The SPECIAL collaborative project

The European project SPECIAL focuses on utilising soft and general skills to increase the employability, strengthen careers and boost the self-confidence of NEETs (young people not in employment, education or training).

In progress SPECIAL Project Result 2 The partners mapped the needs and challenges that prevent NEETs (young people not in employment or education) from overcoming isolation and marginalisation in the world of education and/or the labour market. This is a multinational partnership, with participating countries including Iceland, Spain, Italy, Romania and Sweden. A general mapping of the European average was also presented. 

It seems that the main challenges for young people concern employment opportunities and secure jobs in the long term. This trend is even more tangible in rural, remote and isolated areas, where the opportunities that urban and centralised areas can offer are lacking.

The partners are now working on developing a training curriculum based on their analysis of the skills gap of NEETs. The curriculum and other materials will be aligned with the training areas and related sub-competences of two European competence frameworks: EntreComp, which focuses on entrepreneurial competence, and LifeComp, which focuses on personal and social competence.

Based on our analysis, several areas of interest appear to align with the skill gap in question:

An opportunity to spot
  • Identify and seize opportunities to create value by exploring the social, cultural and economic landscape.
  •  Analyse the needs and challenges that need to be met.
  • Establishing new connections and bringing together disparate elements to create opportunities and thus value.
Evaluation of an idea
  • To recognise the values in social, cultural and economic terms.
  • Analyse the opportunities that an idea has to create value and find appropriate ways to utilise them to the best advantage.
Self-awareness and self-confidence
  • Analyse needs, hopes and wishes for the short, medium and long term.
  • Recognise and evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and those of your group.
  • Belief in one's own ability to influence the course of events, despite uncertainty, setbacks and temporary setbacks.
Encouragement and perseverance
  • Being steadfast in turning ideas into action and achieving success.
  • Patience and perseverance in trying to achieve long-term goals, individuals or groups
  • Be resilient under pressure, adversity and mistakes
Taking the initiative
  • Launch a process that creates value
  • Take on challenges
  • To work independently to achieve goals, stick to plans and carry out planned tasks.
Planning and management
  • Set long-term, medium-term and short-term goals
  • Define priorities and action plans
  • Adapt to unforeseen changes
Working with others
  • Working together and with others to develop ideas and put them into practice.
  • Create a network of images
  • Resolve complexities and face competition in a positive manner when necessary.
Learning by experience
  •  Using initiative for value creation as a learning opportunity
  • Learn with others, including peers and mentors
  • Reflecting and learning from both successes and failures (your own and others')

The material will be available on the project's website: https://projectspecial.eu/