Job to Stay

Status Quo

In 2015 and 2016, 2.1 Mio refugees applied for asylum in Europe. The migration flows and the asylum application processes contain effects not only for society but economy in all European countries – influencing their systems of vocational, general and professional education, labour markets and also have impact on organisations dealing with the support and integration of refugees or asylum seekers. People, public authorities and organisations are mostly not well enough prepared to integrate refugees into the labour market. On one hand, reasons for this might be the lack of language skills as well as the consisting lack of clarity referring to the legal status of the refugees and the related right to work. On the other hand, refugees are mostly not used to the culture, society and existing standards in European work – and daily life. Additionally, refugees cannot give proof of their graduation and often lack necessary certificates. They might have lower qualification levels as well as they face difficulties in the assessment of their previous careers.

Target group: Female refugees

Although there are many initiatives and institutions dealing with the general integration of refugees, female refugees face problems in integration more often. There is a need for specific offers to allow female refugees to actually “come in” in the new countries and then also to integrate them socially as well as economically in labour markets.
The tourism sector provides a variety of connecting factors, as here still lies enormous potential for growth. Tourism has been multicultural ever since, even more, nowadays there is an urgent need for professionals, employees and unskilled workers.

Project objective and outputs

The objective of the Erasmus+ funded project “Job to stay” is the placement and furthermore the development of relevant highly qualifying skills and competences for refugees to grant them access to vocational education and qualifications. In addition to this, another objective is the sensitization of decision makers at different levels. Still, the core of this project is the integration of female refugees into the labour market in the tourism sector.

Within two years, five chosen qualification profiles of the tourism sector shall be described according to the EQF level 2. Based on them, the partners are going to develop an assessment model for these profiles, which is going to be tested in a 6-months “placement integration model” in reality. The concluding Green Paper will conclude all results and experiences of the project to enable other stakeholders and users access of the summary.

Project partners

Nine partners in this EU-project cooperate and work commonly on a common objective across country borders. Due to the expertise of EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURS (Austria), Formazione Co & So Network (Italy) and the Association Odyssée (France), social inclusion and the integration into the labour market of female refugees are possible. In addition to this, the development of educational programmes for female refugees counts as extensive experience of the Slovene Philanthropy asssociation for the promotion of voluntary work (Slovenia). The IHK Projektgesellschaft (Ostbrandenburg) mbH as well as the Verbund für soziale Projekte (VSP) communicate with the target group on a nearly daily basis due to their work, furthermore they have a large spread network within the German economy. The network is also one of the strengths of the European Network for Transfer and Exploitation of EU Project Results (E.N.T.E.R.; Austria), which is going to spread the project results to the target groups, stakeholders as well as for general public. Last but not least, the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (University of Applied Sciences; FHM; Germany) Schwerin and the Univerza na primorskem (Slovenia) ensure the scientific quality of the international project and make sure that all results are scientifically valid and proven.

The project’s flyer is avaible in: English, French, German and Italian.

This project is supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission. This communication relies only with the view of its author and does not reflect the view of the European Commission.

Project N°2017-1-DE02-KA202-004272 Job to stay – Sustainable Integration of Low-skilled Refugees into the Tourism Labour Market