Poject Vocational life planing for young mothers

Description - The Local Context - Response

Detailed Description

Introduction
The BeLeM project (Berufliche Lebensplanung für junge Mütter; vocational life planning for young mothers) is orientated to young mothers still under obligatory school attendance who had to leaf school because of her early motherhood and also later on couldn't be placed into regular classes. This young women don't have a leaving certificate and as a consequence of this also later on no chance to get further qualification. The aim of the project is not only to enable the young mothers the re- integration into the school system, but additionally to motivate them to an active creation of their future, especially their vocational life planning. This is also to prevent them from lifelong public maintenance.

Framework
BeLeM is part of the project zsb (Zentrum für Schule und Beruf; centre for School and profession). This is a co-operation between Ministry for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social, Ministry for Education and Science, Public Office for Social Affairs, Allgemeine Berufsschule (School) and the German Red Cross. The projects is realised through a multi- functional staff (teachers, pedagogues, social workers), the transnational co-operation is co-ordinated and realised from the Veb (European training institute in Bremen).

Only young mothers who are still under obligatory school attendance can participate in the project. The following criteria are checked before the admission of the girls:

  • motherhood or pregnancy
  • obligatory school attendance
  • missing of a school leaving certificate
  • problematic living conditions

After a interview with school consultants and social workers about the motivation of the applicant girl the whole project team takes the decision to integrate the young mother into the project.

Three Modules
The project is working on three aspects: social education, teaching and child care. They are closely separated for the target group. The integral approach needs a close and transparent interaction between the modules. This inter-link between teaching and social education, completed through child care, enables us to fulfil the women's individual expectations and to work target- and success- orientated with them.

I. Module Social Education
Our experience shows the imperative necessity of a continuos social-educational assistance for the success of the whole project. In particular in the aspects of vocation and life planing it shows great evidence to integrate the social education into the lessons. The connection between learning deficits and personal/private problem-situations can be directly recognised and actions can be started quickly.

The project offers reflect our integral approach:

  • starting on the existing competencies and strengths of the participants. This supports their autonomy and their self- confidence.
  • un-prejudiced acceptance of all participants. This is meaning to accept and to esteem the status quo of their life reality.
  • Identification with the positive role as mother and woman
  • Reflection of the group situation
  • Creation of a group atmosphere which enables confidence and mutual esteem.

Experience and results of the social education
It occurs that clear structured and continuous offers in the social- educational praxis are required for our target group. Beside regular creative offers we decided to work out specific themes in project form. This means to work for a couple of weeks with the women on the same theme. This is integrated into the obligatory lessons. This structure enables the women to find in a creative way a compensation to lessons and child care. On the other hand the well known and pleasant surroundings create a atmosphere in which the women get open and are able and willing to speak about their experiences and difficulties.

Some examples of this kind of courses:

  • Introduction into the Internet
  • Nutrition and health
  • Special instruction / homework help

Psycho-social care
Besides the group orientated offers the individual psycho-social care takes a big space. Mainly in individual interviews we discuss actual difficulties. Besides the problems caused by the personal biography of the young women themes are contacts to public authorities, regulations about fatherhood, living conditions, financial problems, overtaxing demands because of the child- care...
Often the young women recognise quickly the chance the project is offering for them to find solutions for their individual problems or showing a path to a positive future for them. They recognise the correlation between personal conflicts and their level at school.

II. Module Teaching
Aim of the lessons is to achieve a leaving certificate of secondary modern school. The duration of the project participation depends on the individual educational pre-conditions of the participants.

The teaching is orientated to the following aspects:

  • Lessons in the relevant secondary modern school subjects (German, English, Mathematics, Policy)
  • Expert lessons (specialisation in domestic science or social education)
  • Living- environment connected lessons: developmental psychology, living with children, vocational and personal live planing)
  • Development and supporting of the creative potential

Through the motherhood the young women experienced a brake in their school career and they often are very sceptical and negative against their own value and possibilities. Because of this reasons we have to create progressive structured working and learning situations which take into account the actual individual capabilities. So the women will have experience of success which often is a first step in a process of stabilisation and encouragement. The teaching situation in the lessons often demonstrated very clearly the pressure of the double role of being mother and pupil for the young women. The longer the lessons are going on the more they came to their psychological limits. Our experiences are showing very clearly that a close co-operation between teacher and social educator is an essential pre-condition for the success of the project.

III. Module Child Care
Child care has a central meaning of the project. It is exclusively for the children of the project participants. Very often we recognise that the children reflect the problems of the mothers. Because of we integrated the mothers closer into the child care. All the mothers have had problems with feeding their child. So we decided to assign small groups of the mothers the task of preparing breakfast.

This causes some positive results:

  • The mothers could learn in practise how to prepare baby food. The subject nutrition has been integrated into the regular curriculum.
  • Through this common action the relation between mothers and social workers improved. The mothers dare more to the social workers and ask for their advice and expertise.
  • The mothers got a deeper knowledge about the course of the child group and more information about what is happening in the baby group. The former idea of the baby group as service institution got a deeper and wider importance.

For improving the combination of the modules we meanwhile integrated the nursery school teacher into the regular lessons. In two hours per week she takes actual situations or knowledge about development and education of babies into the lessons.
For preparing new participants some of them we let to make a practical phase in the baby group. This smooth integration has positive results for the group structure and also for the willingness of the mothers to separate from the child for the time of the lessons.

Vocational Orientation and live planing
Motherhood and the looking after for the child for a lot of the mothers is contrary to work. An active examination of their own vocational future does not happen by most of our participants. We want to help them to develop a positive thinking about their double role as mother and worker. This acceptance is the base for an autonomous development of personality and a stabile professional decision.

The following aspects are covered in BeLeM:

  • Vocational education
  • Training for job interview
  • Seminar for vocational orientation
  • Practical experience in a company

Probably most important has been the practical training. The searching for adequate placements very soon showed clearly how anxious the mothers are about this field. The analysis of their own professional future on a practical and a theoretical level obviously is a challenge for them which they hardly can stand. The placements made clearl that there are objective difficulties for alone educating women. Self- discipline and cleare structures are necessary. What at the beginning seems to be impossible for most of the young mothers became reality. This made the mothers pluck for their future and strengthened their professional identity.

Professional perspectives
In 1999 five women (the first part of the first group) ended the course successfully with a leaving certificate. With this they achieved the base for further qualification. Three women left the project without leaving certification. All of them have had enormous difficulties with regular school attendence. Reasons for this have been:

  • Learning disabilities / anxiousness in front of school
  • Drug abuse problems
  • Absenteeism
  • Psychological problems

In spite of the positive experiences, the stabilising success and the achieved motivation of the five other women it has been showed that a regular vocational education is not possible for the participants of the BeLeM project. The opening hours of the child care institutions and the working hours don't fit together. Even attending a project for school education will fail because of this reason. In most of the families of our participants there is no support in this sense.

Results
The need for this kind of project is demonstrated by the fact that since the beginning of BeLeM all places are occupied. Additionally we have a waiting list for mothers we couldn't offer a place.
BeLeM already is established and consolidated on different levels: BeLeM offers the participants a stabile constellation of staff. We achieved our aim of offering the young mothers an integral support. On the regional level BeLeM has established a good reputation on behalf of is co-operative and professional way of working. BeLeM is known as a useful development in the preventive work with young mothers.
BeLeM clearly demonstrated the need for a project also in the sector of vocational training.

Prospects
The original idea of BeLeM in practise proved as adequate. As a result of our work in the last two years we developed the concept.
Since the end of 1999 we intensified the psychological support for the young mothers. We are working on a co-operation with the Child- and Youth- Psychiatry in the federal state of Bremen. This shall enable the girls the overcoming of traumatic experiences.
Due to the fact that there is no other project in Germany working as ours we can't count on experience. It's the opposite way around: Other organisations are contacting us and asking for our experiences and results. To get a better base for the reflection of our experiences we decided to look for a scientific accompanying. We are preparing this together with the University Bremen/Lüneburg. The scientists meanwhile recognised the importance of motherhood in adolescence which makes them very interested in BeLeM.
First results will be presented to the public in autumn 2000 on a scientific conference. The needs of the mothers, the requests from other organisations all over Germany and the interest of the private and scientific public strengthens our interest to go further on with the project also after the EU- financing in the year 2001.

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