The Get Ready 2 Work project aims to promote the active employment of disadvantaged young people (aged 15-25) from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those who have not completed their education or training. These young people often find it difficult to engage in traditional education and integration activities. The project adapts best practices from Austria and Germany to Bulgaria and offers innovative solutions to combat youth unemployment. It combines modular training programmes and a transnational mobility programme, targeting at least 50 unemployed Bulgarian young people. The project includes field visits, peer reviews and staff exchanges, focusing on the study and transfer of effective employment strategies from other countries.

Target Groups:

The project specifically targets disadvantaged young people, aged 15-25, who come from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who have dropped out of education or training, and who are difficult to reach with traditional education and employment integration measures. These groups face significant barriers to employment and require tailored interventions to improve their employment prospects.

Special support required:

The project offers comprehensive support through

• Modular training programmes: Tailored to disadvantaged young people, the programme addresses gaps in vocational skills and provides activation strategies to increase employability.
• Transnational mobility programmes: These provide participants with the opportunity to gain international experience, develop soft skills and expand their professional networks, which are essential for labour market integration.
• LEVEL5 methodology: Used to assess and demonstrate the impact of the training programmes, focusing on validating participants’ competence development through a comprehensive framework.

Innovation:

The key innovation of this project is the adaptation and validation of successful models from Austria and Germany for use in Bulgaria. By piloting these approaches, Get Ready 2 Work introduces modular training and mobility programmes specifically tailored for disadvantaged youth. In addition, the use of the LEVEL5 methodology for assessing and demonstrating participants’ learning outcomes provides a structured and innovative approach to validating competence development.

The mobility aspect of the project offers significant potential for synergy and transfer to other countries dealing with youth unemployment. By enabling disadvantaged young people to participate in transnational mobility programmes, the project provides them with the opportunity to gain international work experience, improve their language skills and develop intercultural competences, which are crucial for their employability. Cross-country cooperation and local exchange of experience also facilitate a two-way learning process where both sending and receiving countries benefit from shared practices. The LEVEL5 methodology used to assess competence gains from mobility experiences provides a transferable validation tool that could be used in other projects aiming to integrate disadvantaged learners into the labour market through international experiences.

Project partners:

CATRO – Bulgaria, die Berater – Austria, BUPNET – Germany.

Project Website:
https://www.bupnet.eu/project/archives/get-ready-2-work/https://getready2work.eu/