Back to Work

The Back to Work project concretely addresses the national priority by developing the validation and recognition of knowledge and competencies unemployed peopled have previously acquired, in different contexts, as part of the employment services, in order to facilitate better matching between needs and competencies on the labour market.

To unemployed people, including returning migrants facing unemployment, are offered counselling and support services within the local employment offices, but these services are not enough adapted to go into deep supporting the reflection and validation of the real competencies the workers have.

The general aim of the Back to Work project is to develop the validation and recognition of competences practice as part of the counselling services offered by the local employment offices with the view of improving their counselling services for unemployed and increasing the chances of efficient matching on the labour market.

Several objectives fall under this aim:

- to raise awareness on the importance of validation and recognition of competences practice in the context of promoting efficient matching between needs and skills/ competences on the labour market;

- to develop useful and easy-to-use counselling instruments that facilitate validation of prior learning outcomes and their match with job opportunities on the current labour market;

- to enable employment offices' counsellors, NGO representatives and assessors in assessment centres to use these instruments;

- to permit exchange of best practices in the field of validation of prior learning outcomes and counselling services for unemployed between the partner countries.

The project will build on the expertise of the partner organizations, ensuring their active involvement throughout the project. The partnership consists of 7 organizations from 6 different countries, representing a mix of Northern and Southern, Eastern and Western EU Member States, old Members and newcomers, some with consistent experience in competence assessment, others having recently started. The background of the organisations themselves is also varied covering both the public and private sector; some have a wide range of experiences in international cooperation, others are novice in the field.

The main outcomes of the project are: a survey report, the training concept, a counselling instrument for validating the competences of unemployed and migrants.

Most of the unemployed people and returning migrants are people with low level of qualification (and thus they were the first ones to be left away in the time of economic compression), so, the validation process that will be adapted and further developed within the “Back to work” project will be relevant for this wider target group, and even for countries like DK, with low level of migration and unemployment.

Mit dem Projekt „Back to Work“ wird beabsichtigt, ein Schema zur Validierung und Anerkennung von Kompetenzen zu entwickeln, welche erwerbslose Menschen unter verschiedenen Lebensumständen sowie durch die Teilnahme an Dienstleistungen für Arbeitslose erworben haben. Ziel ist es, die Chancen auf eine größere Übereinstimmung von Arbeitsmarktanforderungen und vorhandenen Kompetenzen zu erhöhen.

Für Arbeitslose und zurückkehrende Migranten, die von Arbeitslosigkeit bedroht sind, gibt es Beratungs- und Unterstützungsangebote in den lokalen Arbeitsagenturen. Diese Angebote sind jedoch nicht hinreichend ausdifferenziert, um die tatsächlich vorhandenen Kompetenzen von Arbeitnehmer/innen einer tiefergehenden Reflexion und Validierung zugänglich machen zu können.

Das Projekt hat zum Ziel, die bisher angebotenen Beratungsdienstleistungen um ein Angebot zur Validierung und Anerkennung von tatsächlich vorhandenen Kompetenzen zu erweitern. Das Beratungsangebot soll sich an den Potentialen und Bedürfnissen der von Arbeitslosigkeit bedrohten Menschen orientieren. Die Validierung von non-formal und informal erworbenen Kompetenzen bietet eine Möglichkeit, die Rückkehr in den Arbeitsmarkt zu verkürzen.

Das Projekt versucht, Lösungen für Arbeitslose anzubieten, indem es Instrumente entwickelt, welche die Anerkennung und Validierung von Kompetenzen unterstützen. Die Projektaktivitäten zielen darauf ab, Berater/innen in die Lage zu versetzen, die Instrumente umfassend und flexibel anzuwenden.

Back to Work beabsichtigt einen Transfer der Innovationen, die in den folgenden Projekten entwickelt wurden: VINEPAC (www.vinepac.eu), ACCED (www.acced.euproject.org), FamCompass (www.famcompass.eu ).