“Promoting employment opportunities for vocational training students in the province of Granada.”
The economic crisis in the EU has had negative effects on the employment rate. Although macroeconomic data have improved significantly in recent years, Andalusia continues to have an unemployment rate higher than the national average, with unemployed people representing 21.26% of the active population, when the national figure is only 14.45%. The figure in the province of Granada rises to 22.44% (INE, 29/01/2019).
However, what is even more worrying is the youth unemployment rate, which in Andalusia amounts to 56.04% and 42.65% for young people aged 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 respectively (IECA, 29/01/2019). Another worrying figure in Andalusia is the school dropout rate: 21.9% of young people aged between 18 and 24 have dropped out of school with a qualification equal to or lower than Secondary School, the national figure being 17.9% (INE, 29/01/2019). Several actors in the labor and training sectors stress that investing in Vocational Training (FP) is the “key” to avoid school dropout (CCOO, 13/06/2018).
For these reasons especially the rural areas of the EU, and specifically Andalusia, are facing a double challenge: on the one hand the creation of high quality sustainable jobs and on the other hand to train young people so that they can access these jobs, live and work in these areas providing social, cultural and economic wealth.
Although they make up 93% of the EU territory, per capital income in rural areas is little more than half that of urban areas. The EC proposes to reduce this gap and the level of unemployment in rural areas by encouraging entrepreneurship and ensuring better training [COM(2006) 857]. It is therefore of fundamental importance to invest in quality vocational training that covers innovative topics and can contribute to improving the situation described above.
The overall objective of our project is to increase the employability of students of intermediate vocational training in the province of Granada by providing them with the possibility of doing an internship in a foreign company.
The main specific objectives of FOOTSTEP Granada are:
- To improve learning outcomes through internships in leading companies in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
- To improve the foreign language skills of the participants.
- To increase participants’ awareness and understanding of other cultures and countries, offering them the opportunity to build international networks, actively participate in society and develop an awareness of European citizenship and identity.
- To motivate students to participate in future education or training (formal/non-formal) after the mobility period abroad.
The FOOTSTEP project is funded by the Erasmus+ program under Grant Agreement 2019-1-ES01-KA102-061290.