Poject ZUFI

Description - The Local Context - Response

Detailed Description

Introduction/preliminary remarks
The project ZUFI (Creating Prospects in the Future for Italian young people) is addressed to young people of Italian extraction in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. With the help of this project, young people are motivated in the following matters: to acquire or try again to achieve formal school-leaving qualifications; to attend courses preparing or training them for working life; to begin and likewise to complete work training. The main goal is to prepare them for a job qualification which is appropriate to their interests and abilities, and offers them the corresponding prospects in the future.

ZUFI takes place at three RAA locations (Dortmund, Krefeld and Wuppertal) as part of an integrated project, and is coordinated from the headquarters of RAA in Essen. Each location independently organises its work in relation to the specific local requirements of the Italian young people who live there. The individually involved municipal RAAs work together with different institutions on the spot with the goal of either developing cooperative arrangements from scratch, or extending those already existing. In the framework of the project, basic structures should be constructed which will continue and be serviceable beyond the lifetime of the ZUFI project.

Target Group
The target group for the ZUFI project are young people aged between 16 and 20 who are part of the Italian ethnic minorities in Krefeld, Dortmund and Wuppertal and are in the transition between school and professions

  • without formal qualifications
    • Pupils at special schools
    • Early leavers
    • Lateral career starters
  • with few formal qualifications
    • Secondary modern/comprehensive pupils who Have graduated from the 10th year (aged about 16) but without chances of being found a job

Special characteristics of the target group
Young people of Italian ethnic extraction are conspicuous by their inconspicuousness e.g until now they have not been perceived as being part of a particular problem group, and are instead considered to be "integrated". An analysis of their actual life-siuation as well as recent findings in the relevant research projects show clearly, however, that the future job prospects of this group are not satisfactory.

In comparison to young people of other minorities, Italian young people are markedly under-represented in professional training progtrammes. An over-proportional number leave school without formal qualifications with the consequence that their chances of a successful professional and social integration are shockingly low. The causes for that are:

  • "broken off" school careers due to migrational movements of their families between Italy and Germany which lead in turn to difficulties at schools, and experiences of failure even to leaving school with no qualifications
  • within the context of migration, a pattern of emotionally determined clinging to traditional values in particular as far as young girls are concerned.
  • orientation of Italian families towards the educational system in Italy as well as the careers recognised there
  • fundamental deficits of information within Italian families concerning the German system of education and training young people for work in turn connected with feelings of helplessness - especially on the part of the parents
  • the phenomenon of social isolation of Italian families not only vis-à-vis Germans but also in relation to fellow Italians.

In addition the growing number of Italians should be noted who, on arrival in Germany, are already 15 years old or older and are as a result "late lateral entrants". Because of their special biographies - school attendance and completion in Italy, lack of knowledge of German - they have no chance of future social and job prospects in Germany unless they receive specifically targeted assistance.

The motivation to enter into work training is comparitively low amongst younger members of the Italian ethnic minority in comparison to other comparable groups. Jobs in pizzerias and ice-cream salons which are owned by acquaintances and relatives appear to be easily accessible. Members of the family "commute" back and forth between Italy and Germany.

Goals
A central concern of the project is the encouragement and support of young Italian people with the aim of integration into future-oriented occupations which require training and qualified employment. Above all that entails obtaining school-leaving qualifications and both beginning and completing a training programme with the accompanying certification. That should be achieved by:

  1. Motivating the young people
    • to acquire or try again to achieve formal school-leaving qualifications
    • to attend training measures preparing them for work
    • to be accepted for and to complete a training
  2. The motivation of firms
    • to take on young people of Italian extraction
    • to create jobs possibly in the framework of networks of training in particular at Italian companies e.g. through assistance with passing the tests crediting their suitablity to offer training
  3. The motivation of parents
    • to support the taking-up by their offspring of job training programmes
    • to support the attainment of further qualifications

Main points of emphasis
The main points of emphasis of the project are in the sphere of counselling. which here is to be understood as a holistic counselling which takes into account the person and their socio-cultural background. The counselling commences in the final year of the schools in question. With that the possibility is opened of a continual accompaniment and advising in the choice of field of employment likewise the process of seeking out employment. Moreover early school leavers (whether male or female) from lower classes as well as those from intensive school courses and lateral entrants are included. As a result our counselling work goes beyond that available from the statutory employment offices which are specifically linked to a task. Recognised techniques of conversational counselling (active listening, supportive manner and the creation of common ground) are transferred to the intercultural conversational situation.

The inclusion of parents belongs to this concept of total counselling. Active parental work (information events, counselling and support) forms another focus of our work. Parents or close relatives play a central role in the formation of opinion. The crucial precondition for the successful and unproblematic attainment of employment qualifications is acceptance within a family.

In order to bring about a counselling system which both meets the needs of the target group and is efficient in transitional situations, a further important aspect is the formation and development of local networks. Cooperation has proved to be very effective not only with with institutions and organisations (e.g. Caritas, and the counselling about trades/professions offered by the statutory job centres) which are active in the three locations as well as with institutions which enjoy the confidence of the Italian ethnic monirity e.g consulates, or Catholic missions for Italians.

In the framework of the project a varied and comprehensive educational and action programme ( e.g. training in application and communication, German language courses and art projects) has come into being with as its goals the bonding of young people into the project and to make the counselling on offer attractive.

Results
In the course of the project the number of young people who have come to ZUFI for assistance has grown continually. That shows the necessity and acceptance of such a project. Experience has demonstrated that many young people require continual counselling and accompaniment. Even those young people who have been found places often run the risk of dropping out of their training. The long-term accompaniment of Italian young people and their families appears to be unavoidable in order to stimulate the processes of motivation and re-thinking, and at the same time to awake their readiness to be accepted into training for work even if not that of the dreamed of profession.

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