The project is active in the Milan Metropolitan City Area and it takes hold starting from two main considerations: the labour market access for youth and the considerable number of young refugees and asylum seekers in Italy, particularly living in the Milan Metropolitan Area.
Overall, although in the Lombardy Region the general employment rate has returned to growth – exceeding the number of pre-crisis employees by 3% - the generational imbalance remains very strong to the detriment of the younger workers (15 – 44 y.o.) (see 12° Annual Report “Work in Milan”, by Assolombarda, CGIL, CISL, UIL).
Within this picture, those groups who are more exposed and risking there are those youth with a lower level of education and those who also have a migratory background. The latter have in fact more than 70% probability of becoming NEETs (Non-in Education, Employement or Training) compared to their native counterparts, who were born and raised in the hosting country (Eurofound Report 2012).
Therefore, the priority of action of this project is based on the extreme urgency to start facing the topic of social and labour integration of young refugees and asylum seekers. Who are among the most exposed and fragile groups considering also a stronger impact on the labor market access for the new generations.
Starting from what exposed above, this project identify and aims at taking action on the following specific issues:
- Strong exposure and greater risk of unemployment and / or de-skilling of young migrants in the contexts where they are re-settled.
- Limited awareness and knowledge of services and support systems on the territory to promote employability and training, which are already active and available.
The general objective of this project is to contribute in developing competences (functional, soft and core skills), employability and labour long-term continuity of the beneficiaries involved. The specific objective is to promote innovative approaches and tools, experimenting and integrated model to improve local services already present in the area, by adapting them to the needs of the young people identified who are particularly exposed to the risk of socio-economic exclusion.
The beneficiaries of this initiative are young women and men between 18 and 30 years old, asylum seekers and refugees at risk of socio-economic exclusion in the contexts where they live: youth people who experience particularly high levels of vulnerability in terms of education, social and labour integration.
Foreseen Activities
60 youth will be made aware and trained through orientation sessions on labour access and soft-skills training activities to improve employment and their potential future integration into the labour market.
20 youth will follow a specific educational path including Italian language classes for work, IT, and technical training for work integration based on 3 individuated sectors: Third Sector, Private Sector and Small Artisan Enterprises.
6 youth selected from the groups above, will start a 6 months apprentice period within one of the three mentioned selected sectors.
Within the apprentice group selected for the Small Artisan Enterprises, the most motivated and suitable profiles will receive additional support and training to improve their skills in entrepreneurship and management competences, promoting in this way, generational turnover within traditional sectors and development of self-employment capabilities. Project activities will also be disseminated to the wider audience and public, spreading messages of diversity advantage and anti-discrimination, thanks to video stories narrating the experiences and results obtained by the beneficiaries involved.