The challenge…
There are 94m young people between 15 and 29 years in Europe.
Young people are a fundamental asset of our economies and socie?es.
Young people are a vast source of poten?al and talent.
(Mascherini et al, 2012)
What can be done to maximise this poten5al? © The Centre for Effec?ve Services 2015
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Aim for the presenta5on
1. Report on findings from a European Commission Expert Group
2. Discuss the contribu?on of non-‐formal learning to employability
3. Outline why it is important to address employment amongst other issues
4. Provide illustra?ve examples of prac?ce from across Europe
5. Make the case more generally for an evidence-‐informed approach to youth work prac?ce
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hTp://ec.europa.eu/youth/library/index_en.htm
The task of the Expert Group was to examine how to promote the crea?vity and innova?ve capacity of young people, by iden?fying competences and skills acquired through non formal and informal learning relevant for employability.
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• 24 country representa?ves • Wide range of experience and exper?se • Mee?ngs supported by The Commission • Evidence-‐informed approach • 3 sub-‐groups: policy, prac?ce, research • Main deliverable – report
• Framework for ac?on • Recommenda?ons The context of the report
The Expert Group
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• Unemployment across Europe is around 11% • Youth (15-‐24) unemployment rate is about 23.% -‐ 1 in 4 in the labour market or 5.6m
• Over 50% of young people unemployed in some countries
Eurostat (2015)
• Drama?c increase since 2008 • Annual cost over €160 billion
Eurofound (2014)
Youth unemployment in the EU today
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• Low level of educa?on means three ?mes more likely to be without a job, or not in educa?on or training, compared to those with ter?ary educa?on.
• Young people with an immigra?on background are 70% more likely to be at risk than na?onals.
• Those suffering from a disability or health issues are 40% more likely to be at risk than those in good health.
• The response needs to be customised to specific groups of young people, with bespoke types of provision.
• There is a par?cular need to focus on the requirements of the labour market.
Eurofound (2014)
Differen5al effect within countries
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Crisis Reac?ons • Quality of life • Future earnings • Independence • Physical health • Mental health • Withdrawal from
poli?cs
Long term social and economic consequences
Anger
Depression Crea5vity
Common reac5ons to crisis
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If we don’t want conflict to grow…
We need to be more crea?ve...
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High level policy response
2011 Youth Opportunities Initiative
2012 Youth Employment Package
2013 Youth Initiative. €8 billion
Youth Guarantee
2014 member state action plans
2010-2018 EU Youth Strategy
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• Seven year programme will have a budget of €14.7 billion • Opportuni?es for over 4 million Europeans to study, train,
gain work experience and volunteer abroad • Support na?onal efforts to modernise Educa?on, Training,
and Youth systems. • Support for grassroots sports projects and cross-‐border
challenges such as comba?ng match-‐fixing, doping, violence and racism.
• Support transna?onal partnerships among Educa?on, Training, and Youth ins?tu?ons and organisa?ons to foster coopera?on and bridge the worlds of Educa?on and Work in order to tackle the skills gaps in Europe.
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21st Century Skills
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Employability
Life Skills SoS Skills
Requirements of the labour market
Key Competences
Competence means the proven ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social or methodological abili?es in work or study situa?ons and in professional and personal development.
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Problem solving and crea5vity are central Changes in society, in economy, in technology and media lead to ever increasing demands on flexibility. Thus novel ways to deal with persistent problems will become ever more important. Problem solving abili5es will be central in a fast developing world. Innova5on and crea5vity are at the core of problem solving © The Centre for Effec?ve Services 2015
• Innova?on and crea?vity cannot be reduced to a purely intra-‐individual concept, or to the crea?on of something ‘new and valuable’
• Instead it should be seen as the interac?on between the person and the socio-‐cultural surrounding
• Crea?vity is any act, idea or product that changes the exis?ng domain or that transforms an exis?ng domain into a new one
• It is important to be able to cul?vate this capacity in individuals, groups, communi?es and organisa?ons.
Innova5on and crea5vity
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This really is an innova?ve approach. I’m afraid we can’t do it. It’s never been done before.
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But Einstein said We cannot solve our
problems with the same thinking we used when
we created them!
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A stronger focus on social inclusion is needed at EU level to help all young people to become ac?ve members of society and to facilitate easier entry into the labour market. Regarding Youth Guarantee implementa?on, Member States should refrain from adop?ng a narrow, employment-‐centred approach but rather adopt a broader, holis?c approach which aims to also reach those who are not job-‐ready and are more difficult to reintegrate.
Eurofound Report (2015)
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2012 Eurofound Study on NEET young people: • Need to address personal barriers
and challenges before par?cipa?ng in employment programmes.
• Youth employment measures should be client centred including supported learning.
• Outreach ac?vi?es are needed to engage disfranchised young people.
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• Works through building rela?onships with young people
• Purposeful conversa?ons and engaging ac?vi?es
• Personal and social development
• Empowerment through encouraging cri?cal thinking and ac?on
• Towards a beTer, fairer society
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Non Formal Learning -‐Youth Work
Youth Wor
Youth work is mul5form and versa5le
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Widely recognised issues
• Concept of non-‐formal learning not widely known.
Council of Europe interna?onal review team
• Lack of shared knowledge of methods.
Joint Conclusions of EU Youth Conference of Lithuanian Presidency (2013) • Diversity of provision undermines coherence
France: Developing youth ini?a?ve culture, a key challenge for youth policies (2010)
• Need to improve recogni?on of youth work and non-‐formal learning outcomes
Rethinking Educa?on, SOC 476, 1.3.10
• Lack of evidence to substan?ate the work………
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Despite the weight of individual tes?monies, we experienced great difficulty in finding objec?ve evidence of the impact of services, whether in the guise of thema?c research studies by academics and independent bodies, or of evalua?ons of individual services. This problem plagued our inves?ga?ons and was recognised by many in the youth sector itself as a historic and con?nuing problem.
House of Commons Educa?on CommiTee of Inquiry into Youth Services (2011)
hTp://www.publica?ons.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmeduc/744/744i.pdf
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Prac5ce wisdom
Policy
Theory
Independent Evalua5on
Research and grey literature Consulta5on
Monitoring and evalua5on
Professional judgement
Sources of evidence
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Non-‐formal learning in contribu?ng to young peoples’ learning is recognised at an interna?onal level.
• Economic: by reducing the direct and opportunity costs of formal learning and allowing human capital to be used more produc?vely • Educa?onal: that can underpin lifelong learning and career development • Social: by improving equity and strengthening access to both further educa?on and the labour market, for disadvantaged groups, disaffected youth and older workers • Psychological: by making individuals aware of their capabili?es and valida?ng their worth.
OECD Educa?on and Training Policy Division (March 2010)
Policy
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By offering young people support, opportuni?es for non-‐formal learning, informa?on on health and well being, opportuni?es for posi?ve integra?on into the local community, youth workers are able to reduce the risks of further social exclusion linked to deteriora?ng living condi?ons and unhealthy life styles.
EACEA Publica?ons Research
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Youth work and employability
• Young people who fill in the Youthpass tend to increase their ability to reflect on and ar?culate beTer their own learning experiences • The increase in self confidence in those whose skills were recognised through the Youthpass process is an asset in terms of employment prospects.
European Commission (2009) Impact Study • Competences that youth gain through non-‐formal learning in youth organisa?ons are crucial for developing entrepreneurial skills.
European Youth Forum (2011: 5) • Increasing awareness of entrepreneurship as a career op?on and developing a set of knowledge, skills and aqtudes that are conducive to entrepreneurial behaviour, is an important goal.
OECD and European Union (2012: 12)
Policy
Policy
Research
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Irish projects suppor?ng employability
The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship is a cuqng edge, world recognised youth entrepreneurship educa?on and development programme.
Digital film training and produc?on centre offering prac?cal training programmes, to work at broadcast standards with professional digital equipment to make films.
Promotes the personal development of young people and raises environmental awareness through prac?cal environmental projects
Prac5ce wisdom
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European projects suppor?ng employability
Nefiks is a project that has been promo?ng the values of volunteering and non-‐formal educa?on in Slovenia for over 10 years. It has been doing so by mo?va?ng young people to educate in different fields and persuading employers to consider non-‐formal educa?on as a reference when geqng a job.
These Youth Competency Centres work on the common ground between free ?me, work and competence development. The inten?on is to recognize, acknowledge and further develop the competences of young people acquired in an informal way during their free ?me in order to improve their self-‐esteem and eventually also their educa?onal and labour market posi?on.
Prac5ce wisdom
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Intrinsic and extrinsic factors affec5ng the journey to employment
Employability skills, experiences, opportuni5es, and outcomes reported by survey respondents
Personal circumstances Improved pro-‐social behaviour; increased life skills; increased resilience; access to services
Emo5onal capabili5es Increased confidence and self esteem A^tudes Developed and focused career aspira?ons;
awareness and recogni?on of skills and strengths
Employability skills Increased communica?on skills; teamwork; leadership; cri?cal thinking skills; crea?vity
Qualifica5ons, educa5on and training Improved skills i.e. literacy; accredited and non-‐accredited training; interview skills; educa?onal engagement and reten?on; educa?onal progression; awareness of available employment, educa?on and training opportuni?es
Experience and involvement Work experience; civic engagement Employment Entry into employment; career guidance: career
planning; CV development; goal seqng
(Copps and Plimmer, 2013) Research
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Overarching skill categories
Skills iden5fied by young people
Outcomes iden5fied in the research literature
Skills iden5fied by employers
Personal (e.g. confidence and self-‐esteem)
• Confidence • Developed sense of self
and what you want in life
• Increased confidence and self-‐esteem
• Self-‐awareness (personal and social)
• Readiness to take on new and more diverse experiences
• Adaptability and flexibility
Interpersonal (e.g. social and communica5on skills, teamwork, asser5veness)
• People skills • Teamwork • Learn to work with
different people • Coopera?on • Tolerance in working with
others • Increased interac?on with
others
• Improved teamwork • Increased communica?on • Improved pro-‐social
Behaviour • More open to people from
diverse backgrounds • Posi?ve peer rela?onships • Enhanced leadership
• Leadership • People management and
teamwork • Influencing • Communica?on
Self-‐management skills (e.g. reliability)
• Learning to work individually
• Career direc?on
• Mo?va?on, commitment, resilience
• Increased life skills
• Innova?on and entrepreneurship
Competences in ini5a5ve and delivery (e.g. planning, problem solving, priori5sing)
• Research skills
• Cri?cal thinking skills • Planning, decision-‐making • Developed and focused
career aspira?ons
• Change management • Project management • Decision making • Time management
Research
Bamber and Power, 2013
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Four challenges going forward 1. Support non-‐formal educa?on workers, especially youth workers, who work directly with young people in a ‘cataly?c’ way, to raise the quality of provision.
2. Provide accessible and user-‐friendly tools and resources based on innova?ve approaches to improve non-‐formal educa?on and youth work, to share good prac?ce.
3. Recognise and validate non-‐formal learning in business and in the formal educa?on sectors to help providers and employers appreciate the learning and development that occurs.
4. Develop effec5ve partnerships between all stakeholders to provide a favourable opera?ng context for the work, to op?mise resources and coordinate provision.
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Macro (Structure)
Micro (Agency)
Formal and Economic Power
Civil society
Social movements
Volunteers
Social entrepreneurs
NGOs Banks
Governments
Professional bodies
Mul?-‐na?onals
Entrepreneurs
Religious groups
Unions
Ac?vists
Small to medium size businesses
Learning Networks
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• 12 European ci?es • Outreach ac?vi?es to disadvantaged youth
• Educa?on to employment transi?ons
• How to coordinate ac?ons between major stakeholders in an urban context
• Learning captured in user-‐friendly tools.
hTp://urbact.eu/?id=121
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Theory of change
Development of core skills Personal Interpersonal Self-‐management Delivery Confidence Self-‐esteem
Social skills Communica?on Teamwork
Flexibility Adaptability Perseverance Asser?veness
Cri?cal thinking Problem solving Decision-‐making Planning
Engagement in youth work ac5vi5es Non-‐formal educa?on and learning
Competence The proven ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social or methodological abili?es in
work or study situa?ons and in professional and personal and social development.
Reflec5on and evalua5on
Formal recogni5on and valida5on
Informal recogni5on of learning and development
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A final word…
The point is that in maximising the poten?al of young people, we are not star?ng from scratch. What we have to do is to come together to build on the knowledge and the prac?ces that we already have.
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Dr John Bamber
[email protected] Telephone +35314160500 www.effec5veservices.org
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