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Ejo4youth
Effective Job Orientation Support by Visualizing Potentials

Programme
Erasmus+
Project number
2021-2-TR01-KA220-YOU-000051418
Key Action
Partnerships for cooperation and exchanges of practices
Action Type
Cooperation partnerships in youth
Topics
Youth employability | Career guidance | Creating new, innovative or joint curricula or courses
Duration
Start date 01-05-2022
End date 30-04-2024
EU Grant
EUR 159.096,58

About the project

Since 2010, youth participation in the labour market has been a major concern on the EU policy agenda. Youth unemployment is more sensitive to economic fluctuations than adult unemployment and has risen significantly since the global recession. In Türkiye in particular, the youth labour market has been characterised by high levels of unemployment and inactivity.

The project “EJO4YOUTH – Effective Job Orientation for Youth” was designed to respond to these challenges by offering disadvantaged young people opportunities to improve their key competences and employability through non-formal learning methods. In line with the 2020 Council Recommendation on youth employment, the project focused on enhancing young people’s participation in the labour market and in society.

The consortium brought together partners with solid experience in training, guidance and youth work, allowing for the implementation of a holistic and well-structured methodology that was accessible to all young people, regardless of their educational or vocational background. Through EJO4YOUTH, we contributed to the employability and social inclusion of disadvantaged youth in several European countries.

Objectives

The primary objective of EJO4YOUTH was to enhance the vocational and professional skills of disadvantaged young people through career counselling based on symbol scenarios (e.g. planning roadmap, life roadmap). The project specifically targeted youth from rural areas and regions with geographical obstacles, helping them to build clear pathways for education, training and employment.

More specifically, the project aimed to:

  • Support disadvantaged young people in clarifying their life and career goals, recognising their strengths and planning realistic next steps.
  • Enable trainers, youth workers and career counsellors to design and implement innovative, symbol-based approaches in career guidance.
  • Empower youth workers, trainers and counsellors to understand and apply a competence-based approach in youth work.
  • Introduce and integrate the ETS competence model for international youth workers into daily practice.
  • Encourage the use of competence self-assessment tools to make non-formal and informal learning more visible.
  • Ultimately, increase employability, social inclusion and active citizenship among disadvantaged youth.

Activities

To achieve these objectives, the project implemented a coherent set of activities structured around three main project results:

PR1 – EJO4Youth blended learning approach and competence profile
Development of a competence profile for professional counsellors working with young people. This profile defined the skills and attitudes required for a professional career orientation method in youth work across different countries and formed the basis for the blended learning approach.

PR2 – Curriculum and toolset for face-to-face training based on Symbolwork
Design and delivery of a curriculum and toolset for face-to-face training of youth workers and counsellors, using the Symbolwork approach. Within this framework, professionals were trained to apply interactive, visual and symbol-based techniques in career counselling, improving the quality and impact of their support for disadvantaged youth.

PR3 – Development of distance training courses for professionals
Conversion of the PR2 face-to-face training into a distance learning format, creating an online course that made the methodology accessible to a wider group of trainers and counsellors, including those unable to attend in-person sessions.

Within these project results, EJO4YOUTH also delivered:

  • A train-the-trainer course for youth workers in VET providers, NGOs, youth centres and schools, structured as a coherent unit of learning outcomes and aligned with ECVET principles.
  • Allocation of ECVET credits to the course after comparison with existing qualifications and training programmes in the partner countries.
  • A Europass Certificate Supplement to support transparent recognition of the learning outcomes achieved by participating professionals.
  • An implementation and recognition plan outlining how to identify and validate the skills and competences that young people acquire through non-formal and informal learning, using tools such as Europass, ECVET and Youthpass, and proposing their integration into national strategy action plans.

Project partners

  • Düzce Provincial Special Administration - 🇹🇷 Türkiye
  • Compass - Beratung, Begleitung und Training gemeinnützige GmbH - 🇦🇹 Austria
  • Consultoría De Innovación Social - 🇪🇸 Spain 
  • Hafelekar Unternehmensberatung Schober Gmbh - 🇦🇹 Austria 
  • Rogers Személyközpontú Oktatásért Alapítvány - 🇭🇺 Hungary

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Turkish National Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.