WAKE UP Your Vocation

WAKE UP YOUR VOCATION is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership that involved more than 30 educational centres, 600 young people, parents and public and private entities in order to reduce the gap between the educational system and the labour market.

This innovative initiative, which brought together partners from Spain, Italy and Croatia, started with an analysis of the possibilities of insertion of young people, between 12 and 18 years old, to provide their teachers with the resources and basic skills in career guidance that will allow them to guide their students in the decision about their professional future.

WAKE UP YOUR VOCATION is a European initiative integrated into the Erasmus+ 2021-2027 program, which seeks to reduce the gap between the educational system and the current labour market. The program involved educational centres, both teachers and young people, as well as parents and guardians and public and private entities. The project analysed the reality of the young group regarding their professional future, in order to find solutions to break the gap between their education and their entry into the labour market and establish a correct strategy to achieve their insertion.

Research on career guidance

Thanks to extensive research in Croatia, Italy and Spain, the project analysed the reality of the young group regarding their professional future, publishing a report on vocational guidance in educational centres today from the perspective of key target groups: students aged 12-18, their parents/guardians, and teachers. The survey shows that parents and teachers recognize the value of and the need for professional guidance in schools, while a significant number of students also feel that they would benefit from such activities. While there is recognition, there is still a gap between the much greater need for vocational guidance and the less common opportunities of vocational guidance that are being offered to students.

Manual for the vocational guidance of young people

The project has published a manual with tool that teachers, educators and orientation counsellors can use with young people to work on orientation and career guidance, based on innovative educational methods such as meaningful learning and project-based learning. Have a look at this very hands-on booklet here.

To learn more about the project, visit the project page: https://wakeup-vocation.eu

Digital, equal and sustainable Europe

Promoting the collaborative work of young people through the development of intercultural skills and critical thinking is one of the objectives pursued by this European project, which encouraged its teachers to form an active work group with their students and assume their role as part of the engine that will lead to a digital, equal and sustainable Europe in the coming decades.

In addition, it sought to make both students and their families aware of the reality of the labour market in Europe, the new skills demanded in digitalized sectors and that support sustainability, as well as the academic or professional training options available to them. In this sense, it has brought students and the private sector closer to generate a better understanding and connection of their realities, especially in rural areas, and has promoted social inclusion through equality, the promotion of digitization and environmental challenges.

This European training project is led by the Santa María la Real Foundation, through its Area of ​​Employment and Entrepreneurship (Spain), and together with it the Agenzia regionale per il lavoro la formazione e l'accreditamento (Italy), Goethe-Institut e.V. (Germany) and Zaklada Znanje na djelu (Croatia).

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This post reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.