Project Partners:

– Views International (Belgium)
– Istittuto Rittmeyer (Italy)
– Aforisma (Italy)
– Fundación Docete Omnes (Spain)

What is the project about?

While implementing a previous project, we became aware of the fact that the low rate of employment among young person’s with a visual impairment is not only due to factors such as low awareness among employers of the support available to them when employing persons with disabilities.
It also appears that another factor is a lack of knowledge and skills of the young visually impaired persons when searching for employment.

We noticed that young visually impaired persons often do not have the knowledge and understanding to use social media when job searching, and that they also lack soft skills such as knowing how to dress for an interview, how to present themselves, how to overcome barriers such as not being able to make eye contact etc.

Project aims

The partners would like to continue addressing the topic of youth unemployment for vip and carry out a transnational project that has the following main objectives:

  • to equip vip (18-35 years old) with soft skills via an on-line platform training courses useful to be successful for a job interview;
  • to empower young visually impaired persons in using social media (Linkedin, facebook groups, twitter …) in order to look for a job by using a new app that will be developed during this project;
  • to increase the confidence of young vip in their capacities in accessing new professions;
  • to make public agencies, unemployment offices, employers aware that it is possible and highly desirable to make our society more inclusive and supportive for young persons with visual impairment by using new adapted technologies.

Overall, the project “VIP and new technologies: easy access to job market” will include 4 transnational meetings, 2 short-term mobility trainings , 1 international multiplier event, and 4 local multiplier events for each partner. The intellectual outputs will be a browser App and an online training platform which will be disseminated among different European and national stakeholders. We expect that the direct number of participants will be around 200 and that the results of the project will reach around 400 other European young vip.

Project Results (Intellectual Outputs)

The main intellectual outputs of this project are: a research webapp and an on-line training platform.

1. The Web App

This application is adapted to all devices. It allows you to search for job offers as well as to publish them. Of course, there are many such sites, but what distinguishes it? Absolute accessibility, because it is adapted to blind and visually impaired people so that they can move around comfortably. It is fully compatible with screen readers for both computers and mobile devices. What’s more, the site allows you to filter job offers so as to make it as easy as possible to find VIPs.

They can be various types of users on the webapp:
– Administrators: administer user accounts and all the contents
– Editors/Contributors: approve/correct job offers
– Translators: translate new pages
– Companies: publish job offers and receive applications
– Applicants: create CVs and submit applications

2. The Training Platform

It is a platform designed to train skills useful in job search. It is available in 4 languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish. Here you will find a lot of useful information on how to prepare your CV, how to write a cover letter and how to prepare for an interview. On the platform you will also find a lot of useful tips and get to know your rights as a VIP and online resources/tools for job seeking.