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RESHAPE the future Education and training for migrants and refugees THE WS THEME REPORT: Recognition of non-formal and informal learning Host partner Tietgen, Denmark Workshop in Odense, Denmark 28.11. – 2.12. 2016 Number of Ws participants 25 participated in the partner meeting in Odense, Denmark. 22 participated all 5 days. Description of the theme The main focus areas of the workshop in Denmark are identification of each participating countries best practices related too: Recognition of non-formal and formal learning of migrants and refugees Information on the participating countries regulatory frameworks for working with migrants and refugees Mandates under which each partner is working today Which challenges do we encounter Brainstorming and sparring on solutions How can we make refugees an asset to receiving countries rather than a burden? A summary of the state of art in partner countries Denmark Denmark has endorsed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Denmark has also signed the UN Refugee Convention. The countries of the EU joined in 2006 the Dublin Regulation, which provides that asylum seekers should have their claims in one EU country - the first country in the EU, they have passed through. You can request asylum in one of two ways: In person at a police station in Denmark or in person at the reception centre at Sandholm Accommodation Centre. The application for asylum begins processing at The Danish Immigration Service after the registration process is complete. If an asylum seeker is granted asylum the Immigration Service makes a decision on housing in a municipality in Denmark. The integration unit at the municipality must offer an integration plan within 1 month after receiving the responsibility for the refugee.

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Page 1: RESHAPE the future Education and training for migrants and ... · refugees without formal documents into Slovenian educational system. Activity is going on under the leadership of

RESHAPE the future

Education and training

for migrants and refugees

THE WS THEME REPORT: Recognition of non-formal and informal learning

Host partner Tietgen, Denmark Workshop in Odense, Denmark 28.11. – 2.12. 2016

Number of Ws participants

25 participated in the partner meeting in Odense, Denmark. 22 participated all 5 days.

Description of the theme

The main focus areas of the workshop in Denmark are identification of each

participating countries best practices related too: Recognition of non-formal

and formal learning of migrants and refugees

Information on the participating countries regulatory frameworks for

working with migrants and refugees

Mandates under which each partner is working today Which

challenges do we encounter

Brainstorming and sparring on solutions

How can we make refugees an asset to receiving countries rather than a burden?

A summary of the state of art in partner countries

Denmark Denmark has endorsed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Denmark has also signed the UN Refugee Convention.

The countries of the EU joined in 2006 the Dublin Regulation, which provides that asylum seekers should have their claims in one EU country - the first country in the EU, they have passed through.

You can request asylum in one of two ways: In person at a police station in Denmark or in person at the reception centre at Sandholm Accommodation Centre. The application for asylum begins processing at The Danish Immigration Service after the registration process is complete.

If an asylum seeker is granted asylum the Immigration Service makes a decision on housing in a municipality in Denmark.

The integration unit at the municipality must offer an integration plan within 1 month after receiving the responsibility for the refugee.

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The municipalities in Denmark are offering Danish to all refugees for free. The total maximum period for integration is 5 years. This period starts when a refugee is registered in Denmark.

Links: The Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment http://sammenomintegration.dk/da/Forsideindhold/Sammen-om- integration/Hvordan-deltager-man-kom-i-gang/Faktaark.aspx

The internet portal "Education and Integration" http://ufm.dk/aktuelt/nyheder/2016/ny-portal-skal-stotte- integration-af-flygtninge

Integration Initial training (IGU) http://uim.dk/nyheder/2016-10/danske-virksomheder-tager- integrationsgrunduddannelsen-igu-i-brug

Private companies bonuses http://uim.dk/arbejdsomrader/Integration/bonus-til-private- virksomheder-der-ansaetter-flygtninge-i-ordinaer-beskaeftigelse

Slovenia The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia from 1991 provides the basis for the integration of refugees and migrants into the Slovenian society. Its Article 61 grants everyone to express his national belonging, to express his/her culture and use his/her language and writing, while Article 63 prohibits discrimination.

The conditions for granting of international protection are laid down by the International Protection Act. This law is intended for those who were persecuted politically or due to religious beliefs, or belonging to an ethnic or social group. It grants the refugee status or the status of subsidiary protection (the latter grants less rights).

Subsidiary protection is granted to those who are not entitled to the refugee status.

Persons who are granted refugee status are entitled to permanent residence, while persons who are entitled to subsidiary protection are entitled to temporary residence. The rights of economic migrants without citizenship are written in Migrants Act from 2014 with the amendments.

The Ministry of the Interior is in charge of the integration of refugees and

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migrants, while the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport is in charge of education (primary, vocational, secondary, grammar school, higher education, adult education),

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while municipalities assist the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport to financially support education.

The Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE) does not provide courses for migrants and refugees but mostly for adult educators who works with refugees and migrants.

Netherlands Alfa-college, region North-East Netherlands, is a school for Vocational Education and Training, for Second chance secondary education and has a special department for Non-vocational Adult Education and training (language courses, integration courses for both Dutch native speakers, refugees and migrants).

Since the summer of 2015 the Netherlands has been one of the major destination countries for refugees.

The waiting time for an asylum application is currently at least seven

months. Only after that period of time is the IND (Immigration and

Naturalization Service) able to consider whether asylum seekers will be

permitted to remain in the Netherlands.

During the stay in the asylum center COA (Center for Accommodation of

Asylumseekers) is responsible for the accommodation and guidance of

asylum seekers while they are in the center.

During the asylum procedure they are not allowed to work.

Once a refugee receives a residence permit, they can move to a municipality. Municipalities have targets of accommodation for refugees and this are spread over the country.

Since 1-1-2013 there is a new integration law in the Netherlands that states that everyone who gets a permission to stay in the Netherlands has the obligation to pass integration exams within 3 years.

Since 2013 the official government agency DUO (that is also in charge of organizing study loans and study requirements for Dutch students at VET, higher vocational education and university) has the responsibility to organize all the processes and funding of integration courses.

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Italy

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Asylum applications in Italy are done on arrival at a border Police, the person is identified and registered in the EU database EURODAC whose information is shared by all EU Member States. Asylum seekers are given a Temporary Permit of Stay while waiting for the conclusion of the examination procedure (which may take right now over a year time), ensuring among other rights, the right to education for children at public schools or vocational education for adults.

A person recognized the status of refugee In Italy gets a permit of stay for 5 years, in case of subsidiary protection gets a permit of stay of 3 years and if granted humanitarian protection gets a permit of stay of 1 year all of them renewable.

Sweden In Sweden the migration Agency has responsibility for reception of immigrants and refugees.

The process of seeking asylum takes usually a long time because the migration agency investigates if the asylum seeker has eligible grounds for seeking asylum.

Lately the refugees where granted the option to stay with relative’s duo to the long waiting periods.

A lot of the immigrants stay a long time outside the labour market which raised question about the immigration policy in Sweden. This is mostly true in Sweden’s three biggest cities.

The Swedish government legislated a new law 2010 to ease the process of settlement for new refugees. The reform enabled the refugees who have been granted permission to stay in Sweden to establish them, learn Swedish and understand the Swedish society’s cultural values.

Another objective of this reform is to better protect the competences these individuals have from their home countries and to speed up validation of these competences.

The reform transferred the responsibility of establishing the new immigrants from the social welfare system to the national employment agency. That emphasized the importance that the government assigned to enable the immigrants to be independent economically by finding a job and to assist the national income by paying taxes.

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Finland

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In Finland we have some eleven acts which governs immigrant and refugee entrance to country and stay in the country. There are two acts above others – aliens act and the act on the promotion of immigrant integration.

Integration plan is created if the outcome of initial assessment shows the need of support. The plan is done with employment service officials or with social workers. It includes e.g. immigrant integration training, language training, on the job learning or other activities that support integration.

The duration of the plan is individual. You are entitled of financial support while being under integration plan.

In order to get a study place at Keuda, an immigrant or a refugee must have e permit of residence.

Depending on Finnish language skills, an immigrant can apply either to the normal studies or to studies for immigrants. During the applying process, an immigrant takes a Finnish language test to tell if his/her skills are adequate for studying.

In addition, Keuda does a lot of co-operation with companies who want to train their immigrant employees.

Studies always include on-the-job learning periods. They are an important way to become familiar with Finnish working life and culture.

Practices and challenges identified in partner countries and partner organizations concerning the recognition of prior learning of migrants and refugees

Denmark Difficulties getting hold on the original diplomas and

authorisations from the refugees homelands It is challenging when the refugee is educated in the health care area, as

a competency clarification as these educations normally take up to 1½ years.

The educations of the refugee are often assessed to be on a lower level

than a corresponding education in Denmark. The curricular of the corresponding educations are compared thoroughly down to subject by subject assessment.

This can be difficult for the refugee to accept, if they see

themselves a dentist, a doctor or a surgeon. Skills gained through work experience must also require an evaluation

process. The different level of technology, rules and legislation in different industries varies a lot throughout the world.

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Slovenian In Slovenia there are three main validation systems at the national level which enables recognition of non-formal and informal learning of migrants and refugees.

Validation of foreign education is governed by Validation and Recognition

Act (2011). Validation end recognition procedures are carried out for two main purposes: purpose of work and purpose of further education. The responsibility of validation and recognition procedures is on ENIC-NARIC centre which is under the responsibility of Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.

Mutual recognition of professional qualifications is the system for validation and recognition competencies of migrants. This system is only applicable to persons who are fully qualified to pursue a profession in the Member State from which they come, and not for entering an educational programme for certain profession. Mutual recognition of professional qualifications is under the responsibility of Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.

National vocational qualification system is the only system in Slovenia which enables individual’s formal accreditation of non- formal and informal gained knowledge, skills and competencies. System is regulated by the National Vocational Qualification Act (2000). The umbrella organization in the field of NVQ is the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.

At the moment Slovenia is formatting also the system of validation of knowledge, skills and competencies for the purpose of entering formal educational programmes for refugees without the legal documents.

In Slovenia there are going on activities on the field of inclusion of refugees without formal documents into Slovenian educational system. Activity is going on under the leadership of Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, representative of Slovenian Institute for Adult Education is one of the expert group member. At the moment the protocol of inclusion of refugees in secondary educational programmes is made and piloted in practice.

Netherlands The migrants and refugees have to integrate within 3 years (6 exams)

They are informed by a letter in Dutch. Welfare organizationshelp the refugee with all the bureaucratic

procedures and processes. The status holder can apply for a loan and use a personal budget of maximum 10.000 euros, the budget is managed by DUO.

The status holder can use this budget to fund an integration course and the exams by choosing a school or language institute

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with a certain certificate of quality.

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If a status holder is not able to achieve the minimum level of A2, he and the school where he has been following lessons at, have to prove that he followed a sufficient amount of hours (600) and did the best he could to achieve a certain level but due to learnability is not able to reach that level.

If a status holder who has a refugee status fails to finalize the integration courses and exams within 3 years by succeeding for all the exams or proving his effort with 600 hours and several tries to succeed for the exam, he has to pay a fine of 1250 euros and gets a new shorter term to succeed. If that also fails the status holder with a refugee status has to pay back the total amount of the used money of the loan in parts.

Due to the budget limits of 10.000 euros over 3 years and the maximum budget that can be used per 3 months it is only possible to offer 7,5 to 10 contact hours per week. This limits the possibility of offering intensive courses and speeding up lessons for those refugees and status holders who are able to learn faster.

Italy In Italy recognition and validation of prior learning do not have a national

framework but mainly have an institutionalized system at regional level. The recognition of foreign qualifications (for non-EU citizens and also for

Italian or EU citizens who obtained their qualifications in a non EU country) is regulated with great caution.

Different procedures and conditions exist according to the different authorities involved and depending on the level of qualification to be recognized, the content of the course or the qualification, the reason for requesting recognition and the country where the qualification

was obtained (some countries have international bilateral or multilateral agreements facilitating qualification recognition).

Different institutions are involved in the process of recognition: the Foreign Office (through Italian Consulates) for a declaration of the value of qualification, other relevant Ministries for professions regulated by law or under the observation of a Ministry, Universities (to access Italian universities), the Ministry of University, Education and Research for the recognition of equivalence of PhDs obtained abroad, state school offices (for secondary schools) and regions for recognition of qualifications necessary for specific jobs.

Sweden

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Our school is a part of the liberal adult education together 154 other Folk High School. While assessing our participant’s skill/education we follow the

general rules for validation in Sweden. According to the Swedish ministry of education definition 2003 validation

is "a process of a structured assessment, valuing, documentation and recognition of knowledge and competences that an individual has gained, irrespective of how they have been acquired”.

If the immigrant has a higher education and has a certificate documenting it, the national employment agency helps them to send these documents to the agency for higher education. The agency will verify if the claim is legitimate and authentic and issue a statement comparing the education the immigrant has with its Swedish equivalent.

Most of the immigrants have to undergo completing education to attain complete Swedish higher education.

Regarding prior learning the Swedish national agency for higher vocational education has developed criteria and guidelines for validation of this. The procedure includes competence mapping and competence assessment which runs parallel to each other.

One of the aims of the process is to make the person’s skills visible to Swedish employers and to certificate the skills the immigrant has in good time. This certification should lead to full or partial qualification.

Finland Usually, the appointment starts by an interview. The meaning of the

interview is the identification of prior learning and making of an individual plan in order design how to achieve the competences needed.

In Keuda Adult Education we make tests primarily to all our foreign students before they get admission to studies. If there are uncertainty of migrant’s or refugee’s skills to speak or understand Finnish language after the interview and first test, the “Finnish as a second language”- test will give more specific information about the issue.

We also face some challenges when teaching and assessing immigrant students. They may have certificates admitted in their own country, but it’s hard to know if they are comparable with the Finnish education system.

Finnish National Board of Education does recognition of qualifications but it’s a slow (3-4 months) and expensive (340 €) process to go on.

How to evaluate the level of skills acquired in non-formal way? The challenges in recognition of prior non-formal learning effect to the education and training path of individual.

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Adult educators should learn more ways to use the information gathered e.g. by applicant’s narrative stories and self-evaluation when making the individual study plan.

The use of different kind of materials and the competence assessment by working life partners are an important role in the prior learning identification.

Foreseen solutions from partner countries’ and organizations’ perspective

Denmark The Ministries have developed an internet portal to be used when

assessing the competencies of refugees and migrants. This portal gives an indication as to the level of educations of the new citizen.

If a more specific competence assessment is required (formal learnings) it is still necessary to go through a ‘long’ assessment.

Learnings (non-formal as well as formal) can be tested in businesses. If a company demands qualifications a refugee or migrant is believed to have, they can be offered a company internship over a period (normally 4-13 weeks) payed for by the municipality. In this internship the refugee or migrant is tested to see, if their skills match the needs of the company.

If the skills match, this normally leads to employment. If the skills do not match entirely, it leads to a description of the upgrade

needed for the company to employ the person.

Slovenian It is important that the training and teaching of migrants and refugees

are available immediately at the arrival of refugees and migrants into the receiving society, so they are able to more quickly and efficiently integrate into the society.

Migrants and refugees wish to become employed when they come to the

receiving states as soon as possible, this is also the win- win situation for the receiving country, because if they are employed, migrants are taxpayers and do not need humanitarian or depend only on social protection.

Modules and project learning are recommended for teaching adult

migrants and refugees. The individualized approach is recommended. At the same time, it is important that the access to adult education is available to migrants and refugees on equal footing.

We need more trainings that would enable the employees of local

authorities to become aware that migrants and refugees are social, cultural and economic capital, which needs to be fully integrated into societies not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for the prospects of local authorities as well.

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Netherlands Due to the political situation in many European countries we see no real difference in the near future, there will be elections in March 2017 and a populist party in the Netherlands is likely to get more votes than ever. However by working together with some municipalities who share our view we try to influence the ministries. We have national councils where all the VET-schools with departments for non-vocational education are represented and they are in contact with the ministries to influence decision and policy making. In recent years VET-schools and other institutes have tried to influence

municipalities in taking up their responsibilities in order to prevent completely demotivated refugees after 3 years. Due to the recent political developments our views are met with mostly positive responding politicians who however state that this is not the right time to invest more in integration courses.

In recent months we see the effects of our pushing and pulling municipalities in taking up a responsibility within this system, they are ready to organize projectmeetings where VET-schools and municipalities are involved together in order to create some kind of back up guiding system where integration courses can be linked to dual activities.

This has resulted in some internships and work experience projects for refugees in certain regions, mostly aimed at lower educated refugees, but also advising mostly young (under 30) refugee status holders to follow their integration courses in combination with preparing for further education in order to be better prepared to continue their studies and follow combined programs.

Italy There are different approaches in use at the moment. Employment services, with the support of a cultural mediator to help the

migrant job seeker with linguistic and cultural difficulties to familiarize with services offered by the Employment Centers and facilitate their access to the labor market.

It is possible to ask for the equivalence of a foreign diploma under certain conditions: the diploma is issued by an education insitution belonging to the

official education system; it must be an "official" title of the reference education

system; it must have a final title of 1st, or 2nd or 3rd cycle

(bachelorlevel or master-level, or more advanced); and finally there must be an Italian diploma to compare with.

Taking into account the difficult process of formal education recognition for migrants, we usually use guidance methodology adaptation which contributes to draw a picture of the migrant

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main characteristics and provides information on training and professional development.

As far as guidance and assessment techniques are concerned, the prevalent approach is to help the individual to deal with social- economic situation, assess training opportunities, understand local traditions in culture and work matters and identify a professional direction to effectively face the labor market.

The guidance counsellors/ intercultural mediators help people providing two kinds of assistance: guidance information (on paper or multimedia basis) and guidance training consisting in short lessons to homogeneous groups of people concerning “Job seeking techniques and strategies”, “Local Labour market”, “Capacity and Motivation analysis”etc.

The main tools are: welcome and first information; the informative group presentations; the job active research courses (job clubs); interview for skill assessment with a competence portfolio

drawing. This methodology is used to better understand migrants work

experience and identify the competencies and the knowledge gained in a formal or informal way.

At the end a Competence Portfolio is drawn up describing achieved results (competencies and potentials developed along the personal and professional experience; professional and/or learning development objectives; individual profile highlighting strengths and weaknesses and competencies to be developed).

Sweden Based on the national employment boards report the following challenges to assessment of formal and informal learning where identified: Difficulties in identification of the immigrant’s skills duo to different

practices between different countries. Difficulties to access the validating efforts and the additional training duo to shortages in Swedish. That demands efforts from the Swedish authority to provide information about validating efforts in the immigrant’s mother tongue.

Attitudes and beliefs. This is partly due to stereotypes of immigrants and missing trust from the employer’s part and negative attitude and passivity from the immigrant’s part.

Validation effort is spread between many authorities in Sweden. There is a need to coordinate these efforts and to make the assessment process compatible with other efforts in Europe.

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Finland

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Open minded discussion between the government, local authorities, vocational institutions and local companies and businesses is key in improving co-operation. We should have common and ongoing forums where local authorities, vocational institutions, entrepreneurs and also immigrants could participate in.

Local authorities hope that vocational institutions could start or modify their studies to be more agile. For example, in the Uusimaa region there is a big warehouse in the works and it will employ over 300 warehouse workers. We should make sure that we not only offer multiple study paths to the immigrants, but that the education we offer also matches the needs of the work field and local companies and businesses.

On-the-job learning is essential part of vocational education and training. The co-operation of vocational institutions and businesses create a good field for students to apply their skills in a real work environment.

In Finland we need a common social integration plan, which includes the different paths for education and instruction for individualization. In our organization there is need for a model how to organize the education and training for migrants according to the principles of LLL. The model should include the contents of preparatory training.

Good ideas and practices learned / shared in the Ws

Denmark The Netherlands gives the refugee a possibility to apply for a loan of

10.000 €. If the refugee passes the language exam within 3 years the loan is a gift. We see this solution as a motivation factor.

When a country receives refugees with the need of education it is rewarding to be able to offer them an education. It just needs to be an education with opportunities for jobs. This means that when Denmark e.g. is in need of more work force in the areas of craftsmanship, industry and technology we must have to have focus on these areas together with the refugee.

Slovinian We liked good practices of the partners from Sweden and Nederland’s,

about how to use video for promoting education and training and recognition of prior learning for migrants and refugees.

We found interesting the approach that is used now in Denmark – combining learning in school and on the job learning for refugees and immigrants. The refugees that we had the possibility to meet were very persuasive when they were explaining how important is to have the possibility to learn language in everyday life, like at

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the workplace. The same approach was explained in the case of Finland (the case of Keuda), when studies always include on the job learning periods, as they are important way to become familiar with Finnish working life and culture.

We compared the Swedish approach to learning language for refugees and migrants with the Slovenian one and found out that in Sweden the programs for learning languages are longer, that give refugees and migrants better opportunity to learn language properly.

The new reform that was introduced in Sweden in 2010 with the aim to speed up the introduction of newly arrived immigrants into working and social life is in our opinion a step forward in supporting better inclusion process for refugees and immigrants in the society.

Netherlands We were surprised that the Netherlands is the only country with an

examination on the end of the integration period. In some of the other participating countries, e.g. Finland and Denmark

migrants are guided to jobs or an education that leads to a job. And then especially into jobs where there’s a shortage of employees (ICT, gastronomy, tourism).

In Denmark is the intake for language classes more important than in the Netherlands. They take a good look at the skills and educational background of the migrant. So they can guide the person into the class and internship that fits the student best.

Italy The workshop offered the opportunity to understand practices in use in

the partner countries and organizations while dealing with education and training of migrants and asylum seekers with the ultimate purpose to contribute to their integration in the European society.

There are countries where asylum seekers have to attend language and integration courses while waiting for recognition of the refugee status, on the other hand there are others where this is forbidden till the completion of the procedure not to offer a “useless” hope.

In some countries migrants have to pay for language and integration courses and have to pass exams, while in Italy, for example, courses are offered free of charge to attend an exam on language understanding.

Migration is difficult to plan and in most cases it represents a sudden emergency for some EU countries according to the crisis scenarios and the new migration routes. This brings alarm,

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mistrust and fear to loose national identity by native population in most cases fueled during pre-election periods.

It is therefore of vital importance, from one side, to promote adult education among migrant communities to facilitate employment and integration opportunities.

On the other side it is of utmost importance to increase awareness among “native” population that migration does not represent a threat but an opportunity in countries facing manpower shortages for certain professions, where active population is decreasing and population aging is getting critical.

Sweden During the Ws we identified many similarities between our practices and

the practices of our partners such as the legislation about receiving refugees. Duo to the European Union directives and conventions.

There are however different practices of when to start teaching the immigrant and for how long in the countries language.

There is a common objective for our countries policies to integrate the new immigrants in the new country but the integration plans look slightly different in each country.

The immigrant’s obligation to follow the plan and the responsibilities for not following it is different as well. There is a common agreement that the political debate about immigration is exaggerated.

There is also a need for a more objective image of immigrants in politics and media.

Most of the partners agreed that some kind of cultural education is required in addition to learning the language.

There is also a big difference in the number of hours an immigrant needs to complete the basic linguistic skills in the language.

There was also a consensus that there is a need to improve the content of citizenship test if any.

Finland Open minded discussion between the government, local authorities,

vocational institutions and local companies and businesses is key in improving co-operation. We should have common and ongoing forums where local authorities, vocational institutions, entrepreneurs and also immigrants could participate in.

Local authorities hope that vocational institutions could start or modify their studies to be more agile. For example, in the Uusimaa region there is a big warehouse in the works and it will employ over 300 warehouse workers. We should make sure that we not only offer multiple study paths to the immigrants, but that

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the education we offer also matches the needs of the work field and local companies and businesses.

On-the-job learning is essential part of vocational education and training. The co-operation of vocational institutions and businesses create a good field for students to apply their skills in a real work environment.

In Finland we need a common social integration plan, which includes the different paths for education and instruction for individualization. In our organization there is need for a model how to organize the education and training for migrants according to the principles of LLL. The model should include the contents of preparatory training.

Evaluation of the Ws

Conclusion All partners have participated in the workshop and responded to the questions listed here below. Responses are summed up and therefore you will not find two identical responses noted. From the partners responses it can be summarized that everyone has been satisfied with the workshop's academic content and presentations as well as the arranged visit at the asylum centre in Nyborg, and the guests invited to tell their refugee-stories. Many partners have gotten new ideas for how to meet/educate refugees arriving in the country up until the refugee is a fully integrated inhabitant in the given country. There are suggestions for short presentations and opportunities for discussion on the topic in the following workshops. Questions/answers Describe your expectations regarding the workshop?

o Sharing good practices and legislation/policy from partner countries

o Learn about second language teaching o Find solutions for dealing with refugees and the process o Validation and recognition of prior learning of refugees o Extend the personal and professional network

Were your expectations met? (in paragraph the number of answers) o Yes (16) o Very well (1) o Yes quite so (1) o Yes I think ws exceeded those (1) o Mostly yes (1) o Yes more or less (1)

Please, explain in what way your expectations were met or not? o To learn about circumstances, education, similarities and

differences in the partner countries

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o Presentations and discussions among partners

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o Meeting refugees o Visiting an asylum centre o The group work o Networking o Not so much learning on second language teaching o More conversations among partners o Learning more about the recognition process (more

detailed) o More focus on solutions and time to have discussions

What were the most useful sessions/discussions during the workshop? o Meeting the refugees and hearing their stories o Visiting the asylum centre o Partner presentations o Group work Friday o Social dinner

In which way can you use the new information and knowledge to your personal professional development? o Reflection on own practice – changes in own organisation o Sustainability puzzle can be used in other connections as well o Developing new courses for refugees o Working abroad is hard – also for a refugee not knowing the

language o Quality assurance for adult organisations and

refugees/immigrants o When meeting newcomers/refugees/immigrants o Finding new connections between the validation procedure and

labour market. o Examination in culture and educational system

In which way can you use the new information and knowledge for the further development of adult education provision at your own o Organisation

Make a systematic plan of the process for recognition and validation of prior learning.

Change some practices, to educate teachers, more vocational education and practices to the refugees.

How to integrate immigrants and refugees into the labour market and society by a holistic approach

Success stories, discuss refugee and immigration questions from a more European and global perspective

Talk more about lifelong learning with refugees Share new ideas with colleagues Improve our courses for refugees and migrants

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o Country Get in touch with the authorities in the ministry of

education and make a suggestion of co-operation in order to plan the recognition process.

To connect already developed procedures and actions in an efficient strategy of inclusion of migrants and refugees.

To give the possibility of practice places for refugees as some partner countries does

Work closely with the municipalities/local regions Share new knowledge (all aspects) with the

authorities Understand the asylum centres circumstances and the

refugee situation in EU Focus on human rights

How did you find the workshop arrangements

o Venue Very good, great, nice, wonderful campus, very

comfortable, fine, beautiful, excellent Very good arrangements Good location, classroom, lunch OK – comfort and times and food Nice place, easy transportation Good access to internet Time to discuss about similarities/differences

between countries Very suitable, maybe the “long table” made the

conversation a bit difficult

o Programme Very good, great, well organized, interesting,

complete, ok, perfect, excellent Light balance between work and free time The asylum centre visit was very good Quite hard to listen to long presentations even if it is

interesting themes. Could have been a little bit shorter Loved to hear the success stories Providing various divided experiences Nice social dinner (expensive) Would like more discussion and interaction (short

presentation and then concrete work together) Visitors and visits were interesting We had to listen a lot – prefer more variety

(listening, discussion, seeing things) Not too much information. Time to adapt all new

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information

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Was not to tight, we had enough time for the presentations and visits

Open feedback

o I would like to point out our morning transport to venue from the hotel. That saved a lot of time to us. Thanks

o Very good workshop and arrangements. Kind host/hostess o During presentations – max one presentation and then break.

2 hours is too long time to follow without break o Sustainability puzzle was also great. Many many thanks to

Charlotte and Fini o Good all though I think a more anonymous approach is to be

prefaired to allow freedom of expression – my opinion. I would like to thank the Danish partners for a very well arranged meeting and I look forward to see all partners in our workshop.

o The citywalk and the dinner was a success. It was good organized I learned a lot here.

o Next time I would advise to do presentations of 1-1,5 hour o Special thanks for all the help and hospitality – especially to Ania o Thank you for your hospitality, for your effort. We enjoyed our

participation in the seminar o Discussion of days could be earlier or more time. Some basic

information about refugees in each class (countries where they are from, numbers, hours of education). I would have liked to have received it before the seminar

o It is very nice that you managed to arrange that three former refugees presented their stories to us. It was very valuable to me. And also the opportunity to see the asylum centre from inside. The workers that presented us the centre, were very inspiring, warm persons. Also I would point out some really useful videos that partner organisations showed us.

o To foster more discussion during presentation from different partners

o Sharing these difficult and big things are important. Discussion with you has been open and I think that together we can make things improving.

o Thank you! Especially for the fruits, cookies….. o The week has been very interesting and I hope that I can

participate in other WS as well. Thank you! o These kind of projects are very interesting and you have time to

deepen the issues and really thing how to apply in your country and your institution

o I think that the mix of presentations, visits was good. o Very well organized o We could have had more discussion on the theme and the

challenges we face in the field. Very nice dinner

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o I would like to thank the organisers for well-organised partner meeting.

Experiences etc. the host want to add

Tietgen was pleased to host the kick-off meeting regarding project RESHAPE.

All partners came very well prepared for the meeting so we all gained insight into where there are differences and similarities in our way of recognizing non-formal and formal learning and the challenges this work generally gives.

It was a great success to have refugees as visitors at the meeting. One newcomer almost just arrived at Tietgen's course "Intro to the Danish Labor Market", one in practice at a company here in Odense, but originally from the same course and one with permanent job, house and car.

The presentations from all the partners were very adequate. However, it was mentioned that the presentations at the next meeting should be shorter - maybe with video input from the partners own colleagues.

We from Tietgen had a significant impression when we watched the video from Slovenia with refugees passing through in the night. It gives us a clear conviction of the importance of sharing experiences, knowledge and solutions with each other in Europe.