Giving advice - Yes to vocational training!

The ESF Plus pilot programme Giving advice - Yes to vocational training! ("Rat geben - Ja zur Ausbildung!") aims to help do away with barriers to accessing vocational training. The target group is the direct attachment figures of immigrant young people or young people with immigrant parents at the transition from school to vocational training. Attachment figures means people who are regularly part of the immediate environment of the young people and play a role in shaping their everyday lives; these include parents and relatives, social workers, sports instructors, instructors from clubs or associations.

The pilot programme is tailored to the level of information and individual level of responsibility of the young people and is designed to motivate and support them in the transition from school to vocational training. Here, a structural approach will be pursued by training and empowering important attachment figures directly involved in the lives of the young people in their role as advice givers and raising their awareness of the special role they play. Funding is to be provided in particular in regions with a difficult socio-economic environment.

Giving advice - Yes to vocational training! promotes two key areas of action:

• 1. "Empowering attachment figures":
  In recognition of their role as multipliers, the attachment figures are to receive low-threshold information, counselling and training services from a regional project executing organisation empowering them to give young people advice and support during the transition from school to vocational training and to fulfil and reflect on their role as an attachment figure in a constructive way. If possible, these measures should be implemented as pilot projects in all Länder.
• 2. "Connecting providers":
  The implementation of this measure will be carried out by a project executing organisation. This project executing organisation will connect the beneficiaries of funding from the “Empowering attachment figures” approach and the participating organisations with each other so that they can share their experiences and for the purposes of monitoring. This project executing organisation will support their work, in particular through public relations work. Furthermore, it will develop informative, motivating and supportive social media posts aligned with the regional and overarching programme work.