EMoCC

Project lead
Prof. Dr. Peter Guggemos

Project participants
Prof. Dr. Michael Scharpf
Prof. Dr. Gundula Gwenn Hiller
Veronica-Dana Sana (M.A.)
Anke Reuter (M.Sc.)

Third-party funding provider
European Union Erasmus+ Programme

Project duration
February 2022 – December 2024

The EU funds and supports European professional mobility by providing a wide range of information and advice. The number of citizens who decide to spend time in another EU state professionally has, in fact, risen, yet the speed at which this figure is climbing has slowed down over the last few years (even before the Corona pandemic). On the one hand, such trips can be a psychological challenge - depending on personal attitude and how easy adapting to a different culture and a new professional context in the host country is. Such factors are often considered part of the process in career counselling or are even ignored, although they play a significant role - at the end of the day, potential long-term success or a disappointing experience depends on these factors quite considerably. On the other hand, European career counsellors act as an important guide for clients; they are just lacking specialist knowledge on the topic of mobility and the opportunities available. Those considering going abroad to work are advised by different counsellors and various organisations, depending on which country it is  , which is why it is a good idea to offer additional training for counsellors on career and labour-market matters or on intercultural aspects.

There are many aims of this project attributed to a certain order:

A study made up of quantitative and qualitative elements about motives for and experience with work mobility as well as reasons for immobility, carried out with participants from Italy, France, Spain and Germany. This should also highlight the attitudes relevant to a successful stay abroad, the challenges experienced and the skills required to overcome them. (Study elements "AToM -Attitude Toward Moving", and "WoMSA Scale -Work Mobility Skills and Attitude Scale"). 

The results of the above-mentioned study are considered the basis of the development of two MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) seminar series:

• MOOC 1, 30 teaching units: This training series is all about career counselling and placement, and is geared towards a wide range of participants, such as those with a background in various forms of career counselling, work with refugees or other migrants, life counselling, advisors of the church, from trade unions, associations as well as non-profit organisations, clubs and organisations made up of volunteers. Participants should receive knowledge on and build their skills in labour market issues, mobility & employment focused counselling, building on and strengthening their available skills.
• MOOC 2 with 30 teaching units: The second training series offers intercultural and diversity training for labour market specialists who have little experience with migrants so as to share migrant-specific knowledge in the field of intercultural counselling as well as build on existing skills in this area. The series aims to achieve a profound understanding of the role of career and education counselling to be able to successfully support migrants when they arrive and to strengthen European networks and services in terms of moving to another country as a whole. An overriding project goal is to make both counsellors and their clients much more aware of the opportunities abroad so as to take advantage of the different European mobility options far more than in the past, and to prepare everyone for this on a professional level.

The strengths of the two MOOC 1 and MOOC 2 target groups are largely complementary to each other, with each group having particular strengths in one field and room for improvement and growth in the other. 

Empirical findings on skills, attitudes, beneficial factors and obstacles regarding mobility should flow into counsellors' training and their actions at work, with the aim of competently advising those willing to travel and so increasing the success of professional stays abroad.

Research findings - alongside other fields of knowledge on labour market and career counselling, intercultural diversitydiversity - flow into the MOOC format. These serve to further professionallise counsellors who advise clients yet have not been professionally trained to do so (e.g. social workers, unionists, social services). The second target group are the counselling professionals who have had very little to do with migrants and refugees and who should therefore increase their knowledge.

MOOC units can be downloaded on the projecthomepage (hosted in Milan). (Video teaching units, simulated counselling situations, tests for those wanting to go abroad). Certificates can be attained through learning objective assessments in tests.

All results for the project will be available at the end of 2024.