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The project idea was born within a context characterized by the mass arrival of refugees in Greece, from Turkey and other countries, mainly during the period 2015 to 2017.Thus, there was a great need to intervene for the benefit of the group of young refugees, aged 16-24, based on their characteristics and problems, as well as their wishes, such as relocating to a EU country. Relevant intervention should facilitate their integration into society and labor market, handling their difficulty to communicate in the Greek language, their difficulty to find a job, due to lack of relevant skills, as well as their difficulty to be integrated into a formal educational context, due to lack of relevant documents.In view of the above, at a time when other National Authorities’ relevant action was not yet developed, with the exception of the Ministry of Education, the Manpower Employment Organization/OAED, the Greek PES, in conjuction with Strategic Partners, designed and implemented this two-year project, under Erasmus+ for Youth (2017-2019). In this strategic partnership, OAED had the leading role. Partners were the GSEE Center of Educational Policy Development/KANEP/GSEE, the Turkish Ministry of National Education/ MoNE, and the German Training Organization “DEKRA”.I.Ref.SoS scope was to develop an effective transnational system of reception, social support and rapid integration of young refugee populations, inspired from the empirical finding about limited use of the long time period required from arrival in the countries of entry to the time of final settlement in the host countries. It was, therefore, considered that, this period should be positively used to support the steps for social and occupational integration in host societies.The project objective was to develop and test innovative VET pathways, methods and tools to enhance skills of young refugees and professionals in the field, in order to achieve development and implementation of a rapid integration mechanism and relevant good practice, at national and transnational level. Within the framework of the I.Ref.SoS project, studies were initially carried out on young refugees, aiming at gathering the necessary information, on their profile and needs, as well as on the labor market needs of potential host countries. Based on a specific methodology, process and appropriate criteria, forty persons, young adult asylum seekers with legal residence in Greece, were selected to participate in the pilot implementation. An intensive/accelerated language and intercultural training package was designed, for Greek language learning and teaching, enriched with intercultural elements, including tools addressed both to Trainers and Trainees, published in print and digital form, for use on tablets. The program of linguistic and intercultural training was implemented, at pilot level, testing the training methodology and tools. Both the participating young refugees and their trainers used the tablets and the printed material during the lessons. The participants’ needs were analyzed during Guidance/Counseling parallel implementation, based on personalized approach, via interviews with each trainee. The participants’ skills acquired during these interventions were reflected in an individual E-portfolio, whose design and production were also supported by the project. A Vocational Guidance Package was subsequently designed and implemented, oriented to technical and tourist occupations and entrepreneurship, including visits of young refugees at VET schools and laboratories. The action included development of material for vocational guidance counselors. A methodology was furthermore developed to promote the integration of young refugees into the labor market of potential host countries.All the above mentioned project outputs and products cover a wide range of methods and tools for young refugees’ social support, to be further used and/ or transferred to better prepare target group(s) for integration in the host society and labor market. Project results and relevant impact, however, are wider, including important networking and debate, at local, regional, national and transnational level, through multiplier events, with all the involved stakeholders, public authorities, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, social partners’ organizations, practitioners in the field, policy makers. A post-project dissemination strategy is adopted by all the four partners to sustain produced impact.In Greece, interaction with relevant actors, at local/national/transnational level, led to finalization of the project’s results and to a proposal for national strategy. This was an essential result of high importance, which is already yielding results, as it has paved the way to a wider project in the field, at national level, making use of the project lessons, practices, tools and networking, but also including actions to promote refugees’ integration in the labor market.
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