(February 2007 - April  2008 in Belfast / Northern Ireland)

Homo Faber

Better competences and qualifications; better labour possibilities in Europe

Gesellschaft für Europabildung (GEB) will send during the year 2007 a group of ten young workers and jobless of technical and mechanic professions from Berlin and Brandenburg to Belfast (UK/North Ireland). There they will have the possibility of developing a practice time during a period of 17 weeks.

The current difficult situation on the German labour market contrasts greatly to the low numbers of unemployed people in the UK and Ireland. Trough this project, GEB tries to strengthen the European labour market and open the participant’s works perspectives for the future.

Preparation’s visit

In October 2006 ten experts from Berlin and Brandenburg travelled to Belfast on an exchange programme initiated by GEB. This group included vocational school teachers, occupational trainers, placement officers and careers guidance counsellors. In the

course of a one-week stay in Northern Ireland the group was able to look into the workings of the education system and the labour market in the north of Ireland. This exchange of experts served to pave the way for erstwhile preparation of the Mobility Project Homo Faber.

They were shown accommodation sites, were familiarised with companies where vocational training schemes might be established and visited a language school in the city. The participants in the exchange programme were able to

gain enough knowledge to discern ways and means of improving the chances of future young apprentices in the north of Ireland

or on the wider European labour market: of great import is the aim of improving levels of foreign language competence and social skills as well as preparing interested parties for everyday reality in Northern Ireland by building on and optimising international communication skills.

Some of the objectives of our project in Belfast include:

-Improving education quality standards towards a deeper orientation re the demands of the European labour market.-Increasing the competences of young workers and jobseekers from the technical professions in Berlin and Brandenburg.

-Raising the competence of trainers and occupational counsellors in their endeavours to prepare their students and pupils for entering the international labour market.

-Evaluating the project in reference to the possibilities of transformation through employment policies in an international context.- Establishing lasting relations with McClure Watters, our partner in Belfast.