INSIGNARE is a non-profit association located at Ourém, in the center of Portugal. We have severalworking areas – two VET secondary schools, with more than 550 students (EPO – Ourem Vocational School and EHF – Fátima Hospitality Vocational School), an adult training centre (CFC), with more than one thousand trainees each year, one local employment centre (GIP, with more than five hundred people enrolled) and one guidance and validation centre (CQEP, which is quite new, with only one month).
Both schools have diversified teaching staff, full-time and part-time, because as much of the teaching staff is also integrated within the labour market, knowledge and experience of the labour force can be and is transmitted to the students. All the courses are level IV and grant equivalence to 12th grade.
Ourém Vocational School (EPO), the one involved in this project, founded in 1990, has Management, IT, Metalworking, Industrial Maintenance and Electronics courses, following the strategic decision of becoming an industrially focused VET school. EPO is fully equipped with the facilities needed to proper and efficient work environment training:
– Metalworking workshop, with several equipment, like CNC machines, that our students use to develop their hard skills in an almost real work environment.
– IT, Electronics and Automation workshop, with equipment suitable to prepare them for installation, maintenance, repair and adjustment of hydraulic power, electronic, pneumatic and industrial automation systems.
– Industrial Maintenance workshop, where our students are trained to work at the area of maintenance, related analysis and diagnosis, control and monitoring of the operating conditions of electromechanical equipment and industrial electrical installations.
– Broadband internet access: cable and Wi-Fi.
– Two IT rooms, both with 24 PCs, smart board and air conditioned;
– Classrooms with projectors and air conditioned.
Fátima Hospitality Vocational School has Cook, Waiter, Receptionist and Environmental and Rural Tourism courses, and has fully equipped facilities for a practical training of these subjects, highlighting the two training kitchens, one industrial kitchen, one training restaurant and bar. Almost daily we have external catering services following companies’ requests.
Our students and learners come from two regions, as our municipality is the border between those two – we cover an area of almost half a million inhabitants: the two VET schools and the adult centre have a regional scope, but the employment service is mainly local. Together with the Municipality and the local Business Association (two of our “owners”), we support a Business Centre with several incubated micro companies, some of which were created by unemployed people
All of our working areas have experience dealing with LLLP.
Our school is located in an isolated village in the mountains (in a rural poor area) called Glafki in the north east of Greece. It’s 25 kilometres away from the nearest town (Xanthi) and approximately 200 km away from Thessaloniki. It’s a high school (the students are from 15 to 18 years old) and all of them belong to a muslim minority. Their society is a ghetto. Our students speak an oral language (pomakika), but they are taught in greek, which is very hard for them taking into consideration that in the primary school they were also taught in turkish . They have difficulties in learning and they come from families with low income and poor educational level. That’s the reason they often drop out school. There is a high percentage of illiteracy in their area. So they are really at risk of social exclusion, especially the girls that some years ago couldn’t even attend the school because of social stereotypes.
Being involved with the project students will be motivated, enrich their knowledge, improve their skills and become much more creative and productive than being taught according to the traditional way of teaching. Our students are very interested in this Erasmus + project because they need to discover and express their enterpreneurial skills as well as to communicate in english with other students and people from Europe through the enterprises of the project. Running their own enterprise they will learn about enterpreneurship and practice on it, which will be useful for their future vocational development, considering that the whole country and especially their territory confronts a high level of unemployment because of the economical crisis. After being graduated , having obtain new skills and being supported through the project, they will feel more confident to make their own business in their real life. Moreover, because of the fact that their society is isolated and poor, our students strongly need to visit other countries and meet other students because they usually don’t travel. They will gain self-confidence and feel really pleased.
Sincan Anadolu General High School (SinAndLi) is located in Ankara, the capital of Turkey with 29 kms distance to the center with 130 teachers and approximately 3000 students aged between 14-19 . Having 2 computer laboratories, classes with smart boards and some necessary equipments which can be used for e-learning and to improve language skills. But it is never enough as they do not have enough chance to meet people speaking English or any other foreign language. Our school also welcomes children from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as those with special needs or physical disabilities.
Illiteracy, low socio- economic statues of families, having no goal, the bias of society to weak pupils in education, wasting their time and energy force the students to quit the school and end their education life.
The reasons of our participation to this project is; despite they do not have enough English and ICT knowledge or enough self-confidence , with the project and with the help of our experienced partners, they will be aware of their capacity of producing, persuading people ,selling products , running a company, using their language communication and ICT skills. They will also get rid of ineffective usage or misusage of their skills. This project aims to equip the students with business for their real life, cope with any kind of lack of self-confidence’ by developing their communication, language, ICT and entrepreneurial skills with the help of marketing, sales moments, organizing and running the companies, connecting with other nations, providing cultural interaction and with this way bring them in education as much as possible.
School of Natural Sciences, Karlovac, is a successor of a School of Chemistry, an institution with a long and successful educational tradition. Nowadays the School offers four years education in the field of ecology, veterinary, agronomy and food processing and three years education for the occupations florist and graphic artist. Besides that it offers two short courses for adults for the occupational profile dairymen-cheesemaker and wine-grower. There are around 250 students enrolled in those programmes on yearly basis. The School has chemical laboratories, two ICT classrooms, and mini dairy facilities and offers wide diversity of extra school activities in sport, science and ecology. School’s managerial staff and teachers are experienced in project management and implementation. In last three years they prepared and implemented several projects funded by local administration unit and other donors, mostly in the field of education and ecology. The School applied the existing training programme for the occupational profile dairymen-cheesemaker and trained around 140 adults so far. The School was subcontracted by UNDP as a training executive in a project “Socio-economic Recovery of Areas of Special State Concern and Undeveloped Regions in Croatia: Lika and Dalmatia Hinterland”. The School successfully organizes training for around 70 adults from the project region. The School gained experience built cooperation with local associations of cheesemakers, Croatian Agricultural Extension Institute, local authorities and other adult education institutions. The School got State Reward in 2007 for the achievements in environmental protection. The school is now implementing a new IPA project for educating unemployed persons about freshwater farming see more at http://www.aquaagro.eu/.
Also the school was the lead coordinator on Lifelong learning programme YES-COMENIUS which two main goals were to prevent early school-leaving by developing entrepreneurship spirit and to raise students’ awareness of the education necessity. You can find more about the project on http://yes-comenius.com.
EGInASrls is a private consultancy body, operating in the field of EU projects and grants. The company has been founded by a team of project managers with long-term experience in the preparation, submission and implementation of project proposals, as well as in the coordination of international partnerships and the administrative and financial management of actions at local, national and EU level.
EGInASrls is located in Foligno, in the Umbria Region (1,30h far from Rome by train), and it operates within a wide and consolidated network of public and private bodies, providing high-quality services and consultancy in different fields:
Lifelong Learning and Higher Education
We are accredited at the Umbria Region as a training agency for the implementation of training activities funded by the European Social Fund. Our training center is composed of two fully interactive classrooms, one IT laboratory, a conference room, a bar and a restaurant. We cooperate with trainers and teachers from all over Italy, as well as outside Italy, for the planning and implementation of non formal and formal educational activities.
Research & Innovation
Our research team is composed of lecturers and researchers from the National Research Council (CNR), industrial engineers, experts in social sciences and from the educational sector. We constantly try to design and realize innovative solutions and services for different target groups, taking advantage also of a proved network of international relations and partnerships.
EU/International projects
The key staff of EGInASrls is experienced in the management of EU funded projects within the framework of different EU financing programmes: FP7, LLP, PROGRESS, IEE, DAPHNE III, EU Civil Protection, Culture, Youth in Action, Citizens, Interreg IVC, SEE and MED. During the years we have been involved in the implementation, both as coordinators or partners, of a consistent number of multilateral projects.
Transnational mobility
EGInASrls acts also as a sending, hosting and intermediating organization in the field of transnational mobility. On the basis of our logistic and organizational competences and facilities, we always analyze and interpret the educational and professional needs and resources of the territory, in order to offer the best international experience both at outgoing and incoming learners.
The Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work is an independent, non-profit organisation to support professionals (e.g. municipalities, employment agencies and providers) and citizens in the fields of employment, income, social inclusion, social security, re-integration, and quality of life.
How does Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work work?
The Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work is a non-profit foundation and the specialist in the fields of employment, income, social inclusion, care, re-integration, social security and quality of life. Our goal is to set up partnerships and platforms for innovative research in our fields of specialism, developing digital information for citizens and professionals about employment strategies (e.g. Work First), legislation and regulation, and the social map of the Netherlands and other countries (e.g. Australia, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, United States of America, South Africa, etc.). Innovation is one of our priorities.
What does Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work do? The Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work works on international projects and national projects as well as local assignments.
Some of our projects are:
§ Developing and testing new concepts in the fields of employment, income and care (such as Work First and marketing for social services)
§ Transferring know how of employment strategies in European context (e.g. ESF, Grundtvig)
§ Supporting in submitting tenders, also in a regional context.
§ Support in implementing new legislation.
§ Supervision for (European) subsidy applications.
§ Developing risk analyses in the fields of fraud prevention and re-integration.
§ Supervising co-operative efforts.
§ Supporting local governments in setting up small-scale business space projects.
§ Implementation of instruments for quality improvement and internal auditing.
§ Accounting for budgets and policy scenarios for activation of job seekers.
§ Setting up the local labour market policy.
§ Providing training and coaching for (international) managers and employees.