Fundación Secretariado Gitano

Work areas: Youth, Employment, Education

Road map: November 2018 to October 2022

Full name of the pilot-project: “FIND your way to the world of work”

Funder: The project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment

Project partners: Autonomia Foundation (leader) from Hungary, Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) from Spain, Association “Caritas – Social Assistance” Branch of Caritas Alba Iulia Organisation from Romania, Trust for Social Achievement Foundation and Arete Youth Foundation, both from Bulgaria.

Objective: The project aims to support young people to better access and finalise secondary school education, with a focus on post-compulsory education and vocational training, the transition from school to work, as well as encouraging employers to diversify their workforce with disadvantaged employees and helping schools to better support disadvantaged students. To support and enable the equal access to quality education and employment of disadvantaged youth (aged 15 to 29) in 4 European countries (Hungary, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria). Quality employment is interpreted as legal employment on the primary labour market, in positions matching the educational level of the individual.

Methodology: The project is focusing on sharing existing methodologies of the partners, to enhance their tools and to compile a set of new and innovative methodologies and policy recommendations.

All partners have broad, relevant experience with regards to improving the educational/employment chances of disadvantaged youth especially of Roma. The first phase of the project will focus on sharing expertise and learning from each other, so adapted methods can already be included in the implementation of the project. On the other hand, implementing the activities in four countries in different regulatory/policy context, in different educational and labour market environment will provide the basis for developing innovative new methods and approaches that will be relevant for other European countries as well.

The work with the target group will be strongly based on local mentors who will be selected to be experienced and close to the target group, focusing on building real partnership with the communities, families and individuals. The involvement of institutional actors will be eased by the fact that project implementation will focus on selected towns/regions in country, where intensive cooperation can be developed with schools and neighbouring major employers. From FSG we are developing this Project in 5 locations (Madrid, León, Santander, Pamplona and Sevilla).

Outputs:

• Improved academic and labour situation of target group
• Changes in the environment of target group, including social environment, institutional adjustments at educational actors
• Improvement of the work of project partners thanks to transnational cooperation, including the knowledge sharing between the partners, methods learned from each other and new innovative approached developed jointly.

 
Website:

You can follow the activities of this project at this link.

Enrolment campaign in conjunction with the ‘FIND YOUR WAY TO THE WORLD OF WORK’ project

As part of the ‘Find your way to the world of work’ project, funded by the EEA and Norway Grants, under the Fund for Youth Employment, we have launched a campaign to boost enrolment in secondary and post-compulsory education.

As you know, one of the main actions and objectives of the #FIND project is to support young people between the ages of 15 and 29 in their pursuit to gain better access to and complete compulsory secondary education. Additionally, it encourages students to continue their studies at post-compulsory levels.

Alongside this initiative, we at the Fundación Secretariado Gitano have started a promotional campaign with videos of testimonials from our educational ambassadors. These video testimonials serve to share the expectations and motivation behind several young people who decided to continue their studies at the post-compulsory level and how this decision has influenced their personal and professional development.

Even today, 64.4% of Gitanos between the ages of 16 and 24 do not complete their basic education (they do not obtain their Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) diploma); reversing this statistic is one of the main objectives and challenges of Fundación Secretariado Gitano. Likewise, we strive to increase the number of young people in post-compulsory education.

Thanks to a series of educational programmes implemented by FSG during 2019, 3,426 students have received support from primary education up to university.

Specifically, since the beginning of the FIND project, a total of 52 students enrolled in post-compulsory education and continued their educational training, as they understand that it is key to better employability in the short term.

David: https://youtu.be/nLp8fHXq0ug

Myriam: https://youtu.be/dCi-ALmglsY

Rosa: https://youtu.be/_agbfQ4EBwo

Sara: https://youtu.be/CagDkF7by_o

Sebastián: https://youtu.be/OBuVtBIJRvk