IGMA. – “EU Integration Agent” – Innovative Guidance Methodology for Integration of Low-skilled Immigrants into Adult Education

Promoter of the Project

• Folkuniversitetet,  Uppsala (Sweden)

Partner Entities

• Revalento, Tilburg (The Netherlands)
• Documenta,  Santander (Spain)
• Dimitra, Larissa (Greece)
• EDITC LTD, Nicosia (Cyprus)
• IREA, Timisoara (Romania)

General description

The overall objective of the project is to improve accessibility to adult education for low-skilled immigrants, in order to help them to enter labour market and become more active members of society.

The specific objective of the project is to develop methodology for effective guidance of low-skilled immigrants into formal/non-formal/informal adult education through coordinated measures provided by a network of relevant stakeholders. Guidance will be built on needs/capabilities of individuals with focus on further entrance to labour market.

The approach is based on:

• The results of the current researches of the ongoing project Grundtvig “Empowerment kit for immigrant women with low educational/ working experience”. This project carried out by 5 countries of the EU identifies: a) The biggest barriers to enter the labour market through education. b) The good practices and methods used by interested stakeholders
  The outcomes of the research show that the biggest hindrance for low-skilled immigrants to enter the labour market is the limited effectiveness of the advising centres. Current advising methods do not have a centralized approach nor do they provide integration measures coordinated with other interested stakeholders. Each interested stakeholder (Adult Education Centres, Public Employment Services, Social Welfare Offices, NGOs, employers) has a different method to facilitate the access of low-skilled immigrants into the education/labour market.
• The recommendations made by the European Commission “It is never late to learn” in 2007.
  This action plan stresses the need of having a more systematic approach to guide disadvantaged groups towards adult education and their integration in the labour market. This approach is focused on the individual adult learner, analyzing needs, system management and providing the right resources. It also has a monitoring process based on substantial evidence.   (Commission of the European Communities “Action plan on Adult learning. It is always good time to learn”, Brussels, 27.09.2007).

This project is created in response to give a solution to some current problems that EU countries are undergoing: 

• “77 million people are low-skilled and those less qualified are the most reluctant to participate in learning” (Grundtvig project).
• There are a wide range of training courses but there is no effective advising and centralised system to help people the right course.
• Due to the lack of coordination among interested stakeholders, there are times in which people are not given the right information or the information given is out of place. Consequently, services provided lead to demotivation and loss of self-esteem.
• Lack of cooperation among interested stakeholders leads to bad management of the public funds granted as an integration measure. Furthermore, as there is no centralized system it is not possible to measure or evaluate the results of the implemented integration measures,
• Immigrants are marginalized and they usually end up involved in illegal activities.

Methodology

To meet the above objectives, this project has established a special WP Project Management, to assure continuous monitoring and evaluation performance.

Project Management team will develop project specific procedures and practices to ensure quality on implementation and achieving the project goals:
Management Manual and Quality Manual

• Operating procedures (Who, What, When, Where, Why)
• Work Instructions
• Audits of Performance

Initially the project management team will prepare a “conceptual monitoring and quality plan” which will be limited in detail and address the following at a project overview level:
1)    Key considerations: a) key deliverables and their project plan dates; b) key project personnel, their accountability through initial training of key project staff in the use of three modules to ensure good use of common framework; c) Communication Plan for stakeholders, public involvement and team (questionnaires for involved stakeholders, educational counselors, adult education teachers, target group representatives and social partners (NGOs) regarding feedback on relevance of the elaborated IGMA methodology ); d) Decision making steps and issue resolution
2)    Quality Assurance: Identify person or agency (2 independent experts from EAEA and the National Council for Liberal Adult Education in Sweden) responsible for independent assurance of achieved result
3)    Quality Control: a) Identify appropriate criteria and specifications of each workpackage expected result; b) Identify person (s) responsible for checking results, and reviewing documentation

Aims

 
The overall objective of the project is to improve accessibility to adult education for low-skilled immigrants, in order to help them to enter the labour market and become more active members of society.

The specific objective of the project is to develop methodology for effective guidance of low-skilled immigrants into formal/non-formal/informal adult education through coordinated measures provided by a network of relevant stakeholders. Guidance will be built on needs/capabilities of individuals with focus on further entrance to the labour market.

The proposed methodology will be based on the official commitment of stakeholders (adult educators, NGOs, PES/Social Welfare Office staff and employers) on common goal and comprise the following elements:

– Integration ladder method with individual at the centre. It will embrace the total number of steps an individual should take in order to enter labour market through adult education. Clear goals and resources will be formulated for each step of the Integration Ladder. By this method the stakeholders will be able to measure on which step at the Ladder an individual is standing. Based on this measurement the Individual Plan will be designed, based on concrete steps and goals which the individual has to take in order to enter labour market through adult education. The action plan will be transparent for both individual concerned and for involved stakeholders.  

– Coordination among stakeholders. Based on the individual plan an agreement between involved stakeholders will be elaborated. The agreement will define which stakeholder is responsible of the certain step at the ladder and what is the expected achievement at that step. This will provide a common framework for the stakeholders to coordinate their efforts in order to achieve the main goal of the individual action plan.

–Progress Management (PM) Method will be the method for cooperation among stakeholders during the implementation of the individual action plan. PM Method will facilitate evaluation of the individual at each step of the action plan and provide possibility for correction of the action plan in a transparent way. This approach will help to use resources in the most efficient way as well as to improve management procedures at each stakeholder organization. This will facilitate more efficient administration and monitoring systems of the stakeholder networks.  

The proposed methodology will be integrated into existing activities of the stakeholders, responsible for guidance of low- skilled immigrants, registered at PES and Social Welfare Offices. This individual guidance given at right time by right stakeholders will facilitate the smooth access of low-skilled immigrants into adult education. This will lead to entering the labour market and achieving active citizenship by low-skilled immigrants. The other outcome will be improved guidance services and effective management of public funds as well as possibility to track and evaluate results provided by each stakeholder.

Target audience

1)    Low – skilled non-European immigrants who are outside of the labour market and are financially supported by social welfare system of the host country.

2)    Regional stakeholders working with integration of the above target group into education/labour market. The stakeholders include staff from adult education providers, NGOs, Public Employment Service (including bilingual mentors who are actively involved in EM Kit-project) and Social Welfare Office, local/regional companies