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Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The project, which addressed 31 beneficiaries, was aimed at favouring the internationalisation of HE graduates’ profiles and supported their transition to work through European pathways of “education to employability” and accompanying measures to the labour market in the European framework of and as an answer to 2020 Strategies for youth employment. To this end it developed an accompanying scheme to work called “Young Citizens of Europe” consisting in the integrated offer of career guidance and counselling and “on the job” learning in the form of Erasmus+ mobility for training. The scheme addressed graduating students and new graduates, as the target group who in the short-term could benefit the most – 8 beneficiaries in fact received offers of job after their traineeship. Career guidance and counselling (meant as education to employability and delivered throughout the project) represented a valuable support to participants’ professional choices, in terms of a better awareness and feasibility of their projects. They relied on the transfer of suitable counselling methodologies and tools able also in the mid-term to give coherence and strength to their professional plans and career prospects. They benefitted from a tailored made counselling work, exploiting career pathways against their skills profile, professional behaviours and aptitudes, leading to a coherent portfolio for their applications (CV in one or more foreign languages, motivation letters, how to behave and communicate effectively in interviews). On a voluntary basis the same support was offered on completion of mobility so as to be helped to make their profile more appealing in their future job applications. Mobility was offered both as a chance for specialisation on job profiles of interest for the participants and with respect to career plans developed during the counselling sessions and as a chance to “test” new professional fields evaluated with the counsellor and checked as feasible to transfer their knowledge and skills and acquire new ones. The accompanied measure structured around Erasmus mobility for training turned to be a valid help toward a better awareness of “professional identity and behaviour” for the young in transition: the beneficiaries confirmed to feel themselves more competitive, more aware of their being a value, in one word more empoyable in a labour market more and more interested in job profiles with an international background. The effectiveness of the mobility programme relied on accurate preliminary agreements with the HO on the work plan of the trainees, on finalised matching demand/offer in line with the educational background and career plan of the participants, along with tailored research for potential host companies which could fit well with the need for specialisation of the participants. The accurate work done by the mobility officer responsible for placement ensured quality context wherein the work plans were developed, thus favouring suitable learning environments “on the job”. An important dissemination activity is a mid-term study on the impact of this accompanying scheme of graduates to work in terms of their employability within one year. Qualitative results are expected to have a favourable effect in terms of sustainability and appeal of mobility among relevant stakeholders (Labour, Youth and Education). As to the project results the beneficiaries reported better learning outcomes meant in terms of development of key skills - as a combination of technical skills - soft skills and entrepreneurship and language skills. They are aware of the context of the quality wherein their mobility took place. Their professional projects and career plans were supported and fulfilled contributing also to their empowerment. They benefitted from measures of education to employability, which show to be able to support more effectively their future choices and also contribute to their self awareness and self-confidence, as long as they learned to think of themselves as a resource and feel capable of joining a company as young professionals and not as "too young and inexperienced to get that job". Finally, they experienced Europe as a chance for personal and professional growth: the international dimension contributed to more appealing profiles and in some cases they are aware of having worked in context of high specialisation with a strong impact on their professional growth. For the Consortium members the project was a chance: to share the know-how and best practices in the provision of mobility for training which over the last years have proved to be a successful and innovative approach to support graduates’ employability and cast the bridge to their easier access to the labour market. to enhance the quality standard in mobility management and accompanying measures for youth in transition from HE to the labour market.
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