A few words about the project
“VipTechJob: Time2Act!” (VTJ2!) is the continuation of the successful Erasmus+ project “VIP and new technologies: easy access to job market” (VTJ). It is a YOUTH PROJECT, focused on the employability and empowerment of young VIPs as active job seekers. It started on March 2021 and it will conclude in February 2023.
In the course of the new project, the transnational scheme of the organizations (which represents Belgium. Spain, Italy and Greece), foresees the use of the results of the previous project, as a basis and springboard for a set of new results-services for job-seeking VIP youngsters, which are the following:
- “VIP Job Accessibility Toolbox”, a one-stop-shop for all our users belonging to different target groups which includes tools and resources to support stakeholders who wish to understand concepts like accessibility and inclusion in the workplace
- “VIP Job Podcast“, a podcast comprised of 10 episodes in all partner languages, which will be recorded by skilled young VIPs and explore success stories of young VIP’s inclusion in different workplaces in Europe through interviews and storytelling.
- “VIP Job Video Pack” a documentary aimed to represent the hurdles of young VIPs in integrating the job market as well as their ideal views on a 100% barrier-free work environment while at the same time gathering tools and personal experiences in the use of video-making to tell their stories
The project addressed two distinct target groups, young VIPs themselves and stakeholders, such as employers, job agencies, youth workers, youth leaders, supported employment specialists, career and school counselors working with young VIPs.
Apart from the three educational tools, the partner will also organise and support the implementation of a 5-day long workshop for VIPs in Granada (Spain) in July ’22, where 12 young VIPs from the 4 partner countries will meet, get trained and share their experiences which will be recorded for the documentary of the project.
Finally, at the end of 2022, the partners will carry out four (4) informational events, where all project results will be presented to a wider audience of young VIPs, their associations, and other stakeholders.
The legacy of the VTJ project (2018-2020)
The name of the current VTJ2! project, already confirms the choice of the partners to create conditions for drastic exploitation of the results of the previous project as also to step forward and beyond, giving the major emphasis on young VIPs critical and key participation in all stages of the project developments.
Over the course of the previous project titled “VIP and new technologies: easy access to the job market” (acronym: VipTechJob), two intellectual outputs came to life:
- A browser App created for all devices, allowing users to search for job offers as well as publish them, and it is fully compatible with screen readers for both computers and mobile devices (https://webapp.viptechjob.eu)
- An online training platform, designed to support the development of skills useful in the job search, available in 5 languages, which connects young visually impaired persons with companies and various job providers (https://howto.viptechjob.eu)
The direct number of young people that took part in the project was around 400 and the results of the project reached around 600 other European young visually impaired persons.
The VTJ project also achieved wider recognition of its results, since it was a finalist of the Salto Awards 2021, under the category “Digital Transformation”.
VTJ2! – Developments and next steps
The VTJ2! partners started working on March 2021 on the project developments and have already realised 7 online meetings, 2 transnational partner meetings (1 online in April 2021 and 1 face-to-face meeting in Granada (Spain) in November 2021). The partners carry out online meetings on a monthly basis and are set to meet again face-to-face during 2022 in April, in September and in 2023 in January.
So far, the first project result is in its final stages of development. In December, the partners started working intensively in the creation of the podcast scripts for the “VIP Job Podcast”, contacting speakers and scheduling the recordings. Finally, the partners are working on the plan for the filming of the documentary in July during the workshop, as well as planning the workshop and recruiting participants.
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