InterCulturExpress

1. Promoting the occupational opportunities of migrants Viennese Development Partnership within the EU Community initiative EQUAL August Gächter presented at Realize First Transnational Workshop Cesena, 2012-02-07 InterCulturExpress

2. Situation • Increasing shares of educated, trained, and skilled immigrants and refugees • Difficult to have qualifications formally recognized and informally appreciated • Very poor chances of upward mobility once an immigrant has slipped into a low-skill job • Nearly half the non-EU immigrants with more than compulsory education work below their level of education (but only 1 in 6 of non-migrants)

3. Strategic goals • Earlier migrants: Promotion of occupational mobility • into employment • into new, more adequate employment • up the occupational scale • New migrants: Support for a more rapid entry into employment adequate to education received and skills obtained • Generally: Making qualifications visible

4. Target groups Migrants in Vienna • Aiming to use their education or their occupational skills brought from abroad more adequately, or • Wanting to acquire skills, or • Actively looking for work, or • Wanting to return to work

5. Target groups • Staff • in occupational adult education • in the Public Employment Service and other organisations promoting employment opportunities • potential mentors • Organisations • providing occupational adult education • companies as potential providers of internships

6. Implementation InterCulturExpress was a pilot project i.e. intended as a learning experience for the organisers with small numbers of migrants with a view to producing the skills and materials for subsequent full-scale implementation Six component modules Carried out mid-2005 to mid-2007

7. Successes • Mainstream partners got sensitized, acquired confidence and enthusiasm • Media events were well reported • Prompted high-level decision makers to pledge action to improve the use of “imported” skills • Continuation of components after the end of the EQUAL partnership • National level commitments in 2011

8. Recognized education of participants 2005-2006

9. Module 1: Lighthouse • Development and implementation of a training course incl materials and guidelines • Skilling recently arrived migrants and refugees as professional occupational orientation trainers and as education counsellors • 16 participants from 14 countries • Almost all gained employment in the field, i.e. became “peer counsellors”

10. Module 2: Antenna • German as an occupational language in metals and electricity trades, and in mathematics • Legal advice, especially indebtedness • Development and testing of didactic concepts and self-learning materials • Product: curriculum, audiovisual teaching and learning materials • 26 participants, almost all transferred to regular training

11. Module 3: Bimm • Occupational integration and mentoring for migrants – skills and company for women • Creation of a mentoring programme • Occupational training and orientation • Product: mentoring programme and publication • 24 participants, of which 9 received mentoring 13 found employment, 3 decided on further education

12. Module 6: Ponte • Development and testing of e-learning tools adequate for recently arrived migrants • Practical ICT for educated or trained migrants • Product: guidebook on assistance with didactic and pedagogical commentary and worksheets • 24 participants, 3 gained internships in their desired occupations, all drew up career plans for the use of the PES to focus their next steps

13. Module 4: Streetlight • Training for PES and adult education staff on the recognition of education and training from abroad and on inequalities in the labour market • Picked up from two earlier EQUAL projects • Product: action guide and newsletter (8 editions, 1300 recipients) • 661 participants in 30 workshops and 4 information events

14. Module 5: Gender Mainstreaming • The project partners jointly wrote a film scenario on four female migrants in the labour market and their interactions with authorities, employers, experts • The movie, “Chance Migration”, was used by schools and a number of other institutions • Gender map showing resources linking gender and diversity

15. Website All materials are at www.interculturexpress.at

16. Suggestions • Provide rapid advice for new arrivals on education and labour market in order to exploit early enthusiasm and to optimize integration into the labour market and into the occupational structure • Provide tailor-made courses for persons arriving with useful skills in order to rapidly and effectively link them to the labour market • Provide training for recent arrivals with little or no education, training, and skills

17. Suggestions • Make existing education, training, and skills visible to labour market stakeholders and to society more widely • Create competence centres for the recognition of training and education • From the very beginning involve all levels of political and social partner decision makers in a variety of roles: speakers, listeners, partners, counsellors etc.

18. Successors • From 2007: Perspektive: Occupational and educational advice for recognized refugees in Vienna • From 2008: Competence Centre on Recognition and Further Education for New Immigrants • Merged in 2010 • Funded by ESF, City, and other sources • 2011 budget of Euro 654,407

19. Services • Screening of education and training received abroad • Advice on education and training opportunities • Guidance throughout the recognition procedure • Up to €600 per person for occupational training courses