Step Up

Context

Developing migrants’ skills and having their qualifications recognised is a complicated and costly process. It also requires the ability to navigate the system and understand the appropriate training required for various professions. In addition, the Covid crisis coupled with a fast changing labour market had a substantial impact on the EU workforce, with many workers losing their jobs or being placed under short-term work schemes.  The new Europass platform, launched in July 2020 in the context of the Updated Skills Agenda, and the EU Skills profile tool for Third Country Nationals address this situation by giving the support to migrants to ‘showcase their skills and qualifications and facilitate their recognition through better information.’ 

Aim of the project

STEP UP project aims at offering migrant women the opportunity to gradually increase a wide range of skills (employability skills, transversal competences, communication skills, team working, confidence, ability for innovation, sustainability thinking), while raising their awareness on the importance of lifelong learning possibilities. Women participating in the STEP UP development program will receive tailored support based on their specific needs, ensuring continued support by the trained staff with the right set of competences.  

Impact

STEP UP will propose a new way to build on migrant women’s motivation to participate in upskilling possibilities, using an entrepreneurial mindset and sustainability skills as an innovative way for skills identification and screening.
The partners decided to work together to equip their educators to take advantage of this new tool, and together create a new comprehensive learning program that addresses migrant women specifically, offering them the possibility to enhance key employability skills that are not usually taught to them, either in various courses or by using an overall personal-development approach.
The overall objective of the project is to develop and test an all-in-one learning program to help migrant women in strengthening their employability skills, fostering their awareness on the importance of upskilling possibilities, while getting a step closer to attaining those skills and qualifications that increase their chances of getting jobs or starts their own businesses.

Results 

Migrant women are motivated to upskill and become valuable contributors to the workforce.
With their core needs addressed, migrant women will gain the confidence to build on their skills and have via tools that can help their personal and professional development.
There is no single method that works best for motivating and empowering migrant adult women in their personal and professional progression. This is our small contribution.
Download the manual here!

Project’s information 

• Duration 24 months, from 01/11/2021 to 31/10/2023
• ID 2021-1-SE01-KA220-ADU-000035340