Very different and similar at the same time

If we look at different organisations how they support disadvantaged young people and adults in vocational training, qualification and placement, an impressive number of different approaches can be found. Even more, if we look also at organisations in different European countries. But with this diversity, how can we manage to find the similarities as well as a common language in a project with partners from four countries so that the results to be developed in it fit everywhere?

This exciting challenge stood at the beginning of the three-year ERASMUS+ project called BELVEDERE. The target group of this project is professionals from social organisations who accompany and support disadvantaged young people and adults on their way into a employment. Five such organisations from Germany, Scotland, Spain and Austria are working together in BELVEDERE, with more than 200 persons from this specific target group.

While all five organisations share the same aim of supporting these young people and adults, their processes to reach this aim vary considerably. Through a series of interviews to dive into these approaches, and a following analysis of the results, a unified process model was developed that is intended to serve as the needed common language.

This picture shows 8 process phases that are shared among the project partners

The figure shows the six phases (in blue) of accompanying and supporting disadvantaged clients that could be identified in all participating organisations (despite different labeling and different variations regarding the specific approaches within these phases), and two support phases (in green) that span along the entire length of participation by clients. In the further course of the project, this model is used to identify suitable technical support in each of these phases and to develop realistic deployment scenarios for them with high transfer potential to other organisations.

Further information and details on this BELVEDERE Unified Process Model is available in the results’ section of this website.