Εμφάνιση άρθρων βάσει ετικέτας: migrants

VINCE is European funded project that aims at promoting validation of learning in higher education and provide support to HEI staff in order to validate migrants‘ and refugees‘ prior learning.

VINCE so far has developed

• Country reports about the implementation of validation in various European countries,
• Case studies about the impact of validation on inclusion,
• Guidelines and a prototype training course for university staff involved in validation processes to be better prepared when working with newcomer candidates.

Furthermore, policy recommendations are being developed, targeted at EU, national decision makers and institutional learners.

On 4th July 2019 a workshop took place at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, which brought together experts, stakeholders, HEI staff and students in order to discuss the European model of validation of competences in the field of refugees.

In a first step the participants were presented the major pillars of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, which sets out the standards that shall govern validation. While recognition of prior learning refers to the recognition of formal qualifications (prerequisites for entering a higher level of a hierarchical, formal system), validation goes beyond, and also refers to the assessment of competences acquired outside the formal education system. The aim is

• to determine which competences are certifiable at all and, where this is feasible (Information)
• to identify the goals against which competences shall be validated (Identification)
• to create portfolios of supporting documents relevant for validation, such as certificates, test results, work results (Documentation)
• to evaluate the person’s skills and competences (Assessment)

In the second section of the workshop the participants jointly with practitioners from in- and outside HEI discussed the practical implications of the Convention with a view to

• identify changes in current practice necessary to meet the standards of the Lisbon Recognition Convention,
• identify constraints in the recognition of informal learning, such as competences hardly to prove or testify,
• consequences recognition practice in Germany has or can have for universities, students and in the context of the wider society.

Learn more about the project from the VINCE website

“Employment Perspective for Migrants and Refugees” is a new community of practice, that is addressed mainly to persons who provide support to migrants and refugees in relation to employment, education and training, as well as to stakeholders active in the topics of education and employment for migrants and refugees.

Get awarded and win precious prizes. The LISTEN Award is a competition that aims to promote intercultural storytelling with refugees and migrants. The LISTEN project is looking for stories – fictional or real ones – told by refugees and migrants. The story can be a memory, a self-created story, a fairytale, legend or myth. The idea of LISTEN is that stories can build bridges between refugees and migrants and their receiving societies. These stories give migrants and refugees a voice and raise the awareness for their perspectives, wishes, visions, challenges and problems. By using intercultural storytelling the LISTEN project aims to support the integration of refugees and migrants in their receiving societies.

VINCE is an ERASMUS+ project that is developing training materials for university staff working in processes of Validation of Prior Learning (VPL) and Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning (VNIL) with migrant and/or refugee students. The objective is to provide university staff with tools to be better equipped when working with newcomers who want to access Higher Education (HE) and want to be more aware and integrated in European society.

Linguistic adaptation is a central theme in the different stages of education, but especially in secondary education and initial vocational training. Improving the linguistic adaptation process of immigrant students can contribute to improving not only academic outcomes but also social inclusion, both within and outside the center. However, it requires the design of suitable environments and teachers prepared to face the challenges of multilingualism, which are summarized in:

The number of refugees and new migrants who reach Europe, escaping from wars or critical life conditions and looking for new life opportunities, has increased dramatically in recent years and is likely to continue growing in the coming years. These newcomers face many challenges in settling into Europe and among these are the obstacles to accessing the labour market or continuing their studies.

This project aimed at organisations from the Employability sector and the Adult Education/Training sectors. The project provided information on how to engage with and support Ethnic Minority groups and Migrants into employment through job shadowing, work placement, employer engagement and vocational language training and employability skills development. The results included a Research Report from each partner country detailing target groups and employment sectors; examples of the transferred materials from the project (Skills Audit Toolkit, Vocational Language Course, Study Skills Course, Empowerment Course and Equipped For the Future Course);feedback from beneficiaries and trainers. The products from the project will be integrated into core activities of partner organisations.

RISE aims to remove the gaps in key competencies that create barriers to employment for refugees, by developing the focussed curriculum and accompanying learning materials, including interactive desktop and mobile games based learning resources, which are engaging and accessible to the target groups.

The RISE partner organisations worked with refugees and employers to identify the gaps in key skills that create barriers to employment for refugees. Workshops were held with groups of refugees from the three partner countries, to establish their support needs. There then followed a process of co-design with our end users, which confirmed the RISE project end products.

One of the big talking points at last weeks DISCUSS conference in Munich was the current influx of refugees into Germany and the challenges for public services. It seems up to 5000 refugees are arriving daily at Munich’s main railways station.

Most participants at the conference would agree with Marcel Fratzscher, the head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), who is reported in today’s Guardian newspaper as saying  the hundreds of thousands of newcomers this year as well as the hundreds of thousands more expected over the coming years, are a major opportunity for Germany and that its strong financial position makes it ideally placed to welcome them.

In 2013 around 34 million persons born in a third country (TCNs) were currently living in the European Union (EU), representing 7% of its total population. Integrating immigrants, i.e. allowing them to participate in the host society at the same level as natives, is an active, not a passive, process that involves two parties, the host society and the immigrants, working together to build a cohesive society.