SPREADING HOLISTIC & RE-EMPOWERING

The biggest impact of the Dublin study tour was undoubtably our experience of hearing about the EGUIDE and INFORM tools at Ballymun Job Centre.

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They were exactly what we need - a "holy Grail" in employability support for people far from the labour market. 
So often disadvantaged people are directed to the first job that is available without knowing if it will fit them.  The employability advisers who work with clients to explore their strengths and weaknesses and interests are often not trained in the best guidance tools, and even those tools are often geared towards well educated people in high-level jobs, or possibly school leavers. Long forms are unappealing to nearly everyone, but especially off-putting to people who had a bad experience of education or may have literacy problems. The people in employability support jobs in communities are often there for the love of it, and for their people skills.  Sending them on a long guidance counselling course that is geared to a different client group just isn't viable - or useful. So how do we make sure the people we are helping have a clear picture of their strengths, interests and the right fit with their personality?  Many have learned to believe that they can't do anything. And how do we equip those passionate employability advisors, and even peer mentors, to provide excellent guidance in a user-friendly way?

The EUIDE and INFORM tools address all of these challenges.

Many solutions

• They are based on best practice in guidance principles - from a Leonardo-funded project.
• They build this good practice into a tool that brings with it the right thinking, so the advisers do not need the expertise themselves.
• The tools are interactive and fun - and they use listening, pictures and reading to fit any learning style.
• They are quick to use, so advisers can get a report in minutes and feedback to the client on the same visit.
• EGUIDE explores interests, personality fit with different types of workplace, and the cognitive skills to match those interests.
• INFORM goes back a step for those who have no idea what their skills are and explores their skills and interests in the context of everyday activities.
• All of these speed up the process immensely and give a much more pleasurable experience and more accurate answers.
• The INFORM tool has even been recognised for accreditation in Ireland, so forms an ideal platform for accrediting prior learning through experience.

Wide appeal

We tried the tools on the study tour and shared them at our dissemination workshops - with a wide popular appeal for employability workers and pre-employability workers.  INFORM can even be the first step that mental health support workers, addictions workers and peer mentors need to help their clients see their own potential to move forward.
At the Scottish dissemination workshop alone, people from organisations all over Scotland were keen to get trained to use EGUIDE.  In Stockholm, Jobbtorg would like to have all their new aspirants use the tools as a starting point to their journey.  And Dublin Employment Pact would like to roll out the tool to all their areas.  We also found a new partner in the Netherlands who is interested!

Try the EGUIDE demo yourself!

New project application

To help us take this forward and spread the tool as widely as possible in different languages and with Scottish accents in the voiceovers, we have developed a Grundtvig Multilateral Projects application with our original SHARE partners, plus Ballymun Job Centre and the Dutch Foundation of Innovation in Welfare to Work. The new project is called SETTA - Spreading E-Tools Towards Accreditation.  News to come in June!