30 Mar Project presentations in Romania
Between the 18th and 19th of February 2020 a series of communication events and information sessions were held at regional levels addressing project target groups and local stakeholders in Romania. We aimed at making the project known locally, to activate and attract NEETs, to present the educational offer of the project (on sustainable agriculture, rural eco-tourism & digital skills) and to identify young people interested in joining the RAISE courses and the future RAISE Demo Centres, by scanning their interests and needs.
RAISE Youth actions in Romania are implemented by “AUR” – National Association of Human Resources Specialists, aiming to benefit from socially innovative solutions in order to create a decent and productive professional environment for young people from rural areas in 2 pilot regions highly affected by extreme poverty, youth unemployment and youth migration to other EU countries.
The local RAISE Youth events took place with the support of the local councils of Valea Măcrișului (Ialomița County), Ivești (Galaţi County) and the County Agency for Employment Galați. 43 young NEETs and 18 local stakeholders actively participated to the project activities. The meetings were moderated by psychologist Eugen Dumbravă and aimed to discover basic interests of RAISE RO NEETs, while considering their deeper interests in relation to the value of money and work, through the lenses of fears & expectations.
In this context we emphasised the potential of RAISE Youth in offering “really practical, useful courses, adapted to tendencies and demands of the ‘real’ labour market”, as well as the importance of the new non-traditional professional specialisations offered by the RAISE Youth.
At a first glance, all the young NEETs attending our meetings were somewhat reluctant or sceptical. The discussions, however, enabled us to find out that each one of them has a quite well-defined range of expectations: they want a better life, they want to continue their studies, they want to improve their life conditions, they don’t want to be exploited and they want satisfactory salaries for their work. Moreover, the young people showed interest in attending innovative RAISE courses / professional formation with practical applicability & being able to learn a useful ‘non-traditional’ profession. The participants confirmed their willingness to participate even in courses that take place outside the place of their residence. Young people, for the most part, were interested in courses that beyond qualification, provide them with a certification recognised by authorities and employers.