The ECVET AGENT project recognises the potential of entrepreneurship to offer sustainable employment opportunities for Roma jobseekers across Europe. By developing a new and practical VET curriculum in the area of agriculture, ECVET AGENT will build upon the existing skills and strengths of this target group offering pathways towards the creation of new micro-enterprises.
ECVET AGENT is an exciting new project that will offer a validated and tested approach to Roma economic integration and make a real contribution to the European Vocational Education sector. All resources and training materials developed as part of this project will be informed by the needs of the Roma community, tested in six European countries and freely available to use through the project website.
The aim of ECVET AGENT is to develop a VET programme fostering agricultural competence together with entrepreneurship training for Roma and long-term unemployed people supporting them to become micro-entrepreneurs.
Project target group
The primary target group at the centre of the ECVET AGENT project is long-term unemployed people, particularly those from the Roma Community. European research and evidence has shown that unemployment amongst those most vulnerable and marginalised including members of the Roma Community is at an all-time high, approximately 26% below the mainstream average and that this target group face multiple barriers to labour market entry.
Our initial analysis has also demonstrated a dearth in appropriate and tailored VET curricula focused on developing and enhancing the skills of this target groups whilst also recognising the informal learning and skills that are present within this community. It is for these reasons, that the ECVET AGENT project secured funding under the Erasmus+ Programme to develop and deliver the following project outputs.
Project Outputs
Over the two years, the ECVET AGENT project team will work with key stakeholders in each country to deliver the following outputs:
· A State of the Art Research Report identifying the core training needs and requirements drawn from the insights of the target group and opinion of key experts
· A blended hybrid curriculum the offers practical training in the areas of agricultural skills and entrepreneurship
· ECVET Profile recognising the prior skills and learning amongst the target group using a learning outcomes approach
Project Consortium
The ECVET AGENT project is being developed by a consortium of eight partners representing Germany, Ireland, Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Croatia and Austria (2) with funding from the Erasmus+ Programme 2014 – 2020. The project consortium comprising NGOs, municipal organisations, VET providers, service organisations and private organisations are combining their considerable expertise to design and develop the proposed training programme working closely with key stakeholders and target group members.
In addition the project partners are geographically balanced and can provide a real European perspective and dimension to our results and outputs. This will also positively influence the transferability of results to other countries beyond the consortium.
