BEST Institute for vocational training and personal training GmbH

Be Positive

A positive psychological approach to enhancing resilience and utilising strengths in European unemployed youth

Background

Currently, youth unemployment in Europe, in particular for those Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs), reached worrying levels. It is consensual among the European policymakers that spending time as a NEET may lead young people to a wide range of social disadvantages, such as alienation, insecurity, poor employment prospects, delinquency, mental and/or physical health problems. The reality of the vocational and educational training settings across Europe shows that there is a very limited knowledge on how to tackle this phenomenon in a positive way and empower individuals. Therefore, it is necessary to develop synergies with the health psychology professionals to be in the position to address this issue more effectively.

 

Aims and Target Groups

Be Positive aims at developing a new innovative method of training that will empower young unemployed people and/or NEETs, by using an approach that is based upon previous work on stress, coping and resilience in health and occupational psychology. Participants will be prepared not only to adapt to potentially stressful events, but also to use these potential stress factors as opportunities for positive growth and development of resilience skills.

Partners and Outcomes

A highly experienced consortium of six partners from Sweden, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece and Austria that work directly with the target group will provide the following outcomes:

  • Be Positive Curriculum and Materials to facilitate the implementation of the training programmes
  • Be Positive Web-based Modules for activities development
EU-Program: Erasmus+, KA2, Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training
Coordination: Folkuniversitetet (Sweden)
Contact: Karin Kronika
Duration: September 2014 – August 2016

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.