EU Project Experience

Substantial experience

The BJC aims to identify and bridge gaps in services and labour market supports for disadvantaged job seekers. Since the 1990s the BJC has made applications and managed many projects supported by EU funds to access the financial resources available and to test new ideas and ways of working. Through its long history of involvement in EU projects the BJC has built relationships, networks, and partnerships.

There is a high degree of transfer of learning from the projects and the BJC has made determined efforts to ensure lessons and work of the EU projects reflect on concrete needs and improve the BJC’s delivery of services and the way we work with clients.

Some examples of BJC’s recent projects with E.U. funding already completed:

• Funded by Erasmus+, The Future-proof Your Career (VET) aimed to design, develop, and implement a Future of Work Framework, focused on the identification, through a guidance process, of transversal skills which can be used to future-proof the careers of disadvantaged job seekers and enable sustainable future employment. The BJC was the project leader.
• Funded by Erasmus+, The Youth Employability Competencies - YEC (Youth) project aimed to help young people and youth workers/guidance practitioners to identify key gaps in employability competences and address these through youth worker led training modules. The BJC was the project leader. End date 31/08/2021
• Funded by Erasmus+, The Strengthening Employment, Education and Employment Skills for Integrations- refugee, migrant, and asylum seekers SEESI (Adult Education) project aimed to mobilise a unique ‘Life(skills) before Language’ (LBL) approach to the language barrier of social-economic integration that refugees and migrants experience upon arrival in Europe. The BJC partnered with the lead team of this project, ACH.
• Funded by Erasmus+, Good Guidance Stories 2.0 (Adult Education) aimed to improve educational and job-related Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) for young adults by developing learning material for IAG practitioners. Guide 2.0 is the third project of the Guide series and places special attention on the target group of young adults (18 –35 years), particularly those experiencing barriers to employment. The BJC partnered with the lead of this project, Rinova Ltd. End Date 30/10/2020
• Funded by Erasmus+, Understanding My Journey- UMJ (youth) project aims to support young people, and their practitioners, to ensure that the interventions they take part in, including mobility, training, volunteering, and entrepreneurship programmes, have maximum impact in terms of soft skills development (SSD) that can be quantified and built upon. The BJC was the project leader. End Date 30/11/2020

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‍EU Funding Goals

The BJC has a strong belief in the need to remain innovative, to try new ideas to address identified issues arising from the experience of supporting clients and to learn from working alongside EU partners.

Some of the BJC's goals include:

• Overall, the goal of the BJC is to continue to develop and implement EU project proposals that are relevant to our staff’s needs and assist in the improvement of the BJC’s delivery and provision of client-centred career guidance and employability skills development for those facing multiple and complex barriers to social inclusion, mobility, and sustained employment. It is vital to the BJC that the community’s needs and concerns informs the BJC’s design and implementation of its project ideas.
• In addition to this goal, the BJC aims to enhance its networking capabilities and further its interagency approach on both local and regional levels and is willing to share its EU experience with other organisations interested in participating in EU funded projects.
• The BJC aims to explore new funding opportunities, given that it has predominantly worked on projects under the Erasmus + Funding Programmes, managed by Léargas, the national agency for Erasmus+ in Ireland. Some of the possible funding avenues the BJC would be keen to explore include The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), The Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe and The European Territorial Cooperation Programme, Interreg North-West Europe Programme (NWE).
• The BJC is keen to promote the sustainable use of Digital Tools created by previous EU Projects and encourage future project proposals to build upon its current and previous initiatives to further develop and integrate new partners, expertise and innovative approaches.

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Strengths‍

• The BJC has a proven track record of leading and sustaining partnerships within EU projects in many fields, such as employability, developing soft and digital skills, reducing social inequalities, fostering social mobility, and education.
• A strong asset to the BJC is its consideration to a wide range of target groups and sectors in its development of EU Projects, these include the sectors of Youth, Adult Education, and Vocational and Educational Training.
• Similarly, the BJC engages in an interagency approach with its partners and has strong ties to organisations in various areas of expertise. One example of the BJC’s sustained partnerships is its membership of the Metropolis Network EEIG (www.metropolisnet.eu) a unique network of different types of organisations developing and implementing local strategies for employment and social inclusion in several European cities.
• Staff in the BJC are experienced in the development, management, and implementation of EU projects. Over the years it has put in place, financial, reporting and project implementation systems and procedures to enable it to effectively manage EU projects.
• A further key strength of the BJC is its embeddedness within the community and the ability to be proactive with respects to recognising the needs of the community and creating innovative ways to provide the support needed by the community.