Integration of Young Adults into Labor Market through Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

It is difficult for young adults to find jobs, because they often lack of experience, it is difficult to integrate into continuously changing life and work environment. Project “Integration of Young Adults into the Labor Market Through Cultural Heritage” will help in getting to know the most important places or traditions of other countries, provide young adults with the necessary information for integration, self-confidence, inspire and motivate them and strengthen the competences for collaboration. For example, while knowing the cultural history and traditions of other country, the project participant would easier integrate into the cultural and social context of other country, will get a job or will create a job place by himself. The main objectives of the project is to empower entrepreneurship and social dialogue through cultural knowledge and to help forming a strategy of creative thinking, while creating new work places.

For this project three objects of cultural heritage are chosen: old-towns, traditional songs and dances, traditional food. The project team is going to promote the cultural values of each country, demonstrate what kind of jobs can be found or created in every area and field of the project. All the project activities will be included into a cognitive, entertaining, educational video about historical places and history of the towns with interactive exercises to develop cultural competencies and social dialogue with questions and possible answers, as well as a collection of traditional music examples (songs and dances) – an interactive video tool for learning with questions and answers, a video about traditional meal with tasks for learners, and a competition "I virtually create an attractive work place" will be organized.

The project participants will widen up the knowledge of English language, necessary for a communication and development of social dialogue, as well as they will know more about various traditions of EU countries (songs, dances, culinary heritage), necessary for an original creation of new work places. They will also learn to develop thinking design, for a creation of a work place and interior, will develop possibilities to evaluate own competences.

During this project four international mobilities are going to take place:

• a kick-off meeting in Lithuania, which is meant for refining project‘s activities, deciding on what results are wanted, excluding the strongest sides of our partners, foreseeing the good experience and ways to share it;
• an international meeting in Sweden „Intercultural competence acceptance and evaluation“, which is needed for a team to create and work out instruments to evaluate competence, decide if that instrument works with project participants;
• an international meeting „Entrepreneurship promotion in an intercultural space and virtuality“ in Greece is for the creation of virtual products and their presentation. The products will be tested during the mobility, so that the project teams could continue creating and perfecting their products;
• an international meeting „Virtual entrepreneurship and social dialogue“ in Portugal will open up an opportunity to practically try out a business model when meeting local learners. The aim of the 4th transnational meeting is the dissemination of work places and use of the cultural events for young adults searching for a job in the European country.

Alongside with the international meetings, the Austrian partner will organize a one-week joint staff training event. The participants will be those representing their partner country, responsible for the project, adult educators and project executive team. The transnational meetings are necessary for the exchange of good practices and innovations, for implementation of activities, making the project video and executing the website, monitoring and evaluating project quality and impact on the adult learners.

Employment of young adults will be achieved through a non-traditional path (arts, food, architecture, songs) and new technologies (while making a video, creating and monitoring a website, creating a virtual work place, communicating). While knowing the cultural history and traditions of other country, the project participant would easier integrate into the cultural and social context of other country.

Website:

Coordinator:

• Alytus music school - LITHUANIA

Partners:

• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - GREECE
• Previform - PORTUGAL
• European Center of Entrepreneurship Competence & Excellence - AUSTRIA
• Sverigefinska folkhögskolan - SWEDEN