"Youth Unemployment as a European Challenge"
Good Practices - a collection of ideas and practical approaches
main page East InitiativeLeipzig Declaration
- Apprentices as mentors and role models
- The confederation of German employers and the German federal labor office cooperate to push in-firm training for disadvantaged students
- Campaign for vocational training - the German YMCA is becoming involved
- ContiTech's project "Entry Qualification"
- We bear responsibility - unemployed youths in environmental protection
- Agenda 21 - group Burgkirchen (Bavaria): personal coaches for youths without apprenticeships
- Procurement of social competences in the PÄD camp
- "The youth is our future - celebrities support kids on their way into professional lives." ARGE Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Berlin)
- "Jobfox" (German: Jobfux) -Forum Pro Vocational Training
- An Example from Denmark: The "production school"
- Support to youth in search for employment by PUUL GmbH in Leipzig
- "Part time entry" - Model for youths in Brandenburg
1. Apprentices as mentors and role models
At the November 2006 Tönissteiner group conference "Youth Unemployment as a European Challenge" in Berlin, participants elaborated on an idea and developed a draft programme for the inclusion of apprentices in motivation initiatives targeting students in their last years of school (13- through 16-year-olds). Apprentices should act as mentors to these students. Arcelor Mittal has plans for a similar programme at its site in Eisenhuettenstadt (Brandenburg).
Apprentices working at a company-training center act as mentors to seventh- and eighth-graders at their own former schools. There, they share their first experiences from the job, talk about the specifics and requirements of their professions and how they are mastering this new challenge. The young mentors might also contribute to teaching by explaining natural science-related topics through presentations relating to processes they come across in their daily work. The apprentices can easily answer questions that the students will have about the jobs their mentors are striving to start a career in. Since the mentors are only slightly older than the students they talk to, they can still communicate with them within one peer group. This advantage should lead to more credibility of those talking in front of the class. The occasional presence of such positive role models in the classrooms will surely have a good impact on the motivation of those students close to the final year in secondary modern school.
The apprentices themselves learn to take responsibility by mentoring students. By passing on first-hand advice from a fresh perspective, the young professionals simultaneously grow as personalities. Since they are still in the process of learning on the job, their mentoring will also help their own objectives, since they need to develop communication skills for their mentoring tasks. Finally, the young mentors should also have an experienced mentor on their side. Coaching for skills like debating, presentation, body language, and mediation could be provided by volunteers who are further advanced in their own careers or by the local Chambers of Commerce.
2. The confederation of German employers and the German federal labor office cooperate to push in-firm training for disadvantaged students
At nearly every session with local business and labor market experts, the Tönissteiner Group members who took part in the "Ostinitiative" learned about the importance of in-firm training (in-plant-training or in-service training). This form of apprenticeship where practical job skills are acquired inside the companies and the theoretic background is taught at special schools, is widely seen as more successful than external programmes without a connection to a company. In 2007, the German federal labor office started to reach out to disadvantaged or underperforming students and dropouts with a new concept: These groups will also get the chance to receive vocational training, instead of only offering secondary measures to them. The German federal labor office has made its new initiative appealing to companies, because they want to use the financial incentives connected to hiring a young apprentice from a disadvantaged background.
(The details of the programme can be found in the annual report of the confederation of German businesses (2006 issue, pp. 82, 83).)
One center-piece of the new initiative is the creation of so-called "practice classes". In the last school years of secondary modern school, the less well-performing students receive special attention in these "practice classes". Part of the school-week is spent in companies where the students, who often can not relate to the theoretic approaches in a class-room, can find motivation in a different learning environment. Training on-the-job while still in school should lead to a more succesful transition into a work life for many of these students. External programs, which are often fully publicly funded, have been shown to be more expensive and less effective than the combination of classroom and workplace for those students who struggle with the academic expectations and challenges prevalent in schools.
3. Campaign for vocational training - the German YMCA is becoming involved
The German YMCA (CVJM) is an important institution in Germany's civil society. Now, the CVJM is starting a campaign for more apprenticeships for young people. It is called "PACK's". This example shows that all kinds of players in society can contribute to the efforts against youth unemployment.
In the mission statement for "PACK's", the CVJM makes clear that it is part of the organisation's self-understanding to help young people to avoid unemployment. The CVJM wants to act as an agent and facilitate the contact between businesses wanting to provide young people with a chance to start an apprenticeship and those teenagers who are looking for such an opportunity. The CVJM will put to use its strong local networks with businesses and other players for this task. "Every apprenticeship that we help to make happen, is a success", the CVJM states.
Further information: www.cvjm.de
4. ContiTech's project "Entry Qualification"
The German company Conti Tech and the vocational school Neustadt have won an award for their project against youth unemployment. The project helps young people help themselves in a clever way which leads them onto a path towards a professional career.
The successful concept adapts an established programme to the needs of the special target group: Students who do not yet have the qualifications necessary for a 3-year-apprenticeship get the chance to enroll in a 1-year-programme called "Entry Qualification".
The students / apprentices spend 4 days of the working-week in the company, and another day at the vocational school. There they receive special coaching in math, German, or English. At the workplace, the young apprentices are integrated in a so-called working group and have a mentor.
After this one-year programme, the participants receive a certificate from the local chamber of commerce and industry, with which they can then apply for the regular 3-year-apprenticeships at ContiTech or other companies. While in the programme, the participants receive a monthly salary of € 1.500. Half of that salary is automatically transferred to a savings account, so that after the programme, the participants have a financial basis while planning for the next step in their professional lives.
Further information: www.contitech.de
5. We bear responsibility - unemployed youths in environmental protection
This programme has been awarded "official project of the world decade for sustainable development" of the UNESCO, United Nations 2005/2006.
Project idea
Unemployed young people of the vocational school of Mindelheim (Bavaria) engage in a nature conservation project in direct proximity under professional supervision. The experience includes besides weeding and deforestation exercises also a course in the handling of motor saws. Theoretical contents like the calculation of volumes or firewood costs etc. are conveyed in class.
Responsible
2 volunteers from the environmental protection area are responsible for the project in close coordination with the public school of Mindelheim.
Initial situation
Two general developments were decisive for the creation of the project: On the one hand the municipality is neglecting to fund more and more of its original tasks like sport clubs, day care, healthcare and environmental protection due to financial constraints. On the other hand, an increasing number of young work seekers at the local vocational school fulfil their compulsory education fairly demotivated. The initiators of the project have concluded that one challenge could be the solution to the other. Thus, the idea for the biological renaturation project was born, which since then has been carefully developed as the centre for the subjects taught. Ethics, German language courses, computing, civics, mathematics, metal engineering, wood processing, sports, economics and domestic economy - all subjects refer to the core project and contribute their part to the whole.
Objective
The objective is for the unemployed youths in vocational training to gain practical qualifications in the area of environmental protection, the digestion of the experiences including the transfer into class as well as the conservation of local landscapes. The project conveys vocational skills up to the license to use motor saws. It clarifies coherences of the three columns of the Agenda 21 (ecology, economy, social welfare) and encourages work virtues whose absence is often more relevant for professional failures than single school grades. But most of all, the project fosters self-esteem because the youths are needed, have to stick together and can see a sense in their work. Last but not least the assignment saves valuable biotopes and creates retreats for endangered species.
Progress
A swamp 6 km east of Mindelheim has been freed from sprawling wicker bushes under the supervision of the lower environmental protection agency and local associations. The relevant theoretical context has been underlined in every subject, e.g. a report on the swamp assignment has been written in the German language class or a CD with own pictures and associated texts has been produced in the computing course. Further professional skills have been exercised through the sale of the collected wood, e.g. by writing advertisements, creating bank accounts, deciding what to do with the money. The wood had been worked up to hedgerows or processed to firewood for the municipal building yard.
The supervisors: "We work like nature - without any litter. In brief, we wanted to create meaning for the youths by contemplating the principles and contexts of the Agenda 21 through the angles of the various school subjects and transferring viable vocational knowledge. At the same time, we wanted to delegate as much responsibility and decision making authority to the youths as possible in order to show trust but also allow for detailed - own as well as external - appraisal of their physical and mental performance. Finally, we wanted them to have something at hand against the prejudice that they do not really want to work. That was also one of the reasons why we kept in close contact with the media from the very beginning."
Conclusion
The project "weeding and deforestation in the valley of Hillental" through the pupils of the vocational school of Mindelheim was successfully lead.
188 pupils, some with learning disabilities, have participated. 88 licenses were handed out.
The positive effects are enormous: increase in motivation of the pupils, acquisition of additional qualifications, and improvement of the learning environment up to the point that the school finds personnel for the classes a lot easier and companies approach the school directly for job opportunities. The results have been recognised by the general and trade public. Through the disposition of the captured wood, the pupils practiced selling, calculating and book keeping and were able to recover the additional costs for the de-rooting in the biotope. Volunteers were involved in the project.
Further vocational schools in Bavaria are interested in the project. It has been awarded by UNESCO ("official project of the world decade for sustainable development") and is kept as best-practice example by the institute of school pedagogy. The regional and national media have reported on the project - "ZDF Heute Journal", "ZDF Umwelt" and "Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung". The project has developed further the education in class at vocational schools.
6. Agenda 21 - group Burgkirchen (Bavaria): personal coaches for youths without apprenticeships
Project description
Personal coaches help socially penalised youths with the search for jobs and apprenticeships, i.e. support with the application, help to contact apprenticing companies, and coach until signature of the training contract. Cooperations with the local employment office and the trade association enforce and develop the local civil networks with the aim of attracting further coaches.
Responsible
An active Agenda 21 group is responsible for the project. It consists of a working team for civil integration and active coaches, adding up to 40 volunteers altogether.
Initial situation
Economic downturns in the past have had significantly negative impacts on the apprenticeships for socially penalised youths.
Concept
Personal coaches help the youths without apprenticeships to find a training position. They help with the applications, create contacts to the companies and support the youths up to the closing of training contracts. The coaches and the youths meet monthly.
Progress/Conclusion
The project was conducted with 142 participants in 56 project- and 7.952 participant hours. The proportion of male and female participants was roughly equal. 20-30% of the youths had a migration background. A project leader and 12 volunteering coaches took on the responsibility - with an astonishing success: 65 socially penalised youths were placed in apprenticeships, which translate into 45% of all participants. Further 10% of the participants are still striving towards graduating successfully from school or are starting basic vocational schooling.
The concept is based on three columns:
- Acquisition of free apprenticeships through the coaches
- Support in the application process (creation of the application documents, preparation of the interview) as well as the cooperation with the school
- Advocate for the youths in the companies, once the apprenticeship has started
The project has been established in a sustainable manner and will continue once the public aid has run out. The public awareness as well as the multiplier effect in the region of Altötting is significant. The project has cooperated with other micro projects through consultations.
Further information: www.esf-mikroprojekte.de
7. Procurement of social competences in the PÄD camp
The "PÄD camp" created by the job-centre Neukölln (Berlin) is targeting unemployed youths with a lack of social competencies. They learn e.g. punctuality, reliability and politeness through internships, group sessions and individual discussions.
Further information: www.gbb-mbh.de
Press coverage ("Tagesspiegel"): www.tagesspiegel.de
8. "The youth is our future - celebrities support kids on their way into professional lives." ARGE Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Berlin)
Objective
It is the objective of this project to contact and potentially win prominent achievers of the German capital region to support the stabilisation of young people and their integration into work or apprenticeships. Thus, the project initiates individual and potentially long-term contacts between the privileged achievers and the less privileged recipients.
Idea
Through the prominent role models and the particular opportunity for value transmission the youths are motivated to use and develop their own talents and potentials. The mentor receives a guiding list with the opportunities available to the individual youth but, beyond, is also asked to utilise own contacts and networks to support the youths.
The creation of a win-win situation is at the core of the concept as not only the mentee obtains an advantage but also the mentor through the publicity gained by the engagement. In parallel to the creation of mentor relationships the youths are also accompanied by case managers who conclude integration plans with the youths and ensure their way into qualification, apprenticeships or work.
The project is cost neutral.
Kernpunkt des Konzeptes ist die Schaffung einer Win-Win-Situation, da nicht nur der Jugendliche sondern auch der Mentor über die Öffentlichkeitswirkung seines Engagements Vorteile hat. Parallel zur Anbahnung einer Mentorbeziehung werden die Jugendlichen durch einen Fallmanager betreut, der mit diesen einen Eingliederungsplan vereinbart und sie in Qualifizierung, Ausbildung bzw. Arbeitsgelegenheiten vermittelt.
Contact:
ARGE Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Kochstraße 30
10958 Berlin
9. "Jobfox" (German: Jobfux) -Forum Pro Vocational Training
Objective
This project aims at aiding the integration of young people without or only poor school leaving certificates and - often enough - additional social deficits into the regular vocational training market.
Basic Information
At the core of the project lays close cooperation of three seconday modern schools (German: Hauptschule) in the city of Mainz and the Youth welfare service (German: Jugendhilfe), the German federal labor agency and the Job-Center for labor market integration Mainz, the coordination of which among others is in the hands of the so called "Job foxes" (Jobfüxe). The Job foxes function as focal points and contacts for the youths and support them in basic career decisions, the search for internships as well as during application procedures.
Internships are conceived as pathway into the labor marked and additionally convey motivation to work. Within the framework of the "Municipal Network Forum Pro Education/Training", the Job foxes have won about 100 local businesses to provide internships. Feedback from businesses and trainers is used in the development of individual action plans and promotions and, thus, broadens the spectrum and enhances the validity of the profilings.
The project has been running since May 2005. Participants are students of grades 8 and 9 of seconday modern schools in the city of Mainz.
The project is financed by the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Family and Health (70 %), the Job-Center for labor market integration Mainz (ARGE Mainz) (15 %) and the city of Mainz (15 %).
Contact:
Forum Pro Ausbildung
Kaiserstr. 35
55116 Mainz
10. An Example from Denmark: The "production school"
Notorious truants and other students who are in permanent conflict with the school in Denmark are given the opportunity to attend "production schools" as an alternative. These craftshops are designed to get youths in touch with a work and education related environment, often after long times of participants' absence from any such setting. They are offered an opportunity to test their skills in a particular field, to follow rules and become responsible for certain tasks and specific products (for example in bicycle manufactures). The process centers around collective work. In teams headed by experienced practitioners, youths come in contact with basic practical skills not commonly taught in ordinary pedagogical schools.
In Denmark, the Youth Guidance Centers assign such youths up the age of 25 to production schools. During a workday, students are esteemed for accomplished work and the manufactured product. They experience a direct link between their truancy and possible consequences for workflow and production. In addition, absence and tardiness lead to significant cuts in the payment (app. 100 Euro per week, depending on age).
In addition to coordinating the production process, instructors work out individual and dynamic development plans for their students. Goals of such plans may be a qualification in the fields of wood and metal works, IT, graphics and textile design as well as nutrition. While practical production work is the basic activity, youths also receive theoretical background training according to their individual needs
While the instructors possess pedagogic qualifications, it is crucial that they are experienced experts in their fields. Often, instructors also partially fulfill the role of a parent.
In Denmark, in 1985, the production schools were legally enacted and nowadays number more than 100. Almost 13.000 students attend a production school. The cost of 113 Million Euro per year are covered by government funds.
The results of this approach speak for themselves: App. 30 % leave production schools starting a regular apprenticeship, 20 % find their way into a regular job, 10-15 % go on to another governmentally aided job. The remaining 35-40 % leave the system to either military service, pregnancy, relocation to other countries or unemployment.
Further information: pschool.bluesharty.net
11. Support to youth in search for employment by PUUL GmbH in Leipzig
Projects
The PUUL GmbH of Leipzig takes part in projects related to the advancement of the labour market and regional structures. The priority is given to applicants, who encounter severe difficulties in entering or re-entering the labor market. In the recent past, more than 1.000 unemployed applicants from the region were helped into a new job by taking part in a qualification measure or benefiting from an appropriation.
PUUL-GmbH and its partners' concept called "Junior Expert Team" has been listed pricewinner in the "Youths to jobs"-competition in the category of Network/Initiatives.
The project currently runs from May 2006 until Sept. 2007.
Finance: The project is financed by the federal ministry of Labour and Social Affairs as well as ARGE Leipzig.
Project Partners: City of Leipzig, ARGE Leipzig, Chamber of Crafts of Leipzig, Chamber of Commerce of Leipzig, Association of Entrepreneurs in Saxony e.V., the municipal gas- and power-company Stadtwerke Leipzig as well as a municipal consulting company BBVL.
Goals
The concept of "Junior Expert Teams" targets the lack of job experience of certain youths. Participants are formed into integrated teams and solve specific tasks that demand a high scale of problem solving competencies. While participants personally benefit from acquiring practical skills in the respective field as well as soft skills such as team work, flexibility and communication, the main goal is to significantly enhance their chances in the labour market. By giving socially disadvantaged youths a chance for long term integration into a company, the firms in return gain sensitivity towards pressing social and demographic issues.
Project description
The approach offers three alternative ways into a job:
- Integration by participation in a "Junior Expert Team", 1-3 months in a company with an option to a permanent job based on performance
- Direct matching
- Matching by qualification and training measures
This approach holds several advantages for both sides: Employers and employees have a chance to get to know each other over a limited period of time. They also receive the necessary support even after the initial phase.
Basic Information
Phase 1: Identification of companies and specific tasks to be performed, design of specific projects and requirements for Junior Experts.
Selection of participants and matching of Junior expert teams, training for specific task in the company.
Phase 2: The Junior Expert Team works on the agreed project over a defined period of time. They are monitored and supported by assigned mentors. Possible challenges are identified, tackled and resolved. After completion, the project results are presented and implemented in the company's production process. The possibility for further employment of the participants is evaluated.
Statistics
During the previous project cycle, 300 participants have taken part in the selection process. 60 applicants were integrated into expert teams. App. 30 members will be offered a permanent job.
Project report
The approach is designed to match specific problems of companies that might demand the advice of an expert. Based on the initial analysis, competencies, qualifications and experiences of the participants are matched and formed into teams. Thus, the concept is not restricted to a specific target group or region. In fact, the concept has been successfully applied to the target group 50+ under the framework of a project by the federal ministry of Labour and Social Affairs since October 2005.
Further information: www.puul-gmbh.com
12. "Part time entry" - Model for youths in Brandenburg
The part time entry model is recommended as a particularly sustainable approach. It is coordinated by a Project company GmbH, initiated by the Frankfurt (Oder) Chamber of Commerce. The Project company matches employees nationwide to jobs in privately owned businesses, using part time employment, public grants and qualification measures. As part of an initiative supported by the Brandenburg ministry of Labour, the model targets unemployed youths up to the age of 25.
The model was first applied in September 2002. Its central goal is the generation of employment for young specialists and the support of advanced qualification for recently hired employees.
Mostly, the model helps youths to find a regular job after completing an apprenticeship by offering part time solutions. In addition, young women and men may obtain special qualifications. The programme is directed at businesses willing to provide but economically unable to provide full time employment.
Further information: www.etz-brandenburg.de