UNEET - PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF NW EUROPEAN YOUNG ADULTS INTO THE HOTEL, RESTAURANT AND CATERING SECTOR

Project Summary

UNEET proposes an innovative approach to foster the professional integration of NEETs (young adults Not in Education, Employment, and Training), by matching the recruitment needs of the hotel, restaurant and catering (HORECA) sector with the existing labour supply of young adults in 7 NWE regions.

The alarming youth unemployment rates in NWE regions (on average 18,8% in the project regions) and the need for better and integral solutions to tackle this issue, have pushed partner organisations to join their forces to conceive an ambitious employment driven project with a strong transnational dimension. 

An in-depth analysis has allowed the Consortium to identify the HORECA sector as the most suitable for the purposes of this project. Constant employee turnover, work force recruitment deficit (250.000 unfilled jobs per year in Europe), availability of broad entry-level positions and a favourable disposition to hire young people, confirm that this labour-intensive sector, which represents around 27 million of jobs, could benefit from the project and contribute to the sustainable professional integration of young adults. 

The coexistence of a high labour supply and of an unmet labour demand represents a serious market failure and a social-economic challenge that demands for actions mobilizing different stakeholders, facilitating the encounter between the offer and the demand.

By joining the different but complementary expertise of each partner organisation, UNEET will foster NEETs’ access to the labour market through the creation of a digital employability programme with several tailored support modules to:

  • Identify the beneficiaries’ needs and skills required by the sector,
  • Reinforce NEETs’ competences and skills,
  • Strengthen the recruitment capacity and attractiveness of the HORECA sector
  • Promote transnational professional mobility
  • Boost the economic performance of the participants' regions.

This unprecedented social innovation project aims to reinforce the employability of 1200 NEETs in 4 countries (France, UK, Ireland, Germany).

WP T1 - Definition of the field-based methodology to develop the UNEET digital programme

This WP aims to develop the UNEET methodological work that will define the underpinning assumptions and most effective methods to enhance NEETs' employability, to increase the recruitment capacity and attractiveness of the HORECA sector and the synergies between the offer and the demand in NWE regions. Hence, it contributes to all 3 specific objectives of the project.


This first WP includes a series of activities that are essential for the definition of the most effective method, adapted to multi-cultural specificities and different usages, to attain the project's objectives and reach the desired impact for end-users, both NEETs and companies. For this, the Consortium will identify relevant concerned actors in each region and involve them in regional field-works that will be implemented under a user-centred approach. This method puts the end-user at the centre of the research and co-creation experience, enhancing innovation and assuring that the proposed solutions will respond to the needs and customs of our beneficiaries.


For instance, the use of job boards by NEETs and companies might be different in each region. It is only by observing and asking end-users about their priorities and criteria when using this kind of digital tools that we will be able to propose a unique and effective solution to all our beneficiaries. This method will also allow the Consortium to identify and implement practices to encourage new behaviours among the target groups. 


In this sense, based on the fieldworks' results, a methodological guide will be defined to establish the working basis and methods of the project. This methodological guide and its appropriateness to achieve the project objectives will be assessed by an external evaluator that at this stage will present to the Consortium a GO/NO GO decision to continue with the foreseen activities of the project.

WP T2 - Creation of the UNEET Digital programme

The objective of this second WP is to co-create in form and in substance the open source technology platform considering the defined methods in WP T1. During this WP the Consortium will construct a multi-cultural employability digital programme for NEETs and the HORECA sector companies. This WP will provide the concrete tools to attain the three sub-objectives of the project.

NEETs’ employability will be fostered through the creation of four tailored modules representing a “guiding path” for the end-users. Although if every module will be the result of a collective work and there is one assigned leader for the WP, partners will be asked to lead the creation of the module that best responds to their specific expertise:

1. Diagnostic module (Fife Council/Landkreis Kassel) : to analyse the specific situation of each user and orientate him towards the modules best responding to his specific needs;

2. Training module (Ballyhoura & Dundee and Angus): to support users in the identification and reinforcement of soft skills required by the HORECA sector;

3.Offer and demand interaction module (FACE & DLDC): to foster the match between the offer and the demand through the creation of a job board and digital interactive tools for companies’ staff and NEETs;

4. Mobility module (ADICE): to inform users about existing mobility opportunities and provide concrete information on how to carry out a mobility experience. 


The attractiveness and the recruitment capacity of the HORECA sector will be part of the third module that foresees the creation of a corporate portfolio for companies to: foster their attractiveness and the comprehension of the HORECA sector and its job positions; raise their awareness on the importance of recruiting according to diversity; support them to better communicate about their job positions and their sector; and enhance their capacity to recruit and develop talent. 

WP T3 - Experimentation of the UNEET digital programme

This WP responds to the three main sub-objectives of the project and includes the actual territorial experimentation. After the creation of the methodology and the concrete tools, the Consortium will mobilize and experiment the proposed solution in all 7 chosen NWE regions.

Specifically, this WP will contribute:

- To mobilize all the target groups of the project, especially companies from the HORECA sector and NEETs, and to experiment the impact UNEET has in the enhancement of their employability/recruitment practices;

- To facilitate the successful encounter between the labour supply of young NEETs and the labour demand of the HORECA sector;

- To promote the hospitality sector and the regions involved in the project; - To provide all necessary tools and follow-up possible to professional mobility experiences.   


Each partner will actively contribute to ensure the successful implementation of all the activities included in the WP, being responsible for:

- The identification and mobilization of companies from the HORECA sector and NEETs willing to integrate this economic sector and receive our support offer;

- The organization of individual and collective information sessions to present the main instructions on how to use the platform and the advantages it can provide to them; - Organize collective CV video shootings with NEETs in each region;

- To guarantee a constant updating and follow-up of the platform, integrating current and appropriate content and valorizing the engagement of new actors; 

- To follow-up the matching process of companies and NEETs;

- To collaborate with the external evaluator in the realisation of the impact evaluation

Project Partners

Lead partner

Organisation Address Email Website
Fondation Agir Contre l’Exclusion (FACE) 361 Avenue du Président Wilson
La Plaine Saint-Denis
93210
France 		a.solom@fondationface.org www.fondationface.org
Name Contact Name Email Country
Donegal Local Development Company Ltd. Padraic Fingleton pfingleton@dldc.org Ireland
Ballyhoura Development CLG Catherine Smyth csmyth@ballyhoura.org Ireland
District of Kassel Harald Kühlborn Harald-kuehlborn@landkreiskassel.de Germany
Fife Council Maciej Dokurno Maciej.Dokurno@fife.gov.uk United Kingdom
Dundee and Angus College Lol Scragg l.scragg@dundeeandangus.ac.uk United Kingdom
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UNEET aims to go beyond the existing tools aimed to foster NEETs’ professional integration by offering solutions coherent with the expectations and needs of both job-seekers and companies. We propose threefold approach, involving young adults, companies and relevant stakeholders in the conception and creation of an open source technology platform that best responds to their needs. Moreover, UNEET will contribute to fight black employment in the HORECA sector, promoting legal work and, consequently, improving its image.

Based on this analysis, UNEET aims to create a comprehensive open source technology platform joining young adults, companies and partner organizations with a common purpose. It will be at the same time:

  • An OST platform offering innovative tailored online modules fostering jobseekers’ employability, transnational mobility and professional career pathways in the HORECA sector;
  • A job board where NEETs and companies can easily meet and interact, fostering the creation of a community.

Through the different tools and modules included in the platform, the project aims to:

  • go beyond the existing tools and practices aimed to support youth professional integration by creating an innovative OST platform enabling users to benefit from a totally digital support path including different modules (orientation, training, transnational mobility, professional integration) and innovative tool (video resumes, digital mentoring, serious-game);
  • Reinforce NEETs' employability to facilitate their long-term professional integration;
  • Overcome the difficulties encountered by companies in recruiting people and enhance the attractiveness of the sector by including in the OST platform informative sheets and other tools fostering young adults’ knowledge about the jobs, the required profiles and the professional career pathways offered by the sector as well as an innovative recruitment system based on candidates’ capacities and motivation. This system will allow companies to select the video resumes of the candidates best responding to the required profile, reducing the recruitment time and facilitating professional encounters;
  • Raise candidates’ awareness on the existing transnational mobility opportunities, the steps to take and the national actors that could support them.
Fondation Agir Contre l’Exclusion, FACE (FR)

The FACE Foundation is a Public Utility Foundation created in 1993 by 15 corporate groups with the main objective to prevent and fight against any form of exclusion and discrimination. It works alongside French companies in a wide range of CSR topics, including social, environmental and business areas. The Foundation has developed a strong expertise in the fight against unemployment, in particular of young adults and NEETs, through projects aimed to support their professional integration.

Contact: Alexandra Solom - a.solom@fondationface.org - https://www.fondationface.org/

361 Avenue du Président Wilson, La Plaine Saint-Denis, 93210

Donegal Local Development Company Ltd. (IE)

DLDC delivers socially focused interventions within Donegal in the Northwest of Ireland. It delivers Social Inclusion as well as Community & Enterprise Development programmes. It acts as a hub for labor activation programmes targeting the upskilling and support of Job Seekers including NEETS across the region. It has approx. 60 core staff and approx. 360 individuals on labor activation schemes. DLDC has a voluntary Board of Directors who is a mix of Community, Private Sector & Statutory Reps.

Contact: Padraic Fingleton - pfingleton@dldc.org - http://www.dldc.org/

Pearse Road, Letterkenny

Ballyhoura Development CLG (IE)

Ballyhoura Development (BD) is the Local Development Company for South East County Limerick and North East County Cork, in southwest Ireland. Since its establishment in 1988, BD has managed and successfully coordinated and implemented a wide range of National and European programmes and projects. In addition, the organisation delivers a range of complementary programmes, projects and initiatives that aim to drive positive, sustainable and equitable social and economic change.

Contact: Catherine Smyth - csmyth@ballyhoura.org - http://www.ballyhouradevelopment.com/

Main Street, Kilfinane

Landkreis Kassel (DE)

The District of Kassel is a public authority regrouping 29 towns and municipalities, being home for 235.000 people. The district is responsible for a wide range of educational offers throughout all sectors ranging from primary to vocational schools and has been working long since on solutions to boost the labour market. The District will collaborate with all its structures (including the Regionalmanagement Nordhessen) working on employment and the HORECA sector.

Contact: Harald Kühlborn - Harald-kuehlborn@landkreiskassel.de - http://www.landkreiskassel.de

19-21 Wilhelmshöher Allee, Kassel, 34117

Fife Council (UK)

Fife as a Council is the third largest local authority in Scotland and the 11th largest in the UK. The Council vision is to make Fife a truly great place to live and work. It employs circa 18,000 employees who provide 900 different services to over 365,000 people and has achieved one of the highest overall customer satisfaction ratings for a Council in the UK. The services Fife Council provides range from education, social work, housing, and community services to transportation.

Contact: Maciej Dokurno - Maciej.Dokurno@fife.gov.uk - https://www.fifedirect.org.uk/

North Street, KY7 5LT, Glenrothes

Dundee and Angus College (UK)

Dundee and Angus College is a vocational further and higher education college in Scotland. With over 1000 staff and serving 16 000 learners, it is the only vocational institute in the region providing learning to all ages and across numerous sectors including hospitality, catering, travel and tourism. It has a strong experience working with young people and NEETS, and providing them with training and opportunities for employment including social skills, raising confidence and aspirations.

Contact: Lol Scragg - l.scragg@dundeeandangus.ac.uk - www.dundeeandangus.ac.uk

Old Glamis Road, Dundee, DD3 8LE

 

 DEHOGA Hessen (DE)

The hotel and restaurant association DEHOGA is a trade organisation for gastronomers and hoteliers. More than 4 000 business people from the gastronomy and hotel industry have joined forces in DEHOGA Hessen. They come from different countries and run different businesses including small restaurants as well as large hotels. DEHOGA promotes the image of the catering industry and supports training in hotels and gastronomy.

 

Deutsche Märchenstraße e.V. (DE)

The German Fairy Tale Route association is an organisation that supports the touristic activities of more than 60 municipalities and over 20 hotel partners. The association has a close relationship with several local and regional touristic organisations and hotel partners, which represent some of the nationwide hotel enterprises in Germany.

 

Agentur für Arbeit (DE)

The Employment Agency Korbach covers the geographic scope of the two districts Waldeck Frankenberg and Schwalm Eder Kreis. The agency is responsible for about 13.000 unemployed people (55,7% men, 44,3% women - Nov. 2017). Its main tasks are: Job consulting of young adults, students and academics, Placement of jobs and training places, Employers consulting and Promotion of vocational training and professional develop.

 

Apex Hotels Dundee (UK)

One of the main high-end hotels in the region.

 

Dundee City Council (UK)

Dundee City Council are the municipality governing the City of Dundee. As the city turns from its historical industries, it is reinventing itself as a city of discovery with key tourist angle. The city waterfront is undergoing a £1bn redevelopment. Numerous hotels and restaurants are opening to take advantage of the additional 250,000 tourists per year expected.

 

Angus Council (UK)

Angus Council are the municipality governing the Angus region of Scotland. With a continued emphasis on the hospitality sector and tourism.

 

Federation of Small Business (UK)

As an organisation, one of their key provisions is to provide a powerful voice aimed at government policy for the small business persons.

 

Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce (UK)

Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce have over 570 business members in the region. They can provide access to these businesses and provide expertise and intelligence on requirements in the region.

 

Square 67 Ltd (UK)

Local restauranteurs

 

Dalata Hotel Group PLC (IE)

Dalata Hotel Group PLC is the largest hotel operator in Ireland, with a wide portfolio of 3 and 4 stars hotels.

 

Department of Social Protection (IE)

The DSP is the largest government department in the state. It is responsible for operating the public employment service and directly funds a wide range of employment programmes and citizen advisory services.

 

Munster Vales CLG (IE)

Munster Vales CLG is a company which was established in 2014 to promote the Munster Vales region.

 

Limerick & Clare Education & Training Board (LCETB) (IE)

Limerick and Clare Education & Training Board (LCETB) is a statutory authority which has responsibility for education and training, youth work and a range of other statutory functions.

 

IBEFE Bw (Instance Bassin Enseignement qualifiant – Formation – Emploi) du Brabant wallon (BE)

AREA is an institutional structure representing a platform to foster the exchanges and discussions among VET providers, educational and employment actors. The objective is to ensure that the trainings provided correspond to the expectation of the local actors.

 

MISSION REGIONALE POUR L’EMPLOI EN BRABANT WALLON (MIRE BW) (BE)

The MIRE BW is an organisation working on the socio-professional integration of vulnerable people. It works on the long-term employability and on the development of skills and competences fostering their access to the labour market.

 

Provincie Limburg (NL)

Among the priorities published by the province of Limburg in the social agenda, the tourism and the HORECA sector have been prioritized. Limbourg is the second touristic destination in the Netherlands and these two sectors are key for their economy. Similarly, they place NEETs and their integration at the core of the public policies. UNEET responds to their needs in all these aspects.

 

Pôle Emploi (FR)

Pôle Emploi is the French governmental agency that helps unemployed people through financial aid and support in their job search. It supports unemployed people to integrate the labour market and works alongside companies on their recruitment needs.

 

Donegal Education and Training (ETB) (IE)

Education and Training Provider. Donegal ETB is the statutory provider of education in Donegal, with responsibility for education and training, youth work and a range of other statutory functions. Donegal ETB provides a wide range of Further Education and Training Courses. It has strong links with the hospitality sector and delivers a number of courses to train young people.

 

Donegal Hoteliers Association (IE)

HORECA Representative. This organisation represents 35 hotels and the main employer in the hospitality sector in Donegal. It is envisaged that these organisations will be able to offer employment opportunities and career paths to the young people.

 

The Old Manor (UK)

The Old Manor hotel, situated in the seaside village of Lundin Links is extremely active within the community employing over 30 members of staff.

 

Anderson Gilmour Limited (UK)

Anderson Gilmour Limited is a company working in the HORECA sector, employing more than 30 people under 30 ages.

 

Adam Smith Global Foundation (UK)

The Adam Smith Global Foundation is working to promote social and economic regeneration within his home town of Kirkcaldy and hinterland and to support the eradication of poverty through international development. The Foundation is working with partners locally, nationally and internationally to achieve this aim.

 

Regional Skills Forum (IE)

The Regional Skills Forum will be involved in identifying the skills needs of the Hospitality industry.

 

Department of Social Protection (IE)

The Department of Social Protection is the government Department supporting unemployed people.

Here you can find the documents published as part of the UNEET Project. 

 

After the conduct of a fieldwork in each region concerned by the project, the project Consortium gathered in Scotland for 5 days in January 2019, to build the foundation of the future platform. 

The UX agency Ember has animated the workshops to transform the fieldwork conclusions on the end-users needs into features for the platform. 

You can discover the Methodological guide, presenting UNEET online solution by clicking here.

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