Context

  • Due to high youth unemployment, increased skills mismatches and school drop-outs in many EU Member States, career guidance for students finishing their compulsory education is receiving considerable attention – even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, experience shows thateffective orientation needs to start earlier to permit equal opportunities and informed decisions among all young  people concerning their educational and professional future, helping them to find a pathway that suits them.

    In many countries, students as young as 13-14 have to choose whether they will continue in “general” education,  focus on “maths/science” or go into vocational training. Already from this young age, they have to  make important choices, which will affect their future career options. But how can these young people make  such informed decisions? And who is there to help them make these very important, life-determining choices?  Mainly parents, career guidance counsellors and teachers. Yet, educational staff is often ill-equipped to provide  career orientation to this age group, who at this stage in their lives would not benefit from specific career  guidance services. What they require most are so-called “Life Design Skills”, i.e. the knowledge, mind-set and  skills they will need to make informed choices concerning their education, and thereafter to develop their  professional lives in a labour market that will primarily be characterised by change.

The Skills for Life Toolbox is jointly developed by all project partners who pilot it with approximately  500 educators and 10,000 students in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Romania. It is composed of:

  • An on-line self-evaluation tool to help students discover their strengths, weaknesses, priorities,  interests and personality types, as well as to start considering how these may relate to different  professional profiles;
  • A board game, available both offline and on-line, to help students match their own characteristics and  those of different job profiles and economic sectors in a playful way;
  • A series of teaching modules that educators can easily implement in their respective teaching  environment, enhancing the awareness and skills of the students; A half-day training to teach educators to deliver these activities, also available as on-line training  modules;
  • A user-friendly Impact Assessment Methodology that will enable educators to measure the impact and  efficacy of their interventions.

All of the project tools will be freely accessible on-line in five languages: Dutch, English, German, Italian and  Romanian, and will be designed for easy usage beyond language and cultural barriers. Important experiences and insights from piloting the Toolbox will be channelled to policy-makers when seen  feasible by the project consortium, thereby highlighting actions and policies that support effective early-stage  career orientation and Life Design Skills for young people.

The Toolbox will be jointly implemented by all project partners who will use the Toolbox as part of their regular  activities and promote its use by local stakeholders. Furthermore, there will be dissemination activities aimed at  school directors, educators, counsellors, local authorities, Chambers of Commerce and other stakeholders  concerned with youth employment.

The Skills for Life Toolbox will: 

  • empower teachers, youth workers, career counsellors and other educational staff to deliver effective  pre-career guidance to young people aged 13-14 across Europe, 
  • empower young people to choose an educational pathway that will lead them into employment that  suits them, 
  • provide young people with the skills they need on their way towards autonomous  adulthood and a working environment characterised by change. 

Moreover, the project will raise awareness – among local, regional, national and European stakeholders – of the  need to introduce guidance and orientation to students at a younger age, and will promote its outputs as an  efficient and effective means of meeting this need. 

In the longer term, this project will help to bridge the gap between education systems and a labour market in  constant evolution. As a result, young people will be better prepared to envisage their future, to seize new  opportunities and be more resilient to constant change and continuous transitions. 

“Skills for Life – Orientation Toolbox for Life Design” will make a contribution not only to more fulfilling careers  for young people, but also to a more innovative and competitive European economy.

To contribute to young people’s preparedness, the specific objective of this Strategic Partnership, co-financed by  the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, is thus to empower teachers, youth workers, career guidance  providers (‘educators’) to teach Life Design Skills to young people. Between October 2020 and March 2023, the  project consortium consisting of the Goethe-Institut (DE), Aliseo Liguria (IT), Scoala de Valori  (RO), Tracé Brussel (BE) and the City of Mannheim (DE), works towards this objective primarily by developing  an ‘Orientation Toolbox for Life Design’ ready to use for educators. The BIBB – German Federal Institute for  Vocational Education and Training (DE) completes the consortium as an associated partner.