• Aim of the HanDS project

Aim of the HanDS project is to develop an integrated innovative approach to prevent current pupils to be unemployed and get stuck at home, and to reengage people in education and training who have had their education interrupted due to various reasons.

More  specific our project resulted in:

-A measuring system to categorize pupils and job seekers in order to offer them the rightful attention  and guidance.

-A suitable employment/internship programme or pupils to gain  as much as possible practice work experience in a short period (internship-carousel).

-A connection between the (warm) school and the (cold) labour market  trough adapted curricula  and policies on the basis of extensive analysis of the labour market needs 

-A a clear set of web based guidelines based on the job carving principle. 

The workpackages

The HanDS partners have structured the project into a number of Work Packages that are all connected to each other. The starting point of all activities are the labour market needs.

  • From an education point of view, these needs will be translated into the Internship carousel (WP2). In case pupils are not successful in this carousel they have the opportunity to gain additional competences on the basis of the newly developed educational program (WP3)
  • From a labour point of view, the labour market needs will be translated into the Web-based guidelines (WP4). In case former pupils/job seekers are missing essential competences, they can be trained in on the basis of that outcomes with the newly developed educational program (WP3)
  • The Measurement system (WP1) that will be developed, can be used in all phases of the HanDS project to assess the strengths and weaknesses of pupils and job seekers and monitor the progress

Transnational Project Meetings

Within the project period Transnational Project Meeting will be organised, where the project partners discuss the strategy, tasks and organisational details, have discussions on results and analysis and have a common decision on important questions.

The HanDS project partners had four Transnational Project Meetings:

  • TPM 1 (Kick-off meeting) – Hosting partner: SURPLUS – Venue for the meeting: Enschede, the Netherlands)
  • TPM 2 – Hosting partner: EEPL – Venue for the meeting: Finsterwalde, Germany
  • TPM 3 – Hosting partner: TEN R. RIGHETTI – Venue for the meeting: Melfi, Italy
  • TPM 4 (Final meeting) – Hosting partner: VAKSCHOOL HET DIEKMAN – Venue for the meeting: Enschede, the Netherlands 

Learning, Teaching & Training activities

Within HanDS, four blended mobility activities and four short training events for education staff will be organised. Specific added value of the blended mobility possibility is that a short visit can be combined with the use of virtual mobility. This will offer the pupils with special needs and fewer opportunities the chance to take part in the joint project work within HanDS.

Dissemination seminar

The partners have organised a convention on the development of an integrated innovative approach – consisting of a right mixture of prevention, intervention and compensation measures – to fill the gap between low-level secondary or vocational education and the labour market.

In this convention all project partners have presented all the Intellectual Outputs produced within the HanDS project. The main goal of the HanDS convention was to spread the output not only to the targets and participants directly involved in the project, but also to a wider audience such as the pupils’ parents, the entire school staff, the school inspection, the educational community, the local (education) authorities as well as the local network partners (businesses).