The UOC undertakes project to improve training for individuals at risk of exclusion

A study carried out by the European Commission in 2016 found that over 40% of European citizens do not have basic digital skills. This already high figure for the general population is further elevated when it comes to groups at risk of exclusion, such as immigrants and people going through long-term unemployment. In many of these cases, technology has the potential to become another hurdle for people in vulnerable situations hoping to find work. The data backs this up: in just the past five years, the use of digital skills has skyrocketed in more than 90% of jobs.

To redress the situation, a new project is underway: SELFEE: Digital Literacy and Social Emotional Learning for Engagement and Employment. A number of organizations from Hungary, the Netherlands, France and Spain are partaking in the project, which is co-funded by the European Union through its Erasmus+ programme. The UOC will present the project in a conference scheduled for 27 and 28 September in Barcelona's Casa del Mar. A series of expert roundtable sessions, workshops and creative presentations will take place, and attendees will network to offer a range of outlooks on the issues at hand, in order to draw collaborative conclusions.

SELFEE: self-knowledge and empowerment

"The project's main aim is to equip professionals engaged in training the unemployed or individuals at risk of social exclusion with new tools so they can help them develop basic digital skills", explained Montse Guitert, one of the driving forces behind SELFEE. Principal investigator of the Research Group in Education and ICT (EDUL@B) and professor at the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, her work specializes in the field of digital skills. The cornerstone of the project is training trainers who are not often experts in the matter and who have volunteered to work with these groups through NGOs but lack teaching experience.

SELFEE also hopes to broaden its scope to tackle a wider range of needs: "It doesn't want to simply teach people basic digital skills or show them how to use this piece of technology or that one; rather, it intends to help them weave this knowledge into a more thorough process of change. It's also looking to help people set social emotional goals", stated Teresa Romeu, another EDUL@B researcher involved in the project who also works in the field of digital skills at the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.

In this regard, we should not dismiss the importance of aspects like enhanced self-knowledge for individuals at risk of exclusion looking for work. The SELFEE method blends these aspects with digital skills through artistic disciplines such as dance, theatre and the art of storytelling. The foundations for trainers regarding these aspects are included in the guide Social Emotional Learning for Job Searchers.

Challenge-based learning

Falling under the umbrella term 'basic digital skills' is a wide array of knowledge, skills and abilities which, for the purposes of this project, are geared towards job searching. These skills enable people at risk of exclusion to carry out tasks that range anywhere from searching for information online to managing their digital identity and protecting their personal data, or creating content and communicating effectively.

Training is highly practical, focusing on hands-on learning; more specifically, students are confronted with a series of challenges that they work to overcome throughout their course. "That's what we have brought to the table: designing ways to combine challenge-based training and the use of digital technologies. To do so, we thought extensively about today's mobile phones and the possibilities they open up", Teresa Romeu pointed out. Ultimately, the UOC put together a trainer's guide called Basic Digital Skills for Job Searchers. As well as taking part in the SELFEE project, the UOC has collaborated on two digital skill-based projects with the European Union, one with Barcelona City Council and another with the Government of Catalonia.

A new educational environment

Throughout the project, collaborators have taken into consideration the educational revolution brought on by technology, "something we are not always aware of", according to the experts. Montse Guitert, for instance, explained that "the digital transformation also resonates within the training sector, and we have to take advantage of it. We cannot keep using models that lack innovation and fail to give technology a prominent role. Technology can help us to transform current educational environments and modify the roles of teachers and students. This way, we can apply more collaborative methodologies in which students enjoy higher levels of agency and teachers cease to serve as mere transmitters of knowledge, thus taking on new responsibilities, such as guidance, training process design and consultancy".