Job Goals

Job Goals uses the power of football to help young people enter the education system and start their working life.

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Starting position: social disadvantage impedes social participation and integration into working life

In Austria, social background determines a person’s educational and professional career. The risk of young people with a history of migration and flight being without work and training for a long period of time is therefore more than double that for young people with no experience of migration, for example. Dropping out of education early often leads to a lack of self-confidence and major motivational problems, and consequently to a strong sense of having neither direction nor prospects and to radicalisation and delinquency. Social uncertainty, traumatising experiences and withdrawal ensure that many of the young people affected are now only more difficult to reach through traditional educational offers, and that social partici- pation becomes increasingly difficult.

The Job Goals programme responds preventively with a low-threshold, innovative programme. The aim is to reach and enable precisely these young adults, to strengthen their social skills and to support them in the development of a positive long-term vision.

Objective: holistic supervision leading to stronger personalities and a sense of belonging

Job Goals introduces young people between the ages of 15 and 24 to a follow-on training course or the jobs market in a targeted way as part of a holistic and innovative programme. Through its particularly low-threshold entry criteria, playing football together as an initial docking point, the project provides participants with an open, uncomplicated and simple access to it. This unique feature distinguishes the programme from other measures. Job Goals succeeds in addressing and involving a target group whose biographical capacity to act and whose social integration are at risk. The programme’s holistic access, namely the close interlinking of »kick«, »talk«, »learn« and »work«, is an attempt to start with the life management of young people and allow a sense of belonging to emerge. 

Accompanying football training sessions boost the participants’ personalities, self-efficacy and self-confidence, and motivate them for further training steps. Intensive supervision on and off the football pitch enables an assessment of their capabilities and interests, and consolidates their social competencies in an optimal way. Coaching sessions allow the participants to discover additional training options, enhance their formal and informal training competencies, have their first experience of working life and be ready for a seamless, targeted entry into the jobs market, or to take the next training step.

Our offer

Kick
In a series of workshops, the young people develop emotional, mental and social skills such as motivation, self-efficacy, teamwork, determination, and frustration management as part of a sport-based unit. A subsequent round of reflection helps to transfer the content learned to everyday life. The young people are thus given the chance to use the skills they have honed in the football training sessions in any challenges they face at work or in their vocational training. The sport-based programme enables participants and strengthens their social and emotional competencies.


Talk
One-to-one consultations focus on the young people’s current problem areas. We compile interest profiles, offer vocational guidance, help them to obtain a vocational perspective
and support them on their path to education or training, an apprenticeship, or the next realistic step. Crucial here is the close-knit relationship work and the support provided through social and psychosocial work. Individual coaching concepts and a close network with other institutions help the young people to find their vocational identity and develop targeted prospects.


Learn
Additional group workshops on topics such as CVs, labour law or job applications prepare participants in an optimal way
for the next training step. One-to-one learning support and a weekly learning café to help participants with entrance tests or their basic education are arranged if necessary. We try to expand and enhance the participants’ living environment through excursions, visits to trade fairs, and co-operations with youth-related institutions.


Work
Job Goals arranges and supports the participants in trial days in co-operating businesses. This gives rise to new intercultural contacts and relationships. The companies benefit two-fold: they strengthen their employees’ social skills while actively participating in a sustainable educational project. Our young people get a reality check, gather vocational experience and have the opportunity to use their improved soft skills in the world of work and to reflect upon their experience in a follow- up coaching session.

Impact

By participating in Job Goals, the young people develop an awareness of their own strengths and get a clearer perspective on their future careers.

»Thanks for everything! You were there for me when I had nothing. And now I’m standing here with you and my colleagues by my side.«


Anonymous survey among participants of Job Goals 

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