Analytical Paper: Learning Mobility and Social Inclusion. Call for Authors

Transcription

1 Background Analytical Paper: Learning Mobility and Social Inclusion Call for Authors The team of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth is currently responsible for the coordination of the European Platform on Learning Mobility (EPLM). The European Platform on Learning Mobility in the Youth Field (hereinafter EPLM) is a space for exchange and cooperation of researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Learning mobility is meant as transnational mobility undertaken for a period of time, consciously organised for educational purposes or to acquire new competences 1. It covers a wide variety of projects and activities and can be implemented in formal or non-formal settings 2. The EPLM focuses on non-formal learning with links to informal learning as well as to formal education. Learning mobility in this framework aims to increase participation, active citizenship, intercultural learning and dialogue, individual competency development and employability of young people. Mobility is also to be understood as a possible source of genuine and diverse learning experiences, and it therefore becomes important to critically investigate links between learning mobility (settings and contexts) and identity building. The EPLM, in its work, not only considers European youth mobility policies and programmes, but is also more generally interested in learning mobility as a set of complex social processes transforming the conditions of growing up in Europe. Moreover, the EPLM focuses on physical and organised learning mobility but does not overlook the virtual mobility facilitating and supporting physical mobility experiences. 1 Competences are to be understood as an overall system of values, attitudes and beliefs as well as skills and knowledge, which can be put into practice to manage diverse complex situations and tasks successfully. Self-confidence, motivation and wellbeing are important prerequisites for a person to be able to act out his/her developed competences. SALTO T&C RC (2013). Competence framework for trainers. 2 ICON Institute for EU Commission, Education and Culture (June 2012). Study on Mobility developments. 1

2 Social inclusion of young people has been for several years among the key areas of concern for both the European Union and the Council of Europe. Social inclusion is a key priority of the Europe 2020 Strategy of the European Union, setting a common target to lift 20 million people out of risk of poverty by This goal is backed by the flagship initiative European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion and the Open Method of coordination for social protection and social inclusion. While these policies have a strong bearing on youth, two policy initiatives deal specifically with the situation of young people: the flagship initiative Youth on the Move and the Youth Employment Package. Both measures have significant social inclusion objectives: to make education more accessible and better suited to young people s needs, to stimulate youth educational mobility (through the Erasmus+ Programme) and to encourage Member States to take measures easing the transition from school to work. The Youth Employment Package includes actions such as the Youth Guarantee, Quality Framework for Traineeships, and the European Alliance for Apprenticeships. Complementing and supporting the above, the EU Youth Strategy ( ) was developed with the principle objectives to create more and equal opportunities for youth in education and the labour market and to promote social inclusion and solidarity of all young people. Social inclusion is one of the eight fields of action defined by the Strategy and is set as the focus of the second three-year work cycle of the Strategy ( ) and of the Ireland-Lithuania-Greece Trio Presidency. For the Council of Europe, social cohesion is firmly based on human rights (as codified in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Revised European Social Charter), as well as an acceptance of shared responsibility for the welfare of all members of society, especially those who are at risk of poverty or exclusion. In line with this, the youth policy of the Council of Europe aims at providing young people with equal opportunities and experience which enable them to develop knowledge, skills and competencies to play a full part in all aspects of society, as stated in the Agenda 2020, which guides Council of Europe youth policy since In 2009, the Council of Europe s youth sector initiated the Enter! Project 3 aiming at the development of youth policy responses to exclusion, discrimination and violence affecting young people, particularly in multicultural disadvantaged neighborhoods, with multidimensional social and economic imbalances experienced by young people living therein. This project was set in response to the growing concern and attention of the European Steering Committee on Youth and the Advisory Council on Youth, the governmental and non-governmental partners of the youth sector of the Council of Europe, to matters of social cohesion and inclusion of young people. Given the strong relevance of the topic of social inclusion for the youth policies of the Council of Europe and the European Union, they have decided to make social inclusion one of the two priority areas in their partnership in the field of youth. The European policy debate shows an increasing awareness of the need to look at the broader aspects of social inclusion, taking into account both, the structural and the individual factors that lead to social exclusion of young people. Whereas the recent socioeconomic crisis and a related rise in youth unemployment in many European countries had a negative impact on the inclusion of young people in general, some disadvantaged groups of young 3 Council of Europe youth department (2013): Enter project report 2

3 people face exclusion in the longer term. In fact, the recent crisis only reinforced many of the previously existing negative phenomena and their related consequences. Based on the evidence brought by recent projects such as Enter! and the EC policy review `Social Inclusion of youth at the margins of society 4, the EU-CoE Youth Partnership aims at systematising and broadening the knowledge base about existing obstacles for young people in situations of disadvantage around Europe and to support policy and practice with concrete examples of practice showing how obstacles have been overcome in specific contexts. Policy developments on Learning Mobility at European level In its conclusions from November 2008 regarding the mobility of young people the Council of the European Union sets the target that learning experiences in a foreign country slowly become the rule: Every young person should have the opportunity to take part in some form of mobility, whether this be during their studies or training, in the form of a work placement, or in the context of voluntary activities. In November 2008 the Recommendation of the Council of Europe on the Europe-wide mobility of young volunteers, requests the development of new possibilities of crossborder-mobility, quality assurance, the recognition of learning outcomes and the improvement of acknowledgement and support of volunteering. In July 2009 the Commission published its Green Paper on Promoting the Learning Mobility of Young People. It raised a number of questions, such as: How to enhance the chances of mobility of young Europeans? Which obstacles to mobility need to be tackled? How can all stakeholders form a cooperative partnership for learning mobility? The 2009 Renewed Framework for European cooperation in the youth field ( ) sees mobility as an overarching issue. It specifically recommends promoting the learning mobility of all young people and of cross-border professional and vocational opportunities; fostering mutual understanding among young people from all over the world through dialogue and by means of supportive actions such as training courses, exchanges and meetings and supporting the mobility of youth workers and leaders. The 2009 Youth on the Move flagship initiative within the Europe 2020 Strategy responds to the particular challenges young people face and intends to support them in succeeding in the knowledge economy. Supporting the learning mobility of young people is one main field of actions. Youth on the Move reiterates the aspiration that by 2020 all young people in Europe should have the possibility to partly spend their educational pathway abroad. In June 2011, the Council of the European Union s Recommendation Youth on the Move - promoting the learning mobility of young people refers to young people in Europe in all learning and training contexts, at school, in vocational training, in tertiary education, as well as in youth exchanges, voluntary activities or internships, inside or outside the Union. The recommendation seeks to encourage Member States to promote the learning mobility of young people and to remove obstacles that are impeding progress in this area. The November 2011 Council of the European Union s Conclusions on a benchmark for learning mobility, based on the Commission staff working document of May 2011, describes a differentiated strategy and specific benchmarks on learning mobility recognising the different starting points, circumstances and data situations of higher education, VET and youth mobility in general. The Council of the European Union s Resolution on youth work from November 2010 and the Council conclusions on the contribution of quality youth work to the development, well-being and social inclusion of young people from April 2013 describe 4 EC 2012: Social inclusion of youth on the margins of society 3

4 the frame for Youth work in Europe. They also emphasize the need to promote opportunities for exchange, cooperation and networking of youth workers and youth leaders, policymakers and researchers at local, regional, national, European and international level. The Erasmus+ programme builds on the achievements of more than 25 years of European programmes in the fields of education, training and youth, covering both an inter-european as well as an international cooperation dimension. Erasmus+ is the result of the integration of the following European programmes implemented by the Commission during the period : Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action, Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Alfa, Edulink, and Programmes of cooperation with industrialised countries in the field of higher education. These programmes have been supporting actions in the fields of higher education (including its international dimension), vocational education and training, school education, adult education and youth (including its international dimension). Within the Erasmus+ Programme, learning mobility is seen as one of three main lines of action to help as many as young Europeans to be mobile each year. The Erasmus+ Inclusion and Diversity Strategy in the field of Youth 5, launched in January 2015, provides also a number of references to the importance of social inclusion in today s policy development at European and national level. Finally, a draft joint report by the Commission published recently 6 calls for strengthening cooperation in education and training up to 2020 and especially to promote social inclusion. The Commission is today proposing to strengthen cooperation at European level in the field of education and training up to Its draft of a joint report by the Commission and Member States published today calls for making European education and training systems more socially inclusive, as part of the wider efforts to tackle radicalisation following the 2015 attacks in Paris and Copenhagen. The report proposes a sharper policy focus to better address the most pressing challenges facing our society. The six new priorities identified in the report include improving people's skills and employment prospects and creating open, innovative and digital learning environments, while at the same time cultivating fundamental values of equality, non-discrimination and active citizenship. Purpose of the analytical paper Taking into due account the existing documents adopted by the two partner institutions, the analytical papers commissioned by the youth partnership (particularly in the field of social inclusion) and a relevant sample of the existing bibliography, this analytical paper should research on the linkages between social inclusion and learning mobility of young people, especially taking into account but not necessarily limited to the areas of work of the EPLM: linking youth work and learning mobility; providing information and guidance; ensuring quality and recognition; facilitating learning mobility for all and in diversity, competences and training; evaluation, learning transfer and impact. Such analyses should take into account the framework and the proceedings of the second bi-annual conference of the EPLM: Learning mobility in the youth field: towards opportunities for all. Evidence, experience, discourse, which will take place on 7-9 October 2015 in Istanbul, Turkey, with particular regard to the subthemes of the conference. To this end, participation of the author in the conference would be highly recommended accessed 3 September

5 The analytical paper should particularly identify the essential key findings and conclusions of existing material (from policy, research and practice) and start exploring what recommendations towards policy, research and practice can be drawn from this knowledge. Structure and key items of the analytical papers on youth participation To be indicated in draft form by the respondents to this call within their application. Practical issues Applications should be submitted by Thursday, 17 September at noon CET. Please apply by sending an to Davide Capecchi, with the subject: Analytical Paper Social Inclusion and Learning Mobility. The should include - Letter of application (one page): a succinct motivation letter stating the expert s rationale for undertaking the study; - CV of the applicant stating the relevant experience in the selected topic; - Suggested schematic structure of the analytical paper; - Requested days of work, taking into account that the maximum amount of days that can be granted is 5, at a daily rate of 260 EUR i.e. maximum compensation 1300 EUR. The analytical paper should not be longer than words or 5 pages plus references; the references should refer to the sources used for drafting the paper and highlight the most relevant documents in this regard. Timeline: - Results of the selection by 19 September immediate launch of contractualisation. - Deadline for submission of the draft will be Monday 5 October. - First feedback expected by 31 October. - Final deadline for submission: 1 December. The work will be done in close communication with the EU-CoE youth partnership team and may involve additional physical or visio coordination meetings. Questions? May you be interested in applying and have questions please do not hesitate to contact Davide Capecchi davide.capecchi@partnership-eu.coe.int. 5