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Description
The project addresses the dramatic problem of youth unemployment by strengthening the digital skills of young people under the age of 30 who are not studying or working, with a special focus on young people aged 25-29 from disadvantage groups (low-income, women, migrants, youngsters from rural areas). Inspired by the "Rapid Technology Skills Training" developed by the World Bank, our model uses a completely innovative approach, giving a central role to the companies within the project and carefully analysing market needs to facilitate job placement of the youngsters involved.
Every partner of the project is to organise 6 European Digital Bootcamps – 10 weeks of intensive training classes each, with strong focus on IT hard skills, including soft skills training, too. After the training phase, participants have the opportunity of work-based learning offered by the sponsor companies of the program. By the end of 3 years, the project will involve 1,050 youngsters from the age group of 25-29, and at least 500 who are expected to obtain a job and 100 to become self-employed thanks to the acquired knowledge and skills.
A few months before its end, all partners from Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Latvia have managed to complete even more cycles of the Bootcamps during the pandemic rather before that. Using online training methods we covered more geographical areas resulting in being very close to reach the initial target group numbers.
Since we want to represent a scalable model on a European basis, continuous monitoring and exchange of feedback and experiences among partners is fundamental for us. To reinforce this goal in the long term, together with all partners we will create, by the end of the project, The European Network of Digital Bootcamps which will help to effectively replicate and transfer the project results.
Summary of project results
The European DIGITAL BOOTCAMPS project (EDIBO) addressed the dramatic problem of youth unemployment by strengthening the digital skills of young people under the age of 30 who are not studying or working (NEET), with a special focus on young people aged 25-29 from disadvantage groups (low-income, women, migrants, youngsters from rural areas etc.). Inspired by the "Rapid Technology Skills Training" developed by the World Bank, this model uses a completely innovative approach, giving a central role to the companies/ employers (sponsors) within the project and carefully analyzing market needs for designing the training courses, so that to facilitate job placement of the youngsters involved by providing them with the appropriate skills. The project was implemented by seven partners from five countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Latvia).
In the framework of the project, each partner of the project organized six "European Digital Bootcamps", ten weeks of intensive training classes each, with strong focus on IT hard skills, including also soft skills training. After the training phase, participants had the opportunity of work-based learning offered by the "sponsor companies" of the project. Due to the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the training was conducted on-line over digital platforms. By the end of the 3 years duration of the project, 1.075 youngsters NEET (target was 1.050) successfully attended our IT crash courses. At least 252 of them found already a job or became self-employed thanks to the acquired knowledge and skills. Others are still in the process of job searching. Using online (distance) training methods, the project covered more geographical areas. Moreover, the project partners provided to their beneficiaries NEET youngsters, post-Bootcamp support services, assistance and guidance. During the project, communication and publicity activities were another important group of activities.
Since this project aspired to represent a scalable model for conducting Digital Bootcamps on a European level, continuous monitoring and exchange of feedbacks and experiences among partners was fundamental. To reinforce this goal in the long term, partners prepared, by the end of the project, the EDIBO Manifesto and the EDIBO Network, which will help to effectively replicate and transfer the project results, based on the EDIBO Manifesto and the rest of the Project documentation.