Abstract:

The Erasmus+ project Digital Job Onboarding (DJO) project helps job-seeking young people adapt to the new normal after COVID19 by improving their digital skills. The main objective of the project is to develop, test and deliver a training course. The training will help job-seeking youth prepare for the new demands of the workplace.

The DJO project is run jointly by the lead partner FH Joanneum (University of Applied Sciences, later UAS) in Styria, Austria, and project partners Haaga-Helia (UAS) in Helsinki, Finland, DEX Innovation Centre (social enterprise) in Liberec, Czech Republic, Jugend am Werk (youth work organisation) in Styria, Austria, Fenice Green Energy Park in Padua, Italy. The actors have diverse functions, but they aim at the same thing: to enhance the employability and digital job onboarding of the young people in Europe.

In 2022 an extensive study was conducted to examine the needs of young people and employers in the five competence areas:
1) Computer programmes and PC software
2) New forms of work and requirements of the job duties in the future
3) Personally organizing the demands of present-day jobs
4) Professional use of social media in professional applications
5) Safe use of computers and the Internet.

The results indicate that when organisations and unemployed people rate the mentioned competence areas, unemployed people value the importance of further training. The importance of training is rated relatively equally among unemployed people.

Companies value most safe use of computers and the internet and personal organisation for the demands of the present-day jobs, such as work-life balance, manners, self-management, and time-management. Also, the new forms of work and requirements were appreciated by the employers.

At the end of year 2022 and at the beginning of year 2023 the training courses are being designed and implemented. To create courses with best possible impact, digital learning design method was used to create user-friendly and goal-oriented trainings. Firstly, to empathise with the customers, learning personas were created to visualise the learners and find the right approach. The second phase was to define and set the goals. The third face was about ideation of diverse possibilities. The fourth phase is to prototype the courses, and the fifth to test them.

Common principles were created for course design. There are guidelines, such as clear, simple structures, small number of chapters in each module. Learning analytics would be used. The participants can gather points, and gamification is an option, too. Micro credentials can be implemented. Quizzes are interesting for young people, too.

The joint international project group does peer evaluation of the contents and the learning methods that include blended learning. Unemployed young people need coaching, support, empowerment, and personal touch – everything is not meaning to be conducted solely online. According to the learning design principles the feedback is collected all the way through the trainings to improve the quality continuously and iterate maximum results.

A good result for the joint education project DJO is the rate of employment of course participants and the increased competences of digital and general job skills for new work. If the trainings function and are effective, the best practices can be instilled and shared to encourage and empower young job-seeking people in Europe

Keywords:

Digitalisation, employability, unemployment, job onboarding, digital skills, joint education project.