Type of Project: Funded project Model project Transnational project
Berqa

The berqa project is aimed at people with disabilities who have difficult access to the labor market. These are in the subject area I: students from graduating classes (and school dropouts) of a hearing impaired, two learning assistance and four vocational schools from the northern Schwalm- Eder- Kreis (SEK). After appropriate preparation, 6-8 participants from each of these groups will travel to either France or Poland for four weeks to gain practical work experience in partner institutions. Subsequently, a follow-up ensures the achieved competence gains, evaluates the program implementation and supports the transition into the vocational training or labor market. Topic II is aimed at young unemployed people, most of whom have learning disabilities, some of whom have completed rehabilitation or BaE vocational training, and some of whom have dropped out of vocational training or are not in training. Topic III addresses adults with disabilities, most of whom are long-term unemployed. In the last two groups, participants complete an accompanied 30-day internship abroad in France or Poland after about five weeks of preparation. The participants live in self-organized apartments and work in social enterprises specially geared to this target group and, if desired and suitable, also in medium-sized companies in the primary labor market. To promote mobility, knowledge of the living and working environments in the partner countries is imparted and intercultural encounters are organized. A six-week follow-up with subsequent individual coaching ensures results, evaluates the implementation, includes the high-profile presentation of the project and enables tailored transition management. In doing so, we use long-standing working relationships with companies in the region and partnership-based contacts with the Schwalm-Eder Competence Agency, the IFD and other agents in the placement process. In the course of the transnational network work, expert exchanges to Germany will take place in consultation with the respective partners in October 2012, September 2013 and March 2014. Participants from Poland will include the Director for European Programs at OHP Wielkopolska, educators and trainers from OHP, and representatives of the social partners. From France representatives of PEC (Peuple et Culture) Puy de Dome as well as Mission locale (comparable to German Jobcenter). The centre of the conferences will be the exchange of experiences with different national integration instruments and strategies and the examination of the continuation of exchange relations. Source: Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Homepage IdA - Integration through Exchange, https://ida.sport-iat.de/