Meeting enterprises in Kassel

On 31.08.17 the Landkreis Kassel invited representatives of regional enterprises for an after-work event, where the REST idea was presented and discussed. The CEO of on regional enterprise gave an interesting insight on how he succeeded in overcoming initital challenges such as language problems, legal issues and fear. He underlined that one needs some additional time and patience at the beginning of the process but that it can be very rewarding to give a refugee the chance to work in an enterprise.

Support system for enterprises

Currently the REST team is developing the REST support system consisting of face-to-face workshops, coaching support and the REST online platform. These activities will take thew whole summer and autumn. Results are expected for December 2017, when the team meets for their third partner meeting in Vienna.
In Spring 2018 the implementation phase will start, during which enterprises and organisations get the opportunity to participate in the workshops and profit of coaching and support offers and online platform.

2nd Partner Meeting in Roubaix

On July 6th/7th , 2017, the partners met for the 2nd time in Roubaix, France. Main focus of the meeting was to gather the preliminary results of the stocktaking in every participating country and derive the content and topics for the REST support system.
Every partner had already conducted a desk research to identify successful integration measures in enterprises as well as various interviews with employers and integration experts. In extensive discussions the frameworks in all participating countries were analysed and compared. The team was able to identify common topics of interest in every country. These are related intercultural competences, legal aspects and mentoring. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the REST support system with its modular approach needs to allow for national specifications to meet the specific local needs and challenges.  As a result the REST team drafted and agreed on a vision and mission statement for the project.

Survey: Which are the challenges that enterprises face …

… when employing refugees?

The partnership is currrently trying to find answers to this and other questions. For this purpose an online survey was set up and a series of interviews will be conducted with enterprises in all partner regions. Also, the partnership tries to identify examples of good practice for the successful integration of refugees into enterprises.
If you are interested and want to participate, benefit and support us on different levels, you can:

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Kick-off meeting in Kassel

The project has officially started in March with the kick-off meeting in Kassel, Germany. The meeting was a great opportunity for the partners from Germany, Austria, Greece, Italy, France and Bulgaria to get to know to each other. In a friendly and open-minded atmosphere the partners summarized the project objectives and planned the first steps for REST. These will include a comprehensive stocktaking and needs analysis phase in order to identify the barriers enterprises face in their attempt to employ refugees. Respective training modules and counselling shall help overcome these barriers.