<< Background >>The new “Report on the gender perspective in the COVID-19 crisis and post-crisis period”, published by the EU Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, emphasizes “the need for retraining and upskilling programmes for women to take account of shifts in the labour market as a consequence of COVID-19“, stating the concern about higher crisis-related job losses in women-dominated professions and the expectation of prolonged recovery times in female-dominated sections compared to male-dominated ones (European Parliament 20.11.2020). The chair of the European parliament's committee on women's rights and gender equality put the situation in a nutshell: “the pandemic relentlessly discloses gender inequality in all its shapes and forms” – “the corona crisis is female” (Austrian MEP Evelyn Regner 2020). The recent UN Women data concludes that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “women are losing their livelihoods faster because they are more exposed to hard-hit economic sectors” such as sales, cleaning occupations, nursing, educational sector, etc. (DGB-Index 2020). The HOPE project aims to address these inequalities by focussing on the needs of women with fewer opportunities (women with interrupted employment, with part-time work, those in charge of childcare/caring for others, victims of domestic and gender-based violence, women with low income, single or divorced women with children), who are especially affected by consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (genanet – Coordination Centre Gender et al., 2020). The recent international survey “Career guidance policy and practice in the pandemic” published by Cedefop, European Commission, ETF, ICCDPP, ILO, OECD, and UNESCO (2020) confirms the importance of career guidance for recovery in post-COVID-19 times. Therefore, HOPE will also address the needs of counsellors in helping professions working in four project countries. Particularly those in three Balkan countries where counselling as a profession is not developed and formal education programs for counselling do not exist. Women with fewer opportunities are in a need of having their competences assessed in an effective and innovative way, to be empowered and to (re-)integrate into the labor market, educational or training opportunities. The process-based, individual and group counselling work during the HOPE project will enable women to connect with role models and access resources and opportunities more easily. With the support of counsellors, women will discover their strengths, gain self-confidence, and start their process of (re-)integration into the active society.<< Objectives >>The HOPE project aims to empower and guide women with fewer opportunities toward securing employment, education, or training, and successfully (re-)integrating them into social and economic systems, by offering high-quality counselling, competence assessment and career guidance to this target group. Counsellors in four project countries (Germany, Slovenia, Serbia, and North Macedonia) will be trained and given tools to use as they professionally support women in the process of identifying their competencies. All developed materials will be useful for existing and new counsellors as supplements in their practice. By training more counsellors and investing in the quality of their work and tools, HOPE will contribute to a more professional practice of Validation of Prior Learning (VPL) in the participating countries. HOPE will achieve this by creating a comprehensive report on needs of women with fewer opportunities in all four project countries, which will guide the creation of the Toolkit for Competence Assessment and Empowerment as well as the creation of the new ProfilPASS. The ProfilPASS is a biographic-systematic instrument for competence assessment and will be adopted on the needs of women with fewer opportunities. The goal is to distribute the Toolkit and the new ProfilPASS as widely as possible and make them useful and accessible for both women with fewer opportunities and counsellors in each partner country. To do so, associated partners will be contacted and engaged in implementation, dissemination, and promotion efforts. Additionally, HOPE aims to train 32 counsellors to use the project results (Toolkit for Competence Assessment and Empowerment, new ProfilPASS, manual for counsellors and curriculum) when working with women with fewer opportunities. During a testing phase, the goal is for 120 women from this group to have their competences assessed through counselling with the ProfilPASS, and to come one step closer to securing a job or other education or training opportunity. This process will be enhanced through individual and group counselling sessions, and participation in online platforms for exchange, or virtual roundtables.<< Implementation >>Firstly, a management plan will be set up in which the work packages, roles and responsibilities of the partners are summarized and organized in a systematic timeframe. Project results are based on activities subsumed in 10 work packages (WP), 7 of which are related to project results while 3 are transversal and are thus continuous tasks. WP1: Identification of needs is the first stage in which all partners will conduct research in their countries to gather information about the specific needs of women with fewer opportunities and create subsequent recommendations on what should be included in the HOPE Toolkit, including best practice examples for working with this target group. Information will be collected through desk research, focus groups and expert interviews. This approach will ensure a comprehensive and valid overview of the actual needs of the target group.WP2: Development of the Toolkit for Competence Assessment and Empowerment is the next activity in which all partners collect information about existing tools, resources, and services which counsellors and women with fewer opportunities can use in their countries. Tools will be screened using the criteria from the WP1 and the most suitable ones for the target group will be selected, described, and included in the final Toolkit.WP3: Adaptation of the ProfilPASS for the target group of women with fewer opportunities will be led by the DIE, the creator of the ProfilPASS. ProfilPASS, a biographical counselling method for competence assessment is seen as an important instrument in the VPL context due to its focus on informal learning. DIE will develop a concept with suggestions on how the tool and its elements can be adapted to best serve the needs of the target group. The concept will be discussed in the partnership so that all partners can contribute their expertise in working with the ProfilPASS. After several feedback and correction loops, the new ProfilPASS will be developed.WP4: Development of the manual for counsellors, WP5: Development of the curriculum for the training of counsellors and WP6: Training of counsellors from each partner country will be led by the Association Laris, whose staff have extensive experience in managing similar activities. All project partners will contribute to creating the manual for counsellors which will include information about approaches and techniques that are most useful for working with women with fewer opportunities. The curriculum and the manual will serve as a basis for the training for 32 counsellors. The training will be evaluated, and the results will provide valuable insights for further revising and optimizing the developed materials. WP7: Testing phase allow a total of 120 women to use the adapted ProfilPASS and the Toolkit with trained counsellors, and to engage in an online platform for exchange through national, virtual roundtables. The testing phase will be evaluated, and these results will also serve as a relevant indicator for the revision of the materials.Transversal work packages include WP8: Evaluation, WP9: Dissemination and valorization and WP10: Management. The evaluation strategy applied in this project is described separately and will be led by the Q&E Team. Dissemination and valorization include all activities maximizing the achievements of the project such as multiplier events, publications, involvement of important stakeholders in the project and presentations of the project results in the networks of associated and other partners.<< Results >>HOPE project results are divided into PR1: Toolkit for Competence Assessment and Empowerment and PR2: Accompanying Materials and Training for Counsellors.PR1: Toolkit for Competence Assessment and Empowerment will entail the creation of a comprehensive report on needs of women with fewer opportunities in all 4 countries, which will guide the next activities in the project. To create the Toolkit, all partners will conduct a thorough desk research in their countries and identify existing tools for competence assessment that might be suitable for the target group. The core of the Toolkit will be the new ProfilPASS, strongly focused on women with fewer opportunities. It will embody gender sensitive language, examples and testimonials of women serving as positive role-models who are self-reflective, eager to work on their professional portfolio and open to learning about employment, education, and training opportunities. Crucial chapters addressing most common activities of women cross-culturally, materials and exercises to use outside of counselling will be added. The main goal of working with the new ProfilPASS or its elements will be to empower women and spark the change, activate, and guide them towards employment, educational or training opportunities. For this, a database will be created, linking its users to resources and support systems in all partner countries. Newly created exercises and materials in the ProfilPASS for women with fewer opportunities will ensure a low threshold approach to them and will enrich the work of numerous existing counsellors Europe-wide. Through PR2: Accompanying Materials and Training for Counsellors, HOPE will support counsellors and ensure that they can make the most of their individual and group counselling work with the Toolkit and the new ProfilPASS. A manual will be developed for counsellors, which gives background information on the project, the target group, its needs, and specifics, and includes guidance on how the Toolkit and the ProfilPASS can be applied together with several approaches and techniques in the field. A training for counsellors from each partner country will be conducted and for this, a curriculum will be developed outlining the content of the training and suggesting methods and activities for the training delivery. It will contain explanations of the different tools in the Toolkit and instructions on how to use the Toolkit to document the competences of the target group. Finally, the Toolkit and the developed ProfilPASS will be applied in a testing phase in which overall 120 women with fewer opportunities from all partner countries in individual counselling, and even more women and relevant stakeholders in group settings. For this, 32 new counsellors will be trained and equipped through HOPE. All materials will be tested and evaluated in individual and group counselling settings. Group virtual sessions will be organized nationally, when women and other relevant stakeholders (e.g., representatives of businesses or employment centers) will come together at virtual roundtables to share their insights, connect with each other, and thus become more empowered to achieve their own goals set through counselling. HOPE will not only provide training, tools, and materials for counsellors, but will strongly focus on involving as many associated partners as possible and providing them with benefits, group counselling, access to referral mechanisms, additional resources, and support.