SMART: Facilitating inclusive transitions of young people to employment using a strengths based approach

his interactive workshop will focus on our research and development project, Skill Matching Assistance and Reporting Tool (SMART), which has been funded by Erasmus+. Led by Pro Educatione (Romania), partners include University of Paderborn (Germany), YEU (Cyprus), Ingenious Knowledge (Germany) and University of Dundee (Scotland). The aim of SMART is "to match the skills and interests of young people with job and apprenticeship profiles, making a point of not relying on qualifications." It also aims to raise awareness of employers and counsellors about the needs of this group of young people, an understanding of their strengths and skills acquired in informal ways and their potential contribution to enterprises. This inclusive strengths based approach will ensure that young people who have left school prior to gaining formal qualifications can get a chance to highlight their strengths and abilities better than in a qualification-oriented approach for successful transition to employment. In this workshop we will present our journey towards creating SMART, namely literature review, interviews and questionnaires with potential employers, creation of a conceptual framework, creation of test prototypes and young people's views about these steps.