After developing the NESET training resources, necessary for the next phases of project implementation, partners organised Youth Empowerment Training Courses in each beneficiary country for the development of key skills and competences among prospective young employees (for acquisition of new and validation of previously acquired competences) and prospective young entrepreneurs, applicable to the tourism industry. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the cases when face-to-face workshops were not possible to deliver, partners organised synchronous online trainings.
Bulgaria:
The Cluster for IT Support to the Black Sea Touristic Business delivered Social and Communication skills’ training workshops in Bulgaria in 4 series of face-to-face trainings organised in the period 08 Jul – 01 Aug 2020. 65 NEETs in total took part in the trainings. The Cluster delivered Employability skills in tourism training workshops in Bulgaria in 2 series of face-to-face trainings organised in the period 09-19 Sep 2020. 20 NEETs in total, of those, who previously participated in the Social and Communication skills training workshops, took part in the Employability trainings.
Croatia:
Starting 4thJuly 2020, via an online platform for training delivery due to the COVID-19 situation, 17 trainees initially took part in the ‘Social and communication skills’ training workshops in Croatia. The final set of training for additional 43 persons was organised also online on 13 Oct 2020. 66 NEETs in total took part in the trainings.
Cyprus:
In September 2020 the Cypriot partner Enoros Consulting Ltd organised a “Social and Communication Skills” training course divided in three phases. The first one took place from 7thto 10thof September through an online workshop for young NEETs with the participation of 22 young people. The 2ndphase combining online and face-to-face workshops took place on 17-18 and 23-24 September with 25 participants. The 3rdphase took place during the period 25th– 30thof September in the form of online and face-to face training, involving 20 participants. Enoros team organised the Tourism Employability skills’ training workshops in the period 07-10 September 2020. A total of 20 young people in NEET situation attended the workshops.
Greece:
In Greece, from 29thof June to 11thof July 2020 the Life-long Learning Center SARONIS (GR) organised a series of online training sessions attended by 10 participants from Attica Region Greece, aged 15 to 29, on one of the NESET Skills Groups, i.e. “Social and Communication Skills”. Training was delivered online, using the NESET training material produced. Five sessions were successfully organised, of 5 hours average duration each. Online training was used for the remaining number of Skills Groups (i.e. “Employability Skills”, “Entrepreneurship Skills” and “Skills Validation Standards and Tools”, plus for the remaining 50 participants for “Social and Communication Skills”), starting from September 2020.
Italy:
The Italian partner TUCEP organized an online training workshop via Zoom on 21stof July concerning the “Social and Communication Skills” course involving 13 NEETs. The remaining 3 workshops were carried out on September. As far as the other Skills’ Groups related to the Employability, Entrepreneurship and Validation standards, they were arranged starting from October 2020.
Portugal:
Dialogue Diversity Lda, using TEAMS software, organized two trainings online, involving two trainers and totalling 29 participants for the Social and Communication Skills trainings. The first was held from 6thto 17thof July 2020 involving 15 registered participants. The second training was held from 9thto 23rdof July with the participation of 14 registered participants. In September, two other training groups were organized for the same skills group: the first one carried out via online training from 22ndto 28thof September with the participation of 16 young people; the second one, organized face-to-face, from 24thto 30thof September involving 15 participants.
Romania:
In Romania, Geo Club Association delivered the “Social and Communication Skills” workshops on 7thand 8thof July 2020 with 14 participants and on 11thand 12thof August 2020 with 36 participants. The sessions were organised via Zoom platform and included the following three stages: planning, implementation, and evaluation.
The way ahead:
Following the completion of youth training delivery in all NESET beneficiary countries in early 2021, the partnership has already engaged in the implementation of the last work package of the project – NESET’s WP6 ‘Piloting mobility and start-up support activities, policy implications’. Among them, an innovative tourism sector service for former NEETs will be introduced, associated with job placement mobilities to facilitate on the job training for young people in tourism. The service will be provided to a pilot group of 10 young people per beneficiary country (BC) on average (70 overall), selected among the participants in the training workshops, previously delivered during WP4 ‘Innovative training material & training workshops’. The Guidelines for the new services’ delivery have already been finalised in February 2021. The job placement mobilities are foreseen to start in April-May and continue until June-July 2021. A flexible approach will be followed to the organisation and implementation of the mobilities due to the CPOVID-19 implications, as the partners consider offering to former NEETs national and online (where possible) mobilities, together with the international ones.
