BEGIN – Boosting the Soft Skills of Higher Education Students and Graduates

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Project website: begin-project.eu

Project entitled “Boosting the Soft Skills of Higher Education Students and Graduates”.

BEGIN is a European social innovation project aimed at developing a comprehensive programme to improve higher education students’ soft skills while helping to narrow the gap between the skills demanded by the labour market and those offered by higher education courses. It promotes a programme of career exploration activities and an initiative to engage in systematic, ongoing dialogue with higher education institutions, employers and all stakeholders: university students, the community, local and regional authorities, and other organisations throughout the European Union. The project’s target groups represent key labour market stakeholders who can help reduce unemployment among young graduates:

• HE students in university faculties or degree programmes with lower employment prospects
• HE teachers and other academic staff
• HE stakeholders:
• • businesses,
  • social economy organisations,
  • local, regional and national authorities,
  • student associations and representatives,
  • alumni of the participating universities and EU organisations.

Expected results:

The project will produce three complementary intellectual outputs. – BEGIN Career Exploration Toolbox: partners will implement various career exploration activities and document the experiences of students, employers and academic staff during planning, implementation and follow-up. The toolbox will provide knowledge and inspiration for other universities, offering guidance based on the real experiences of partner universities. – BEGIN Practical Methodology for Joint Education–Business Initiatives: a comprehensive tool providing successful professionals with a step-by-step mentoring plan and guidance on how to share their knowledge effectively with mentees and develop the skills they would like future employees to have. – BEGIN Training Course in Soft Skills and Personal Development: open e-learning materials that will upskill higher education institution staff and thus serve as a tool for improving the soft skills students need in both today’s and tomorrow’s labour markets. This will help universities take a proactive approach to preparing students, teaching them the soft skills required not only by the current market but also by the future labour market, such as cognitive load management, virtual collaboration, social intelligence, novel and adaptive thinking, and intercultural competence. The three BEGIN outputs form a comprehensive programme triangle addressing each of the main labour market stakeholder groups: higher education students, academic staff and employers. Together, they create an integrated set of knowledge resources and practical tools that supports ongoing engagement between the three target groups and broadens higher education students’ soft skills portfolios, promoting graduates’ integration into the labour market, reducing youth unemployment and narrowing the gap between the skills offered and those needed in the present and future labour markets.

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BEGIN – taking action!!! Another transnational project meeting has been completed. The meeting took place in Berlin on 16–17 September 2022 and was hosted by the partners from Emrca. It reviewed the progress of work on the project’s regulatory instruments. The date of the conference to disseminate and summarise the project was also planned. The conference will take place on 22 October 2022 at the International Academy of Applied Sciences in Łomża (known until 30 September 2022 as the University of Agribusiness in Łomża), at ul. Studencka 19. We already invite everyone interested to attend.

As a partner in the BEGIN project implemented under ERASMUSPLUS, WSA has begun testing four practices:

CAREER COACHING – from education to employment, GAP – Do something out of the ordinary, Scale Up Your Career, and Mentoring Brückenschlag + Project.

These practices were selected from 21 identified by the partners (European Center for Quality Ood in Bulgaria, Luiss Libera Universita Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli in Italy, Associacao Intercultural Amigos da Mobilidade in Portugal, emcra GmbH in Germany and V-Systems sp. z o.o. in Poland) through desk research in the partner countries. Brief information about the practices selected for testing follows:

1. CAREER COACHING – from education to employment. Career Coaching is a service first offered by the Careers and Development Office at Católica Porto Business School in Portugal. An online “Career Center” platform was created, enabling students to find placements and jobs, participate in recruitment events, and access other opportunities. The platform provides a range of services to facilitate students’ transition to and integration into the labour market and is widely used by students for individual support at the very beginning of their careers.
2. GAP – Do something out of the ordinary. Gap Year Portugal is a concept based on exploring a range of professional experiences, including an academic experience programme, travel initiatives, placements and/or work. It is implemented in Portugal by INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS & BOARD: Fundação Lapa do Lobo, On Spot Net – Brand Solutions, and Nova School of Business & Economics. The programme’s premise is that not everyone has to follow the same path. The Gap Year team believes in a generation that is “more”: more humane, more capable, more active, more autonomous and more aware of the future. To turn plans into practice, a team is ready to accompany young people who wish to embark on a phase of discovery. The programme has been adapted to current conditions and provides for participants, in agreement with the GAP team, to prepare and implement a plan for an unconventional activity.
3. Scale Up Your Career is an initiative of the Bulgarian company Career Guide Ltd. in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event aims to bring together career experts, national and international speakers, and businesses to help ambitious people find a fulfilling career path. Its organisers presented a new approach to professional fulfilment, emphasising the development of career planning skills and the management of relationships between employers and employees as equal partners in business. As part of the testing, the programme was adapted to current conditions and a website was created through which participants can develop by attending various recruitment events related to career development.
4. Mentoring Brückenschlag + Project. Brückenschlag + is a mentoring programme first implemented at the University of Göttingen in Lower Saxony, Germany. It aims to provide equal opportunities and increase participation in education among students or prospective students who face barriers. Together with a mentor who is well established in the world of work and has relevant experience, participants follow a jointly agreed programme. This includes setting goals and reflecting on them.

Another transnational project meeting took place in Barcelos on 12–14 May 2022. The videos prepared by WSA documenting the testing and individual participants’ opinions were reviewed and assessed. The partners discussed the draft practical methodology to help users apply the career exploration TOOLBOX (intellectual output IO1). The discussion resulted in agreement on the final version of the methodology. Second transnational project meeting. A transnational project meeting organised by a partner took place in Rome on 15–17 September 2021. It addressed the content of the draft BEGIN practical methodology (intellectual output IO2). Each partner presented the three best practices they had identified through research.

In-depth interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs, academic lecturers and students concerning the soft skills expected by each group. Information was also gathered on the types of training students should receive to prepare them better for entering the labour market. A total of 32 in-depth interviews were conducted. Experts are currently analysing the data. These findings will form part of the European perspective on the issue, as work is being conducted in parallel by partners in Italy, Portugal, Germany and Bulgaria.

Second transnational project meeting

The meeting was planned for May in Rome but was postponed to a later date because of the pandemic.

Research work on outputs O1 and O2 has begun. The partnership adopted the methodology for producing outputs O1 and O2.

First transnational project meeting.

The first meeting took place in Sofia on 4–5 December 2019, organised by the partner ECQ. The meeting discussed how the project would be implemented and clarified the allocation of tasks between the partners.

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Coordinator V-Systems sp. z o.o. Raabego 7/8 02-793 Warszawa Poland

Partners: Bulgaria: European Center for Quality Ood Racho Petkov Kazandzhiata 8 ADORA Business Center 1166 Sofia

Italy: Luiss Libera Universita Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli Viale Pola 12 00198 Rome

Portugal: Associacao Intercultural Amigos da Mobilidade Loteamento do Jardim, S/N 4755-221 Barcelona

Germany: emcra GmbH Hohenzollerndamm 152 14199 Berlin

Poland: University of Agribusiness in Łomża ul. Studencka 19, 18-400 Łomża

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If you are interested, please contact the project office:

• In person University of Agribusiness in Łomża ul. Studencka 19, 18-400 Łomża, Room 405
• By telephone tel. +48 86 216 94 97
• By email: rektorat@mans.edu.pl

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