The MobiPro-EU project is opening up new horizons for young Spaniards and Italians. Their home countries have been battling youth unemployment rates of almost 50 per cent for years now. By training in a craft trade, these young people are setting the course for a successful future career.
"Our young people are not taking work away from anyone else in the region!" says Ewa Zelasko, MobiPro Project Manager. "We work together with the International Placement Service (ZAV) of the Federal Employment Agency) and the District Craft Trades Association to find training places that cannot be filled, as well as training providers suffering from a shortage of young candidates in East Württemberg", continues Zelasko.
The youngsters are informed of the training opportunities available in East Württemberg whilst they are still in their home countries. Individual meetings are held with the future trainees and their families to prepare them for the change.
In their home countries still, the young people attend an intensive language course for six months that takes them to level B1; they are also briefed on their training and the general requirements that come with it. During this time, the BBQ (Berufliche Bildung gGmbH) education provider helps them to find accommodation, thus paving the way for their training to begin. The young trainees then arrive in East Württemberg, join their company for the next six weeks and start their daily routine. But Zelasko is well aware that this daily routine can have some very specific drawbacks for trainees from a different country. "Besides the homesickness, which is huge, a lack of social connection and different values are also significant factors. These are crucial points that we need to overcome!"
But Alexandr Alba I., from Alicante, is proof that it can work: "My friends and family are at home, true, but I don't have a future there. Now I've done an electronics apprenticeship here, I have a qualification, a job and a better life."
For Estefania A. and Francisco José G. too, getting involved in MobiPro has really been worth their while: they have been taken on by Handwerksbäckerei Mack GmbH & Co. KG craft bakery in Westhausen and Thorwart Holzbau carpenters in Tannhausen respectively. Stefan B. and Alexandr Alba I. also already have employment contracts in the bag from Elektro Schlagenhauf GmbH, the electrical installation company where they did their training.