SUPPORTING THE UNEMPLOYED & DISADVANTAGED GROUPS

Cyprus has enjoyed very high employment in its recent past, with the unemployment rate being at a record low of 3.20% in May 2008. Unfortunately, the recent economic crisis has shocked the Cyprus economy and has resulted in many people losing their jobs and the unemployment rate jumping to an all time high of 16.60% in October 2014. Although there has been an improvement, 15.10% are still unemployed (September 2014), of which 7,80% are long term unemployed and 34.90% are youths.

Moreover, the usual employment sectors that were previously successful, are no longer so, resulting in many unemployed being unskilled to perform the work within the new successful sectors.

In light of this, our association had the desire to help out. We are deeply involved in vocational training to either improve the skills or teach new skills, in order to help improve the occupational potential of the unemployed.

In November 2014, the first meeting for the European Vocational Education and Training program on Vocational Reintegration (VET to JOB) was held in Malaga, Spain.

Vocational education is education within vocational schools which prepares people for a specific trade. It directly develops expertise in techniques related to technology, skill and scientific technique to span all aspects of the trade. Vocational education is classified as using procedural knowledge.Generally known as career and technical education (CTE) or technical and vocational education and training (TVET) it prepares people for specific trades, crafts and careers at various levels from a trade, a craft,technician, or a high professional practitioner position in career's such as engineering, accountancy, nursing, medicine, architecture, pharmacy, law etc. Craft vocations are usually based on manual or practical activities and are traditionally non-academic but related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation. It is sometimes referred to as technical education as the trainee directly develops expertise in a particular group of techniques. Vocational education can be at the secondary, post-secondary level, further education, and higher education level and can interact with the apprenticeship system. Increasingly, vocational education can be recognized in terms of recognition of prior learning and partial academic credit towards tertiary education (e.g., at a university) as credit. Vocational education is related to the apprenticeship system of learning.As the labor market becomes more specialized and economies demand higher levels of skill, governments and businesses are increasingly investing in the future of vocational education through publicly funded training organizations and subsidized apprenticeship or trainee ship initiatives for businesses. At the post-secondary level vocational education is typically provided by an institute of technology/polytechnic, university, or by a local community college. Vocational education has diversified over the 20th century and now exists in industries such as retail, tourism, information technology, funeral services and cosmetics, as well as in the traditional crafts and cottage industries.

The president of EuroCulture took part in an effort aiming to teach computer lessons to disadvantaged groups, providing lessons to families with many children (more than 4). As is seen in the photo, the mothers in these large families had nowhere to leave their children, so they brought them in the classroom during the computer lessons. 

EuroCulture is strongly committed to promoting education to disadvantaged groups and especially mothers that do not have easy access to education because they have many children to care for. Europe is also strongly committed to this aim, funding hundreds of programs for the benefit of disadvantaged groups.

Among the actions of EuroCulture is the interviews with many old people to understand how things used to be. Old people are “open books” because they help us to learn a lot about how things used to be and how things have changed. EuroCulture brings together the past with the present in an effort to create a better future for all European people and generations to come.