FOSTERING EDUCATION AND INCLUSION OF DISADVANTAGED REFUGEE AND MIGRANT LEARNERS

Migrants and refugees belong to the most disadvantaged groups within the educational and professional systems of the European Union, indeed since childhood they often don’t have the same chances of personal development due to language barriers, lack of support and less opportunities to access classes caused by competence based exam or residence permit as prerequisites for enrolment.

In the Paris Declaration of 2015, European Ministers of Education have re-announced their commitment for an inclusive education as an important door opener of social inclusion; therefore migrants and refugees shall be helped to ensure their full participation in society, good education and transition to the labour market.

The 3STEPS project intends to increase the chances of migrants and refugees to enter the educational and vocational system of their host country by providing them basic skills as well as a stable grounding for further personal achievements.

3STEPS PROJECT

The 3STEPS project ‘Fostering education and inclusion of disadvantaged refugee and migrant learners’ is an Erasmus+ Programme KA3 ‘Support for Policy Reform’ started on 15 January 2020 and funded for three years by the European Commission - DG EACEA.

The project aims to upscale two successful methodologies previously implemented: ‘Basic Education Classes’ a Austrian national programme certified by the ministry of education to integrate low skilled people and Tandem Now selected in 2017 by the European Commission as “inspiring resource” based on peer mentoring.

The project addresses the needs of several target groups:

provide training institutions with innovative methodologies for qualitative and inclusive education of young migrants and refugees;
improve competences of trainers and mentors to work with young migrants and refugees;
provide classes on literacy, numeracy, language and digitalization for young migrants and refugees of 15 - 25 years old;
support NGOs, civil society and migrant communities in educational context;
address policy makers and relevant stakeholders to upscale the activities of the project.

Objectives

The project aims to:

implement the two good practices ‘Basic Education Classes’ and ‘Tandem Now’ in the Austrian, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Turkish educational systems;
train trainers on intercultural competence, inclusion and shared values through a ‘blended training approach’;
train mentors on the above mentioned subject through a ‘blended mentoring approach’ to develop their social and professional skills;
improve education of young migrants and refugees of 15-25 years old in an innovative way;
call for policy reform;
foster communication and promote inclusion.

Activities

Desk research and online questionnaires to assess qualitative and inclusive education of migrants and refugees in each partner’s country; plus national adaption needs to adjust the content to national languages, specific national challenges, cultural context and legal aspects;
Drafting of Handbooks for teachers/mentors on how to address the beneficiary group, providing creative and innovative ideas for teaching/training;
Trainers and Mentors training implementation: 5 days trainings will be held partly face to face and partly online for 20 teachers and trainers per partner, plus 20 mentors per partner;
Youth training implementation to ensure vocational orientation and blended learning carried out for migrants and refugees by mentors of the same cultural background;
European networking strategy to engage with important influencers, stakeholders and decision makers, and draft a policy brief on standard of social inclusion including recommendation on 3STEPS methodologies to be adopted in partners’ educational systems.

The 3STEPS project is innovative thanks to the

‘blended training/mentoring approach’ as a mix of face-to-face and online activities for professional to improve their competences with the target group;

Regional pools of mentors who act as “role model” to provide migrants and refugees of the same ethnic communities with confidence, resources and skills in order to improve their inclusion into the hosting societies.

Expected results

Provide teachers and trainers with knowledge of the good practices to support and foster migrants and refugees’ development and inclusion into host society
Establish regional ‘ethnic role model pools’ for migrants and refugees for smoother inclusion
Improved education rate among young migrants and refugees
A well-established network of schools, public authorities, NGOs and volunteer organisations, important influencers and decision makers as well as transnational institutions able to call for policy reform
Introduce a more inclusive educational approach in partners’ educational systems

3STEPS kick-off meeting

It took place over 20 – 21st February in Innsbruck (Austria) where the six partners gathered to know each other’s better and present to the consortium the working packages that they lead. Each partner presented the tasks to be carried out and the relative working strategy. The partners set the next project meeting in Palermo on 24-25 September 2020.

What’s next?

The partners are currently carrying out the desk research to assess the situation of the education and inclusion of migrants and refugees in their 6 countries; as well as they are delivering online questionnaires for teachers, youth workers and stakeholders to enquire on existing services and challenges for education and social integration of the target group.

Partnership

Coordinator - Verein Multikulturell | www.migration.cc (Austria)
CESIE | cesie.org (Italy)
ALDA | www.alda-europe.eu (France)
Symplexis | symplexis.eu (Greece)
Asociacion Caminos | www.asoccaminos.org (Spain)
Mozaik | www.mozaik.org.tr (Turkey)

The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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