<< Background >>According to The Updated OECD Youth Action Plan successful engagement of young people in the labour market and society is crucial not only for their own personal well-being and economic prospects but also for overall economic growth and social cohesion. Factors other than age affect their needs and vulnerability, including the country and region in which they live, as well as their age and gender; educational attainment; geographical location; family status and income; disability/medical condition; unemployment history; and access to transport conditions. However, in all countries, disadvantaged young people face an increased risk of high and persistent unemployment, poor quality jobs when they do find work, and a high risk of social exclusion. Specific attention to these groups is needed to ensure they receive the support they need to thrive in life. At the global level, the labour force participation rates of youth (ages 15-24) tend to decline. The “Global Employment Trends for Youth” report released by the ILO in March 2020 showed that while the youth population increased from 1 billion to 1.3 billion in 1999-2019, the size of youth in active labour markets receded to 497 million from 568 million.Especially, the global economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic has created even greater challenges for youth. Young people are facing the risk of early school leaving or the risk of being out of the education, and many of them find that the only work open to them involves poor working conditions and low wages. They suffer disproportionately from growing inequalities and decreasing labour force. The most common variables leading the risk of being youth with disadvantaged background: age and gender; educational attainment; geographical location; family status and income; disability/medical condition; unemployment history; and access to transport. Turkey’s late 2018 economic recession not only ended a period of increasing employment levels but also slashed more than 700,000 jobs. These losses affected young people (15-24) in terms of a tougher labour market and can be measured by increases in their NEET rate (21.9 to 23.5 per cent, 2018-2019) and unemployment rate (20.3 to 25.4 per cent, 2018-2019. Just when the economy had started growing again the COVID-19 pandemic arrived to Turkey bringing the NEET rate further up to 27.1 per cent as of November 2020. The “Youth and COVID-19: Access to Decent Jobs Amid the Pandemic” report conducted in Turkey (available below) notes that 77% of the young respondents from Turkey and 61% of young refugee respondents report that COVID-19 has adversely affected their job search. The youth further report that available jobs have diminished, and negative responses to their job applications have increased.Moreover, since 2010, youth participation in the labour market has been one of the main concerned issues in the EU policy agenda.1 Youth unemployment is more affected by the fluctuations in economic activity than adult unemployment thus it has gained a great importance as the labour market force in both the developed and the developing countries since the global recession leading to a significant increase in youth unemployment rates. In Turkey, youth labour market is characterized by high levels of unemployment and inactivity. The Effective Job Orientation Support By Visualizing Potentials project intends to provide young people having disadvantaged background with opportunities to improve their key competences through non-formal learning methodologies, in order to boost their employability and participation in society as strongly emphasised by the 2020 Council Recommendation framed by the European Commission. The project consortium consists of the partners having experience working on the fields of training and counselling, that enable us to implement a holistic, resilient, and well-organized methodology with all young people regardless of their educational and vocational background easil<< Objectives >>The main objective of the project is to enable young people having disadvantaged background to increase their vocational and professional skills through the methodology of career counselling based on symbol scenarios called planning road map and life road map or other scenarios. Project activities aim to all young people with disadvantaged background, especially those young people who are from rural areas or face geographical obstacles and are looking opportunities for building a roadmap for their career and education paths. Moreover, young people will receive support that are relevant not only to the labour market, but also for increasing social inclusion and active citizenship, and decreasing discrimination and obstacles they face in their life. Moreover, trainers, career counsellors and educators will be able to develop innovative approaches and pathways for young refugee and migrants to facilitate their access into the labour market and to get practice the methodology based on symbol scenarios to adopt them to use their daily practices. •To enable youth workers trainers, career counsellors and other actors working vocational orientation to discover what a competence-based approach is and its applicability in the context of youth work.•To introduce the ETS competence model for youth workers working internationally and to link it to their personal youth work practice.•To explore competence self-assessment tools.•To facilitate disadvantaged young people to discover ways and tools for professional development.As long-term project objective, decision makers will be informed about importance of dissemination of the project methodology at national levels, and they will be encouraged to take concrete steps and bring solutions on inclusion of young people having problems with health and well being, barriers to studying or working; difficulties managing money; the absence of a safe and comfortable place to live; and difficulties feeling involved and respected in society<< Implementation >>PR1 “ELO 4 Youth” Blended Learning Approach and AccreditationThis Intellectual Output is based on creating a profile of Competencies for the professional Counsellor with competencies which are needed for a professional orientation method in youth work in the different countries.PR2 Youth Workers F2F raining Curriculum and Toolset based on Symbol WorkWithin the scope of PR2, the training for professionals in ELO4Youth is essential for the implementation of the methodology and Toolset.PR3 Professionals Distance Training Course DevelopmentThis PR is based on transferring the learning of the f2f method from PR2 to online content and in this way make it available for more people, also those trainers who will not be able to join a f2f training.<< Results >>Work methodology and counsellors training within this specific approach already used in Austria is expected to extend impact in several counsellors’ professional fields: it is expected to be applied by counsellors within other counselling processes, universalizing this approach in professional counselling in different countries. The train-the-trainer course for youth workers in VET providers, NGOs, Youth Centres, and schools will be structured following the principles of ECVET as one coherent unit of learning outcomes that can be recognised, transferred, and accumulated in the framework of ECVET.The train-the-trainer course will be assigned ECVET credits, after comparison with qualifications and training programmes, existing in the partners countries.For facilitating the process of recognition of the learning outcomes of the train-the-trainer course, ELO4Youth will produce a Europass Certificate Supplement that will accompany the training certificate, detailing the learning outcomes acquired in the course.The use of ELO4Youth method for youth workers and youth intervention provision will lead to the identification of skills and competences that the young people possess through non-formal and informal learning. The project will produce an implementation and recognition plan with concrete guidelines on how these learning outcomes that have been acquired through non-formal and informal learning can be recognised in the different countries involved. The recognition will be achieved by established tools in the partners’ countries (e.g. Europass, ECVET, Youthpass) and will be proposed to include into action plans of national strategies in this field.