Category: Project Updates

Conference:
Crafting Employability Strategies for HE Students of Languages in Europe

There are a wide range of employment opportunities for languages graduates.

The international conference Crafting Employability Strategies for HE Students of Languages in Europe in Dublin on 7 September 2017 is an opportunity for careers professionals, employers, academic staff and teaching assistants of languages to explore how careers workshops could help third level students reach their career potential during and after university.

The Erasmus+ funded project CES&L adapted an existing Irish module for students of languages based on a needs analysis of employers of language graduates in Europe.

Workshops have been adapted by academic staff and career professionals in Europe for students of languages to assist them in their career decision making, exploring the future of work, the job search and making job applications. For more details, please see the brochure and agenda.

If you or your colleagues would like to attend this event, please register here.

Please email Elaine Browne at University College Cork if you have any further queries.

Tell your story: Storytelling, a milestone for preventing early school leaving

The second transnational meeting of the project Tell your story took place in Vienna on 14– 15 June 2017. The project consortium consisting of Pistes Solidaires (Project Coordinator, France), RIS Dvorec Rakičan (Slovenia), Rinova Limited (United Kingdom), EUROGEO VZW (Belgium) and CESIE (Italy) used the meeting to update each other on the project´s first results and reiterate the importance of storytelling in the fight against early school leaving.

Specifically, the scientific study “Telling digital stories to fight against early-school leaving” (which is our first project output) has been finalised. It summarizes the present state of research on the potential for story-telling and digital story mapping to engage young people at risk of drop out. It is available here.

Furthermore, the partnership carefully went through the next activities to be implemented, specifically regarding the development of the two learning modules (How to tell a life story & Media production skills).

Tell your story is a 2 years project co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme, Key action 2 – Strategic Partnerships for adult education.

For further information on the project please visit tellyourstorymap.eu!

Conference Announcement:

“Integration of young migrants into
formal education and employment”

Continuous migration and flight as well as still high numbers of early school leaving bring big challenges for the education systems in Europe.

The conference will examine, how early school leaving and marginalisation of children and young people with migration or flight background can be prevented and how the integration into school and vocational education systems can succeed. Special focus will be given to the group of unaccompanied minor refugees.

Detailed information will be published in the beginning of September. If you have any question please contact Franziska Steffen.

This event will take place in the frame of the European project ROBIN, which was co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. ROBIN (Reinforcing cOmpetences to Build Inclusion through New learning methodologies) enhances the exchange of best practices between relevant education professionals and develops integrated training methods that bring together learning, coaching and support by means of psychosocial activities. The project was initiated and coordinated by Terre des hommes Romania, and carried out by five organisations active in the education and social sector from Austria, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy. The Austrian partner is die Berater Unternehmensberatungs GmbH. Click here for the Project-Flyer.

Janus+: Soft Skills make the difference

Soft skills are of great importance to successful entrepreneurship. We are project partner in the EU Project Janus+ which works among other things to raise awareness regarding the meaningful use of soft skills in the modern working reality.

Read more in the Janus+ Soft Skills Folder!

NETWORLD: Cultural World War I heritage with one click

In 2018 will see the centennial of the end of World War I, which will trigger of numerous academic, and media activities. The project NETWORLD, funded by the European Commission’s Danube Transnational Programme (ERDF, IPA), has already started to engage with the architectural heritage of WWI.

In Austria and other countries along the Danube, many historical sites (frontline buildings, military premises, former war prisoner camps, memorial, other buildings with WWI relevance) can still be seen. Some of them have been thoroughly explored by research and made accessible to an interested public through museums or hiking paths. This has been accomplished in some cases by public authorities, more often by private history lovers and volunteers. Other sites, however , have hardly been looked after and are threatened by decay.

For the first time NETWORLD systematically maps this cultural heritage and develops strategies for its capitalization in tourism and education. At the time being, sites are researched, and their state of preservation and strategic development potentials are explored through interviews with experts and site managers. The results will be displayed in an online database which will allow interested users to access historical information and proposals for cultural touristic routes. Hopefully, this online tool will encourage people to engage with WWI and contribute to a joint European remembrance culture across borders and former frontlines.

Person and institutions who can support us in mapping and using unexplored WWI heritage are kindly invited to contact us and share their knowledge.

Project website: interreg-danube.eu/networld

The project is co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA)
interreg-danube.eu

Conference: How to make language graduates fit for the labour market

The CES&L (Crafting Employability Strategies & Languages) project, funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, has worked with employers across Europe to seek their views on how Higher Education can support modern languages students to become more employable and recognise the significance of their degree in the international job market. This research has informed the adaptation of a generic Irish training course into a resource localised to, and translated for Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, the UK, and Ireland. die Berater® had the role to ensure that the employers’ perspective was adequately taken into account in all materials and co- developed a module on entrepreneurship competence.

Now project partner AHECS (Association of Higher Education Careers Services in Ireland) is organising an international conference to present and discuss the results of this innovative and exciting project in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland on 7 September 2017. Invited guests will gain an overview of the project process which took place over the last two years, hear feedback from participating European partners on their experience of engaging in this project and be able to participate in a demonstration of two workshops from this module focusing on best practice approaches to embedding employability within language teaching.

To support attendance at this event, AHECS offers five 200 Euro bursaries for international guests to assist with travel and accommodation. If you are interested in attending this conference, please email Elaine Browne, AHECS representative. The closing date for confirming attendance is 31 July 2017.

Project website: languages4work.eu

The project has been funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme.

Childhood Cancer Survivors create their future

The conference “Living a life to the fullest”, organised as part of the Erasmus+-funded project “Create your Future” organised by die Berater®’s partner company Catro Bulgaria in Sofia brought together employers, career counsellors, trainers and young people who have overcome childhood cancer. What they need is the chance to integrate in the labour market. The conference highlighted, however, not so much the restrictions and deficiencies caused by late effects from which some survivors may suffer but which can often be overcome by a few small support measures.

Testimonials of several former patients and encouraging integration and diversity strategies of multinational companies present at the conference demonstrated the enormous potential many of these young people have and can unfold for their employers. They have all learned to cope with a severe illness and are therefore often more mature, impressing and motivated personalities than many of their colleagues who have not faced such a challenge. A strong message worth spreading…

Information for employers and career counselling materials for professionals working with the target group can be downloaded at createyourfuture-eu.org.

The project has been funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme.

Entrepreneurship learning outside the seminar room

Higher education systems in post-communist regions like the Western Balkans and Russia are struggling with the fact that the most adventurous of their graduates tend to look for careers abroad and thus cause a brain drain damaging the countries’ prospects. Those young academics who are staying, on the contrary, often prefer low-paid but “safe” positions in the public sector to insecure but perhaps more rewarding entrepreneurial careers. The Erasmus+ Capacity Building project REBUS aims at enhancing entrepreneurial mind-sets and competences of graduates of engineering and ICT study programmes.

At a project meeting at the University of Sarajevo results of a comparative study on existing entrepreneurship initiatives and training needs of university students were presented and discussed. On the basis of these findings innovative competence development programmes will be developed and piloted next year. As diverse the findings were, one thing became evident: There is a clearly identified need for new forms of entrepreneurship learning outside educational institutions: projects, mentoring, simulations, internships etc. An entrepreneurial mind is best nurtured in the fresh air of the world of business!

Visit our Project website: rebusproject.net

The project has been funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme.

VALMOPRIS Webinar – 24th May, 2017

The VALMOPRIS partners are hosting a webinar, addressed to prison teachers who have joined the VALMOPRIS train-the-trainer seminar in Rotterdam or plan to participate the training in Timisoara. Other prison teachers who are interested in getting more information on the topic “validation of competence development in informal learning settings” are also welcome!
For more information see the programme and info sheet.

How to participate?
We offer two time slots to participate in the webinar:

Wednesday 24 May 12.00 CET or
Wednesday 24 May 16.00 CET

You need to contact the VALMOPRIS project team to confirm that you want to participate in the webinar. Please, write an email to m.satke@dieberater.com and request to enrol in the webinar. Please mention the time at which you wish to participate!

The deadline for registration is 22 May 2017

Once you have sent your request, you will be contacted by email and your participation will be confirmed. On the day of the webinar you will receive another email with a link to the session. Please follow the instructions to do so. Enter your name when joining the session so we know who is asking or commenting if you use the chat.

VALMOPRIS, an Erasmus+ funded project, encourages professionals and teachers from seven European countries working in close partnership to design, deliver and validate competence development, as a result of our learners’ engagement with a wide range of non-formal learning activities. The research aims to contribute actively to policy discourse, by exploring the potential benefits of embedding validation opportunities across a range of non-formal activities found commonly within prison settings. The work of VALMOPRIS is being carried out in collaboration with the European Prison Education Association (EPEA).

Find here the latest news on our piloting activities, the upcoming webinar and the final conference in June 2017!

Companies need support in integration matters. die Berater^® project listed as Best Practice by European Commission

In recent years many programmes have been in place to give early school leavers a second chance to complete education and vocational training and enter the labour market. But still many employers hesitate to hire such young people, because they do not seem to match expectations and are seen as a potential source of future problems in the enterprise. The EU-funded project YES-Youth Employment Support developed a comprehensive approach – consisting of workshops and e-learning, coaching and peer support – to allay employers’ fears and support them in the insertion phase. Now, YES has been highlighted as Best Practice in the European Commission’s publication “Tackling Early School Leaving“. The successful YES approach is at present transferred to another integration target group: REST, a project financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), promotes employment of refugee immigrants.