‘Employment of the Unemployed’: Counselling and training for young people in the ICT sector

Created by Athanasios Panagopoulos

Posted 11 July 2022

The project ‘Employment of the Unemployment’ aims to provide personalised counselling, primary training, internships and certification of 1,600 unemployed persons between the age of 25-29 years old. These young people are registered with the Public Employment Service, and graduates from IT and Communications Technology Departments or IEK/EPAS/EPAL graduates in IT and Communications Technology specialisations from all regions of Greece.

The initiative “Consulting Support, Training, Certification and Promotion in the employment of unemployed young people aged 25-29 in the Technology, Information Technology and Communications sector” is carried out by the Greek Association of Information Technology & Communications Enterprises (SEPE). This is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund), as well as the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” in the NSRF 2014-2020.

Course content and specialisation

The project consists of 600 hours of training with 200 hours of theoretical training and 400 hours of practical internships in the workplace. Beneficiaries of the course are required to participate in individual project actions.

Participants can specialise in the following:

Computer & Network Technician
Network Administrator
Database Administrator
Database Developer
Software Application Technician
Website and Application Design Specialist
IT Systems Security Technician
e-commerce Systems Specialist
ICT Analyst
IT Systems Administrator
Open Source Developer

Learning objectives

The training is divided into two parts: (1) professional advice actions; and (2) training actions.

Professional advice actions

This part is split into two phases, with their own individual learning outcomes.

Phase A consists of two sessions which take place before the start of the theoretical training. These sessions will result in the:

creation of an individual file of the beneficiary, including information on their professional experience and education/training
completion of psychometric tools and testing
assessment of the beneficiary’s knowledge and skills
identifying and capturing the beneficiary’s educational needs
discussion on the results of psychometric tools and testing in relation to the objectives and educational needs of the beneficiary
final selection of the subject and level of training (educational training programme) and the relevant certification for which the beneficiary will participate in the examination.

Phase B consists of theoretical training and practice. This takes place over the course of 4 sessions: 2 during theoretical training, and 2 during the traineeship. The purpose of the Phase B is to:

Job profile mapping
Explore skills, inclinations, interests
Activating the beneficiary to develop and/or upgrade existing professional and social skills necessary to integrate into economic life
Helping the beneficiary to develop skills to help them manage their personal and professional life more effectively
Support the beneficiary in understanding how the labour market works
Detection of restrictions and obstacles to the beneficiary’s access to the labour market
Development of information and support mechanisms related to career guidance, employment, etc.
Update on institutional-working issues
Learn job search techniques
Support for the beneficiary in drawing up a CV
Preparation of the beneficiary for participation in certification examinations.

Training actions

The section includes targeted continuous vocational training programmes of 250 hours (210 hours of theory and 40 hours of practice) in specialised professional knowledge and skills. The programmes are aimed at improving the skills and professional competences of the participants and will be implemented by certified training organisations.

Format of the training

Each theoretical training programme will be implemented by one of the following training methods:

Face-to-face classroom training
Blended learning: combining live/live classroom teaching with modern and asynchronous tele-education activities
Tele-training: modern and asynchronous tele-education)
Remote and blended training is possible, but only recommended in specific circumstances requiring social distancing (e.g. the COVID-19 health crisis) and always in line with the current institutional framework for emergency measures to protect public health against the risk of further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus,

Finally, the total hours of traineeships will be carried out in enterprises, in real-life working conditions.

Certification

Certification will be provided on the basis of standardised procedures and will be carried out by accredited person certification bodies, in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 17024 or the EMEPEP or through internationally recognised product certifications.

Submitting your application

The call for submissions will remain open until a number of successful candidates are reached. Visit the project website to discover the required documentation and submit your application!