As in all of Eastern Europe, members of the Roma minorities in Romania suffer from a high rate of unemployment, everyday discrimination and social marginalization. The social exclusion of Roma often particularly affects their access to the formal labor market.
The focus of this project is therefore on socially disadvantaged students, who are most likely to drop out of school. On the one hand, we sensitize them to the value of good vocational training and the prospects it opens up, and on the other hand, we enable them to transfer to good-quality vocational training or secondary school through good vocational orientation in the 7th/8th grade. We start working with Roma girls and their families as early as the 5th/6th grade, because girls from Roma communities often drop out of school even before the 8th grade due to economic or family constraints.
Systematic careers counseling enables students to make more appropriate career choices based on their talents and interests. We develop the relevant professional skills and capacities in the schools and ensure a better and sustainable establishment of career orientation in the educational system of the Sibiu region. At the same time, we strengthen the cooperation between the vocational schools, school inspectorates and employers, so that the schools can update their training programs, adapt them to the needs of the labor market and introduce more dual classes. In addition, we are building the relevant capacities of both the schools and the employers, linking the vocational school graduates with the employers and accompanying them with counseling and mentoring even after they have entered the job market.
Learn more about HEKS.