Abstract:

For many people, digital working became a reality, especially in recent years through on-the-job training during the pandemic. Students were home schooled, companies and offices worked remotely. However, unemployed (young) people and school leavers who are in transition to the world of work and not embedded in a supportive institutional framework have largely missed this capacity-building opportunity. They now need to be familiarised with the forms of the new digital working life, as exposure to these new digital working realities is assumed by potential employers.

This project aims to close precisely this gap of the digital divide in work access for vulnerable target groups, especially young unemployed people without an academic educational background. Together with partners from Cyprus, Finland, Italy and the Czech Republic, the Austrian FH JOANNEUM, University of Applied Sciences, plans to develop a training programme and evaluate its application in the context of work-related sustainability projects. These projects, which have a strong link to sustainability, digitalisation and innovation and are defined by the participants during the training under the supervision of the partners, are an important part of the training for several reasons: firstly, to apply what has been learned in the course modules in practice; secondly, to promote self-management and independent and team-oriented work; and thirdly, because basic sustainability skills are now a must in every job profile - not only because of the Green New Deal wave.

The activities in the project will be:
1) Report to get an overall picture of the situation in the partner countries.
2) Development of a training course to prepare young people for the digital labour market.
3) Test the training with participants from all partner countries
4) Ensuring the long-term use of the project results by embedding them in different ways also outside the consortium and the partner countries.

The following main outputs are planned:
1. a report on the (new) digital professional life and the current situation in workplaces, the needs of employers and employees, available as a white paper
2. curricula and content for a training programme specifically targeting 18-25 year old unemployed youth, consisting of 5 modules:
a. Digital tools
b. New forms of work and work organisation
c. Personal working life
d. Professional social responsibility in social media
e. Safety aspects
3. implementation in the form of eLearning with links to physical learning (blended learning), suitable for learning at home but also in the context of the workplace.
4. training programme successfully applied by young people in four partner countries during 12-16 weeks with practical sustainability projects.
With this innovative and multidisciplinary approach, which - unlike other initiatives - does not only focus on technical digital skills, we want to support a smart and "healthy" digital transformation. Healthy for people and for the planet, with a view to all relevant aspects.

Keywords:

Digitalisation, Training, Job.