ATENEO

EDGE – Enhancing Disabled-people Greatness and their Employability

BANDO
ERASMUS PLUS KA2 – STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
DURATA
1/9/18 – 31/8/21
CAPOFILA
Consorzio SIR Milano (IT)
PARTNER
eCampus University (IT)
INOVA CONSULTANCY LTD (UK)
UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY – UTH (Greece)
FENACERCI - FEDERACAO NACIONAL DE COOPERATIVAS DE SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL COOPERATIVA FCRL (Portugal)
Die Querdenker (Austria)
VšĮ Socialinių inovacijų centras (Lithuania)
Melazeta srl (IT)
RIFERIMENTO
Prof. Fiorella Vinci
SINTESI
According to the EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020, about 80 million people living in the EU have a mild to severe disability. About 47% of them are employed compared to 72% of people without disabilities. The obstacles they face, such as gaining access to training or employment, leave them vulnerable to social exclusion. Lower employment and education levels cause that the poverty rate for those with disabilities is 70% higher than the average (UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – CRPD). Among them, there are currently around 4 million people in the European Union who have Intellectual and relational Disabilities (ID). Their unemployment rate is more than twice as high as for the general population.

EDGE is expected to develop innovative outputs, and engage into intensive dissemination and exploitation activities of existing newly produced products and innovative ideas, in the field of job inclusion for young people with intellectual and relational disabilities.

The main priority is to promote social inclusion processes enhancing the access, participation and learning performance of disadvantaged learners, and so reducing disparities in learning outcomes. EDGE will create social inclusion for youth with disability throughout innovative integrated approaches: innovative training (through new methods/tools and contents), job placement activities (through innovative work-based learning), diversity management (inclusive job design, inclusive job environment and teams), self-employment (through innovative mentoring).

The key element of EDGE is the creation of VET business partnership at local and regional dimensions, aimed at promoting work-based learning paths and inclusive work environments. Companies – HR managers and entrepreneurs – will be actively involved for sharing with VET providers dealing with disability, innovative work-based experiences enriched with inclusive job design approaches. Moreover, they will be involved in the experimentation of inclusive job environments and teams, adopting diversity management policies and strategies.

EDGE has three primary strategies:
  • Supply-side approaches, focused on preparing the target for employment and then facilitating their placement;
  • Demand-side approaches, focused on creating a desire in employers to hire them;
  • “Third way” approaches, focused on promoting self-employment paths.


EDGE is aimed at improving the well-being and quality of life of young people with mental and relational disabilities, pursuing the following 3 main objectives:
  • Creating innovative and ad hoc training methodologies for a successful job placement;
  • Prompting companies to be more proactive about hiring people with mental challenges;
  • Fostering entrepreneurial mindset, competences and possibilities.
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