm in a growing number of professional sectors. Currently, for those who prefer face-to-face contact, it is always possible to organise meetings between young people and their job coaches in outdoor environments or in offices, while respecting the sanitarian measures. These meetings have to be reduced and carefully organised. They allow also for a reduction of social isolation that some young people suffer from. Of course, in-between face to face meetings, it is important to keep the link with an online connexion.  

Eventually, faced with an uncertain future, professional disorientation or even psychological fragility can be an additional difficulty to overcome. A combination of online group workshops, individual support and individual/ collective empowerment techniques are therefore essential to be developed in the coaching process, both on a professional and psychological level. 

 

The SYMPATIC project: tools and trainings to be equipped during a pandemic

Today more than ever, it is essential that the job coach maintains both professional and social support. At social level, in order to offer stability and guidance, the job coach should encourage remote and regular social interactions and initiatives for personal development. At professional level, reinforced relations with companies, associations and institutions are necessary to maintain in order to keep an eye on professional and training opportunities. 

To conclude, projects combining job coaching and mentoring in companies, such as SYMPATIC, are essential as they can play on both sides, social and professional in order to bring support to a target group of young people that are facing integration difficulties. 

Want to know more about job coaching and mentoring in SYMPATIC? 

Contact us !

 European perspectives for youth guidance in training and work

In times of change and confusion, a trustful relationship with experienced mentors is becoming a decisive factor for young people in their search for training, further education and jobs.

Technological change, the globalised division of labour and the pandemic are constantly creating new occupational profiles. These developments are confronting those who are seeking professional orientation with new challenges in the course of their professional biography. The answers and solutions are no longer found only on the local labour market. Willingness to be mobile is becoming a key competence!

In many EU countries, job coaches and tutors therefore play an increasingly important role in the vocational orientation of young people.

This becomes particularly clear when it comes to organising cross-border internships or volunteering projects.

• What specific challenges do job coaches and tutors face when accompanying young people on an internship (or a volunteering project) abroad, in the preparation phase, during the stay in a company in the target country or during the follow-up phase?
• What special competences does this work require on the part of the job coaches and tutors?
• Which contents and formats for training are suitable to prepare job coaches and tutors for this complex task?

These and other questions are addressed by the strategic partnership SYMPATIC. Within the framework of SYMPATIC, six organisations and companies from France, Italy, Cyprus and Germany cooperate with many years of experience in the implementation of cross-border volunteering and vocational education and training projects.

To achieve its objectives, the SYMPATIC partnership focuses on

• the development of a detailed study on the reality of work and the required profiles (hard and soft skills) using the example of the tourism sector,
• the development and implementation of training modules for tutors and job coaches to accompany young people in international work placements and volunteering activities,
• the development of a handbook to support tutors and job coaches in accompanying young people in cross-border volunteering and vocational education and training projects,
• the creation of a pool of companies in the participating partner regions that are willing to host trainees and volunteers from other European countries,
• the creation of a matching platform with the aim of linking the needs of young people with the needs of companies.

Especially now in times of the pandemic, many people are forced to reorientate themselves after a job loss and to further develop their professional biography. Against this background, the partnership focuses on the development of digital coaching services.

Coming soon in 2021: a training for tutors:

Would you like to be a tutor?

Would you like to freely involve your companies into this innovative project?

Contact us!

How can we make internships and apprenticeships more attractive to both employers and students? That’s our topic of discussion during our SYMPATIC online meeting on the 23rd of September!  Partners exchanged views on the materials developed  for Intellectual Output 2: Tutor’s Guide. The focus is on how to make the guide truly valuable for tutors making the mobilities attractive for employers and beneficial to participants.

Partners met on Zoom to discuss the tutor’s kit content. The leading organization C.I.O.F.S. FORMAZIONE PROFESSIONALE presented the main objectives of the tutor’s kit followed by a discussion on the content, presentation format and allocation of work.

The partners will meet online again in September to review the progress of the development of the content and proceed with the next steps.

The Kick off meeting was held in Marseille at the premises of Eurocircle, coordinator of the project on October 14th and 15th 2019.

Partners detailed step by step all the deliverables to produce and agreed on the first steps of the project to be aligned with the recommendations of the National Agency.

A first design of the platform was presented in order to ensure the sustainability of it and its use after the project ends.

Discussions on dissemination and quality control were also useful in order to meet the foreseen qualitative and quantitative indicators.

The next meeting will be in Rome at the premises of Ciofs-FP in May 18th and 19^th 2020.