Since January 2009, IRIS is conducting the project “Training the trainer“, funded by the Federal Government’s programme “Xenos – Integration und Vielfalt“.

Duration: 2009-2011

Project description: Training the trainer

Project modules

This project is meant to link research generated knowledge on education and learning with the practice of professional training.

The target of the project are trainers in SMEs especially in the crafts sector,  masters and trainers in the non-profit sector and lower secondary school teachers.

The project supports members of the target groups to develop further their professional competence to empower them to improve education and learning processes for young people with problem-laden school careers. The project consists of
six inter-related modules (only in German). It supports trainers in the different target contexts in reflecting on their everyday practice and thus develop their professional competence.
Contact partners: Martin Alber, Sabine Riescher, Gebhard Stein, Barbara Stock und Sibylle Walter.

This project is funded from the Federal Government’s programme “XENOS – Integration und Vielfalt“

Gender Mainstreaming at the „Arbeits-Initiative Backnang“
Monitoring and evaluation of the establishment of a gender mainstreaming approach in a welfare organisation that promotes employment for people that have been unemployed for a long time

Description of the project:
The goal of the project was to evaluate gender issues in a regional initiative for employment and to restructure the approach, the concepts and the offers of the initiative in order to improve equal opportunities and conditions for women and men on the labour market. The compatibility of work and family was improved by developing new concepts and new ways of support for men and women. Target groups of the process were the employees of the employment initiative in Backnang as well as their clients.

Work packages

• Evaluation and monitoring of the project with the methods of qualitative social research:
• Stock-taking and analysis of the current situation (analysis of documents and records; survey through interviews and questionnaires)
• Coaching of management and staff
• Coaching and professional inputs during the process of goal definition and development of indicators for qualitative standards
• Integration and participation of staff into the project and training of their sensitiveness on issues of different gender cultures (bottom up approach)
• Training and development of gender competence of the employees, in workshops
• Development of a concept to secure sustainability and quality in terms of equal opportunities and gender democracy
• Development of instruments for self evaluation and quality securing

Results

In the course of the project the initiative developed a model on equal opportunities for women and men and established professional standards on gender issues.
Management and staff also developed a number of minimal standards and committed to them.

According to these standards the initiative established flexible working hours and a service for the employees that picks up their children to bring them to school and back again. Clients without a drivers licence started to get financial support in order to be able to afford a licence and to increase their mobility.

In the third year of the project we developed a concept on quality securing and established quality circles for the employees.

The scientific approach and the results of the project were documented in yearly reports. These reports can be obtained at:

Arbeits-Initiative Backnang
Schlachthofstr. 5-9
71522 Backnang

Information under:

www.aib-backnang.de

In November 2005, IRIS has started a cooperation in the EQUAL development consortium “ZIP”.
ZIP will develop new ways on how to deal with diversity in transitions to work. The partnership is coordinated by Stuttgart based training provider ENAIP.

“Equal opportunities for young men and young women who are in transition from school to work as a political strategy and concept in the establishment of local networks for employment”

Duration of the project: January 2001 – September 2002

Summary

The project aimed at improving local networks for employment that provide transitions to work for young women and men in a way that they become aware for gender-specific needs and trajectories. The network approach was analysed and developed with regard to gender issues.
Existing networks were enabled to act more effectively by supporting the communication (e.g. by identifying and tackling communication barriers) between local actors as well as by supporting a gender oriented approach and network structure.
One important goal was to obtain a comparable knowledge about three European regions and their implementation of gender perspectives in local networks, as well as the identification of success criteria in networks in respect to gender issues and equal opportunities for young men and women. A main focus was also put on organisations in the third sector which work in the field of job creation and support of employability with very different partners on a local/regional level.

Our partner organisations in other European countries were:

• GENESIS, Emilia Romagna, Italy
• AREA, Valencia, Spain

Objectives of the project

The main objective of the project was to detect details about the chances and obstacles concerning the transfer of “equal-opportunity-standards” into the establishment process of local networks for employment which support (disadvantaged) young women and men in their transition to work.

Other (more specific) objectives were:

• The detection of the preconditions for an effective unification of all local female and male experts within a selected local context.
• The exploration of decision making instruments integrating gender perspectives in cooperation with the local actors.
• The development of a working structure and strategy which included a moderating and coordinating authority together with the local actors.
• The creation of awareness among the network members concerning gender issues.
• The development of learning strategies for the network-members considering gender perspectives.
• The detection of main areas of cooperation between relevant local actors and 3rd sector initiatives that have a specific role in the field of job creation and employability.

Work packages

• The definition of standards for networks that integrate gender issues in their work and that promote equal opportunities for young men and women from a scientific point of view.
• The development of a common questionnaire for all three regions for the investigation.
• The identification of key situations which make a successful support for young people and promote equal opportunities for young women and men.
• The identification of success criteria in best practice networks.
• The evaluation of the material for each region, a comparison of the results which took into consideration social policy structures of each region.

Process

The three partner organisations defined standards for the establishment of local networks for employment with respect to gender mainstreaming and got a first overview on the situation in networks in their region.

At a first transnational meeting we evaluated the first steps and developed a questionnaire that allowed a deeper investigation of success criteria and the hypothesis that we had found after a first short investigation.

Success criteria of best practice networks were identified by interviewing selected network experts, in group discussions in the networks and by questionnaires.

In a second transnational meeting we collected the results and discussed the success criteria and obstacles in each region by taking into consideration the specific regional structure and history situation and different social policies.

We finally developed common political guidelines for the establishment of gender issues and equal opportunity criteria in local networks for employment.

All three partners organised workshops for their partner networks in each region and presented and discussed the results with them.

The project ended with a presentation of our results in Bruxelles.

Documentation of results

The results were documented in separated reports for each region as well as in a comprehensive report as a kind of synopsis for all three regions.

For the german region we developed a handout with guidelines that gives local networks for employment orientation and support on how to develop an approach that is sensitive for gender issues and equal opportunities for young men and women ins transition to work. It was written for political experts and organisations (especially organisations in the third sector) that promote employment and education as well as for their partners.

Your contact at IRIS: Sabine Riescher

“Advising local networks of 3rd sector initiatives – job creation for (disadvantaged) young people in the area of social and youth services”

An international project

Duration: 1998 – 2000

The Project „Advising local networks of 3rd sector initiatives: job creation for (disadvantaged) young people in the area of social and youth services”, funded under the EU „Third System & Employment Pilot Action” identified – by transnational comparison between the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, and Germany – potentials for employing young people within third sector institutions. In a second step, these institutions have been supported to set their potential role as job provider into practice – by applying tools for self-evaluation, and by creating local networks.

Project partners:
1. GENESIS srl, Bologna, Italy
2. Hope Street, International Arts, Training and Development, Liverpool, UK
3. University College Cork (UCC): Department for Applied Social Sciences, Cork, Ireland
4. IRIS (Institut für regionale Innovation und Sozialforschung) e.V., Tübingen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland