„…They steel like ravens, are afraid of hard work and peoples of restless nomads…“ – if it comes to „gypsies“, we are quick with prejudices. Even more problematic is the fact that they can be mobilised any time what is proven by regular riots and their actual living conditions in a very sad way.Without a doubt – and that was not only confirmed by the last EU Roma Summit – „… the integration of Roma is in progress all over Europe. More Roma children attend a primary school; there are more supporting programmes for Roma who need a job, a flat or access to health care.” Despite of the achieved progress, that are in a major part due to the “EU Framework for National Strategies for the Integration of Roma until 2020”, they are still the poorest, the most concerned by unemployment, the least educated, the shortest living and the most arrested Europeans. A relevant reason for the permanent discrimination of Roma is their low education level. A participation of Roma in education is clearly reducing after the compulsory education. Their unemployment rate is in average 70 per cent. The rate of women is even higher.Another big obstacle for the Roma’s access to education and employment is that they are not aware of their own talents, skills and competences. Furthermore, the majority of them is not really involved in professional orientation and career planning.On the other hand, we know that education and employment is the key to social integration. For the economic development of a country, the Roma are indispensable as employees in general and particularly as skilled workers. The first aim of “pROceed” is to identify European best practise for professional orientation, career guidance and job preparation which can be adapted both for concrete requirements of vocational education and the labour market and the specific needs of the target group in the partner countries. Secondly, the partners will initiate a dialogue with relevant stakeholders from the according fields who will – as the third step – develop concepts for follow-up projects together. The 18 months project will be realised by partner organisations from Slovakia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Serbia.

"""Whe nyo ur eadt hi ste xty ouk no whow itfe elsi fyo uc ann otr eadp rop er ly.""(source of the German text: ""Grundbildung in Europa: Projekte und Perspektiven"", NA BIBB).According to UNESCO, an estimated number of 73 million adult Europeans are considered as functional illiterates. This is equal to 1/5 of the employable population aged 18 to 64 years. Taking reliable figures on the extension of functional illiteracy into consideration (e.g. leo – Level One Study in Germany), this concerns 6.2 Mio. adults in Germany, 2 Mio. in Greece, 1.2 Mio. in Hungary, 0.2 Mio. in North Macedonia, 3.8 Mio. in Romania, 0.8 Mio. in Serbia and 0.5 Mio. in Slovakia. Unfortunately, there are no valid figures concerning the literacy rate of Roma. Experts say that the share of functional illiterates among adult in urban regions of the partner countries is about 60 per cent, in rural areas partly up to 80 per cent. Women are particularly concerned. Unfortunately, the low education level is still a relevant reason for the permanent discrimination of Roma. Disadvantages in the education sector which is a central field for the social integration and raising of such a young generation, are particularly visible. A real segregation exists. Many times, functional illiteracy is the reason for the difficult access of Roma to education and employment as basis for their social integration. For this reason, a Curriculum for alphabetisation courses for the improvement of the literacy of Roma in the fields reading, writing, numeracy and IT that is in line with their specific needs was developed in the Strategic Partnerships „RomABC goes Europe!“ and „RomABC – the next dimension“. During the testing of this Curriculum in the frame of according courses, it got obvious that an insufficient health literacy and a lack of basic civic knowledge is also limiting the every-day-life of Roma relevantly. Therefore, the further development of the Curriculum for raising the literacy grade of adult Roma by those emphasis is the centre of our follow-up project.The comparable high share of functional illiterates among Roma does not only require a possibly nation-wide offer of tailored alphabetisation courses, accordingly trained adult educators but also innovative training offers and adequate training material. Those needs shall be covered in the project by:- the further development of the Handbook for trainers including the vocabularies- the education of trainers in a Pilot Training- the utilisation of the training material for webinars and - the development of a blended learning course for the alphabetisation of Roma from level 3.In the frame of a study the partners will implement in their countries, additional disadvantaged target groups shall be identified for which tailor-made alphabetisation courses would also be necessary. The resulting needs for the modification of the Curriculum and the Handbook shall be found out as well. „RomABC moves forward“ will be implemented by partner organisations from Germany, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia and aims particularly on a reduction of the number of functional illiterates among adult Roma, the raising of their employability and the increasing of their share in adult education measures. Thus, the project contributes concretely to the implementation of the post-2020-EU-Framework for national Roma integration strategies and the according national strategies of the partner countries."