Chatbot Based Career Guidance – 2nd Newsletter

June 2023

The CareerBOT partnership intends to implement a chatbot based career guidance methodology and tool, which with the reinforcement of a facilitated blended guidance sessions will provide current Labour Market Information and general tips to Jobseeker. The CareerBOT tool will equip guidance professionals with an AI-based chatbot that will dynamically generate external data using various Application Programming Interfaces (API) to provide customised Labour Market Information (LMI) and general tips on applying for work based on their clients’ needs. In this way the project aims to empower marginalised jobseekers on their pathway to employment.

We are excited by the development of the CareerBOT tool to date and the finalisation of the ‘’generic’’ English version following the successful preliminary pre-piloting phase. The partnership is now working to translate the Chatbot tool into Spanish, Greek, and German versions for piloting. We invite you to test the EN Version of the Bot. The CareerBOT project strives to provide up to date local and national Labour Market Information and therefore aims to localise the different versions of the Bot to best meet the needs of each client. The CareerBOT partnership attended its Second face-to-face Transnational Project Meeting in St. Pölten, Austria excellently hosted by our project lead Hafelekar. During the meeting partners Active Citizens Partnership (ACP, GR) and Pontydysgu, Bridge to Learning (ES) presented the ‘generic’ EN version and highlighted the improvements made to the Bot that resulted from the feedback given by testers during the Pre-Piloting phase of testing. The partnership further progressed on the development of a blended CareerBot training curriculum for Career Guidance Practitioner and will launch the beginning of its piloting of the training in Greece, October 2023.

To learn more about the project partners follow the link to the partner section of the website. To read more about The CareerBot project  read our recently published article on EPALE (Electronic Platform for Adult Learning), to read more follow the link; CareerBot – Chatbot based Career Guidance | EPALE (europa.eu).

Second F2F Transnational Project Meeting in St. Pölten, Austria

The CareerBOT project aims to achieve four main project outcomes, firstly to research on the content of the Bot and methodology to inform the development of the tool including LMI resources and usable APIs to embed within the tool. This project outcome is ongoing and will continue to inform the future of the project. Secondly, the development of the CareerBOT tool, which is now in its piloting phase as mentioned above. Thirdly, the development of a blended CareerBOT training for Career Guidance Practitioners which is now well underway with the aim to deliver the training in October and finally the drafting of a Transfer Handbook for Implementation that focuses on organisational Development (OD). Both final outcomes of the CareerBot project aim to improve the digital readiness of the Career Guidance.

For more information about the CareerBot Erasmus+ project go to our website here.

The European Commission support for the production of this communication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Newsletter Flows Project

Flows project aims to support disadvantaged people, early school leavers, young job seekers, poor educational background, the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities and social, cultural, economic or educational obstacles, individuals, guidance, practitioners, employers, and Youth employment providers.

Flows is a 24-month-long European project, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and coordinated by Çarşamba İşkur Hizmet Merkezi Müdürlüğü. The project activities will be implemented throughout 4 different countries: Austria, Ireland, Romania, and Turkey. The first meeting of the project was held on the 30th and 31st of January 2023 in Samsun, Turkey.

During the meeting, partners got to know each other and the project and set the ground for a fruitful collaboration in the months to come. Lead project partners shared highlights for their work packages. Special time was dedicated to the first work package of the project, developing a framework for analysis and evaluation, which will include desk research and focus groups with young jobseekers and experts working with young jobseekers. The next transnational partner meeting will be in Ireland in September 2023.

Work packages that will be developed are:

Work package 2 – Framework Development will be led by Mozaik (as it has experience in working on developing framework for analysis and evaluation. The aim of the guidance service is to encourage and assist individuals to make positive changes in their lives and enable them to access education, training, and employment.

Work package 3 – Tool Specification and Content will be implemented by The Ballymun Job Centre as it holds methodology that can be used to discover and develop educational, vocational, and employment potential, to equip individuals to have a clearer understanding of themselves and to direct them towards training and employment opportunities that best fulfil their needs and aspirations.

Work package 4 – Developing Training module for practitioners and Online Platform will be led by Universitatea Politehnica din București as being an experienced IT partner.

Work package 5 – Piloting of The Future-proof Your Career and Psychometric Evaluation will be led by Hafelekar as it is mainly engaged in these fields: Research, Studies, Surveys, Evaluation, Validation of informal and non-formal learning, Development of (ICT) training.

The partnership of the Flows project is composed by:

Project Coordinator: Çarşamba ISKUR HIZMET MERKEZI MÜDÜRLÜĞÜ (Türkiye) 

Project Partners:

STAY TUNED TO HEAR MORE FOR OUR PROJECT!

Flows Newsletter1_EN

Chatbot based Career Guidance – 1st Newsletter

January 2023 | 1st Newsletter

The CareerBot partnership seeks to improve Digital Readiness of the Career Guidance sector by implementing CareerBot methodology and tool, facilitating blended guidance
sessions and to use customized Labour Market Information (LMI) to empower marginalized job seekers. We want to put Career Guidance Practitioners at the centre and assist them – and their organisations – on the path of digitalisation so that they can advise their clients in the best possible way.

With the help of our methodology, job seekers will be able to gather relevant
information before and after personal interviews, so that valuable personal services can
be used efficiently. With the “CareerBot project” we propose a pilot that focuses on the
role of career guidance, which became more demanding, and must be adapted more
rapidly and flexible to the changing needs of the new world of work.

The CareerBot project includes 4 main outcomes:

  1. CareerBot Content and Methodology
  2. CareerBot Tool
  3. Blended CareerBot training for Career Guidance Practitioners
  4. Transfer Handbook for Implementation with focus on Organisational
    Development (OD)

Here you can have a look at the preliminary version of our CareerBot/ pre-pilot phase:

Please provide your feedback after you have spend some time interacting with
CareerBot: Careerbot feedback form (google.com)

First f2f Transnational Project Meeting in Dublin, November 2022

Following key virtual meetings, last November 2022 we were able to meet in person in
Dublin, to review the progress of the different Project Results and Activities, develop
stronger bonds within our partnership and update the implementation plans going
forward.

We are delighted with the consultations and baseline analysis carried out up to date,
collaboration between the project coordinators and links with associated organisations
contributing to the CareerBot. We hope to obtain feedback from a diverse range of
Career Guidance Practitioners and colleagues who will be trained to use the CareerBot
with their clients during 2023.

Find out more about our project partners and updates in our website

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

EJO4Youth

Effective Job Orientation for Youth

The EJO4Youth projects aims to improve job orientation for young people in Europe by providing youth workers and professionals with training and methodologies based on the Symbolwork approach. Thus, the project fosters the competences of youth workers to apply effective, motivating and impactful job orientation with interactive and engaging methods and practices. 

The project’s primary objective is to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds improve their vocational and professional skills by using a career counselling methodology based on Symbol Work. Various interventions will be implemented in order to assist young people in “designing” a roadmap for their career and educational paths. Moreover, young people will receive assistance that is relevant not only to the labour market, but also to increasing social inclusion and active citizenship, as well as reducing discrimination and obstacles in their lives.

Our main results are:

  • Blended Learning Approach and Accreditation: These guidelines will provide more information on the requirements and competences necessary for the implementation of the Symbol Work approach as well as on differences between participating countries.
  • Face-to-face Training Curriculum and Toolset: This curriculum includes more information on how to implement the Symbol Work approach and job orientation. The training is focused on improving the skills and competences of youth workers in Europe.
  • Distance Learning Course: Transferring the curriculum into an online format, allowing for professionals without direct access to the face-to-face training to improve their skills and competences online in an easy and user-friendly way.

Project duration

May 2022 till April 2024

Web

Website: www.ejo4youth.eu

Project Partners

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Turkish National Agency. Neither the European Union nor Turkish National Agency can be held responsible for them.

Probing our fortune

Career Preparedness and Life Navigation with Folktales

In this project we will use the Folk Tale work method to develop sets of self-help and coaching / training tools for young people and their advisers and coaches to think through their choices and motivation to  design their next life and career steps.

Folk tales are a way of narrative therapy. The stories – and the analysis of them – can support learning from the situations portrayed, the behaviour of the characters and the ways of solving problems. Folk tales teach us of trial and error and of not giving up, even when it’s hard. These stories can influence the way we live, and the way we think. Using folk tales from different countries also provides a good opportunity for increasing cultural awareness.

… So we can all become queens and kings of our own lives, and live happily ever after….

The main objectives are to

  • improve the preparedness of young people for career and life choices by developing their self-reflection, their resilience as well as to encourage them to make active decisions and to take their life and career planning into their own hands;
  • to increase the acceptance of cultural diversities and to develop positive attitudes towards sustainability.

Main results are:

  • Framework and Screening Tool on Carrier Preparedness for counsellors
  • Six Folk Tale Boxes, containing tools for self-help and counsellor work, such as the analysis of the tales, cards on the scenes of the tales and assessment questions for self-help and coaching, instructions for coaching on the specific tales, and also group work schedule and tools to work with the tale in youth groups.
  • Training curriculum for youth workers and counsellors including modules for young people.

Project duration

March 2022 – September 2024

Web

https://www.youthfolktale.eu

Project partner

Erasmus Logo

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

FYC

Future-proof Your Career

Career Guidance for a Modern Labour Market

Future-proof your Career aims to design, develop and implement a Future of Work Framework, focused on the identification -through a guidance process- of transversal skills which can be used to future-proof the careers of disadvantaged job seekers and enable sustainable future employment.

This forward thinking career guidance framework will provide a way of working for guidance practitioners which facilitates quality future focused career plans for job seekers already marginalized in the labour market, so as to ensure their inclusion in a technological and digitalized world of work. It will support marginalized job seekers to understand and gain awareness of key competencies which are essential employability competences for a future labour market. These key competences underpin the ability to adapt and change to the demands of a technological workplace and are important in up-skilling in initial and continuous vocational, educational and training.

The project has three main objectives

  • to enable Individuals to become aware of their own skills for the future labour market particularly in relation to communication and interpersonal skills
  • to create awareness of future workplaces, their requirements, and associated VET progression routes
  • to create a culture of training and up-skilling of guidance practitioners in a fast changing labour market

The main outcomes of the project

The FYC online platform: develop an online e-learning like platform which will, through a series of interactive questions and animations, help the individual identify their human, social and psychological capital, and their connection to the current and longer-term labour market. It will identify areas where the individual could benefit from vocational or industry specific upskilling. It will provide the individual and their guidance practitioner with a report outlining existing capabilities and make suggestions as to how these could be built upon and utilized and thus enable the individual to prepare for a labour market which is driven by automation and digitization.

FYC Training Modules for Practitioners: Development of a training module for practitioners on the future of work, the types of jobs available, their make up in terms of hard and soft skills, and the career path options available to job seekers

Project duration

October 2019 to September 2021

Project Partners

Ballymun Job Centre (Irland) – Koordination
Hafelekar Unternehmensberatung (Österreich)
METROPOLISNET (Deutschland)
CIOFS – Formazione Professionale (Italien)
Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti (Bulgarien)
Headway Ireland CLG (Irland)
Fundacion Tomillo (Spanien)

Erasmus Logo

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Study Migration Salzburg

Study of the labour market situation for migrants in Salzburg – implementation concept

The target of the research study was to point out the situation of migrants on Salzburgs labour market and to provide policy recommendations.

The study consists of three parts which aim to:

  • analyze social demographic features of the target group in Salzburg concerning the labour market (analysis)
  • consider experiences and required basic conditions of several stakeholders (qualitative part),
  • evaluate proved and in other countries successfully implemented methods regarding good practice samples (recommendations for action)

The analysis referred to current workings in Austria and, moreover, showed additional requirements of a solid data base for TEP Salzburg. The AMDB („Arbeitsmarktdatenbank von AMS und Hauptverband“ – labour market data base of AMS and main association) was primary used as data basis. So did the MZ-AKE (Microcensus – labour survey) and the SILC (statistics on income and living conditions). Those data guaranteed a very current and well-founded information base. Additionally, “invisible persons” (= currently not in training, nor in job, nor any care obligations, at an employable age) were taken into consideration. Already realized studies were evaluated and additional interviews were held within the scope of the qualitative part. This part aimed to utilize important stakeholders, their experiences and resources for sustainable labour market integration. Recommendations for action reflect key results from the first two parts and provide a “good practice” collection gathered by other Austrian provinces and within European context. The approach therefor was an already implemented collection of good ideas and moderated processes by ZSI and ILO (International Labour Organisation).

Client

Land Salzburg

Project duration

April 2009

Project Partners

Hafelekar Unternehmensberatung
ZSI – Zentrum für Soziale Innovation, Wien

G.MO.V.E

G.MO.V.E – Graduated-MObility Veers to Europe

Working in another European country can be of great value to someone´s life and professional career. Mobility within Europe provides the opportunity to learn new languages, improve existing knowledge and to get to know other cultures. At the same time, there are major challenges associated with it. Within this context starts an European photo competition with the title „Make yourself a picture of Europe“.

The general aim of this contest was to boost the vocational mobility within Europe as well as to raise the awareness of EURES – European Employment Services. Participants could submit up to a maximum of six photos that deal with life and job opportunities as well as experiences in connection with occupation, education, studies and a stay abroad. The topic could be elaborated in every photographic manner regarding content and form. The photo competiton was co-financed by the European commission, head office on employment and social affairs within the scope of the information campaign 2003/2004 on the topic mobility. Hafelekar Consulting organised the photo competion jointly with other project partners.

Project duration

2003 till 2004

Project Partners

Camera Work Group
Hafelekar Unternehmensberatung
University Luton
AMS Tirol
Pädagogische Hochschule Tirol
University Innsbruck
Lomographische Gesellschaft Österreich

Funding

With support from the European Commission – Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Basic knowledge Gender Mainstreaming

Christine Baur/Eva Fleischer/Paul Schober:

Gender Mainstreaming in der Arbeitswelt – Grundlagenwissen für Projekte, Unternehmen und Politik

Basic knowledge Gender Mainstreaming for enterprises, projects and politics

Innsbruck, Wien, Bozen: Studienverlag 2005

ISBN: 3-7065-4035-5; 210 pages; incl. CD-ROM, €21

Hafelekar Series Volume 1

Short description

Gender Mainstreaming – an often used term, scarcely understood and rarely really wanted. The manifold reactions and violent emotions regarding this topic lead to this assumption.

  • Where are the roots of the term Gender Mainstreaming?
  • Which are the theoretical and judicial bases?
  • How can Gender Mainstreaming be applied in the business world?

This publication provides the necessary basic knowledge for it.

After a survey over feminist theories, a definiton of the central terms of equal opportunities policy is given in scientific and judicial terms.

On this basis, the following actual topics are focused on: choice of occupation, compatibility of work and family, income distribution, equal treatment and equal opportunities. The third and main chapter is dedicated to the precise realisation of projects. A survey of possible fund givers in the EU leads over to the description of the single phases of a project, from the analysis to the assurance of sustainibility. Finally, current Gender Mainstreaming projects in Tyrol are presented.

The enclosed CD-ROM contains a rich collection of up-to-date publications ,checklists, guidelines, links and contact adresses for the realisation of Gender Mainstereaming. It also features a new presentation mode of the scientific software GABEK-WinRelan for the readers to explore the complete data of the WoMen field study, referred to in the book.

This book was developed within the EQUAL project WoMen.

WoMen

WoMen – equality for women and men on the ICT labor market

The main objective of the development partnership is to encourage men and women in a more balanced gender distribution of the ICT labor market in the Tyrol. This will happen through awareness-raising activities, by identifying strategies and the development of specific instruments.

Project aims

  • Creation of social and political awareness by sensitizing public relations
  • Creation of an individual consciousness – by means of individual career planning for women
  • Sensitization and planning of appropriate strategies in companies
  • Counseling and guidance services (skills analysis, career planning, Resource pool, child care policies, models of parental support)
  • Training of highly qualified ICT professionals
  • Formation of networks of all relevant actors engaged in the support of equal opportunity on the labour market.

At the beginning of the project Hafelekar created a large-scale baseline study, using the method GABEK, which forms the basis for further activities. Hafelekar was further responsible for public relations and dissemination of the products.

Project duration

October 2002 till September 2005

Project Partners

Funding

Supported by funds from the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture