SMART - Skill Matching Assistance and Reportilg Tool

SMART is an ERASMUS+ project in the Key Action 'Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices' that is embedded in the action 'Strategic Partnerships' with a focus on young people (Strategic Partnerships for youth). It is an internationally oriented project in the EU education program with a duration of 24 months.

The idea and structure of the SMART project were developed at the Chair of Business Education II at the University of Paderborn. The Association Institutio Pro Educationem Transilvaniensis in Romania is coordinating the project, which is characterized by its direct access to the target group of young people.

Five partner institutions from four countries are cooperating in the project: the coordinating institution from Romania (Association Institutio Pro Educationem Transilvaniensis, Miercurea Ciuc), two partners from Germany (Chair of Business Education II, University of Paderborn and the technology partner Ingenious Knowledge GmbH), a partner from the UK (School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee), a partner from Cyprus (Neolea gia Antallagi kai Katanoisi Youth Organization, Nicosia).

Youth unemployment is an economic and societal concern in almost every country affected by the economic crisis of the past decade. In Europe, the youth unemployment rate rose from 14.7% in 2008 to 21.9% in November 2014. While some countries, such as Germany, have been able to keep their unemployment rate stable (7.4% in November 2014), countries such as Greece and Spain suffer from youth unemployment rates of around 50% (see Glocke and Blanchflower, DG 2011: 1; Statista 2015). Labor markets are very volatile and dependent on the overall market and recessions there as well. In particular, young people with little human capital are at risk of becoming unemployed. Furthermore, those who are currently making the transition from school to the world of work are primarily disadvantaged. They face a variety of difficulties (see Glocke, A. N. D./Blanchflower, D. G. 2011: 1, 3). 

Tackling these problems and challenges is one of the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, the growth and employment strategy implemented by the European Commission over the last ten years, which began in March 2010 (see Erasmus+ Programme Guide: 9). 

The aim of the Europe 2020 strategy is to overcome the economic and social crisis and challenges of recent years with intelligent, sustainable and integrative growth. Erasmus+ is the European program designed to help achieve these goals, particularly in the context of education, training, youth and sport, in the period from 2014 to 2020. Within the framework of this program, special attention is paid to recognizing and validating skills and qualifications, as well as promoting equity and integration (see Erasmus + Program Guide: 11, 13).

The aspects described above show that it is inevitable to support young people in developing their human capital and becoming aware of their skills and qualifications in order to find employment. The SMART project aims to focus particularly on people with educational difficulties, economic obstacles or special needs.

The SMART project aims to develop a matching system that is able to keep pace with new phenomena and ongoing social changes and to support young people in matching their skills with market requirements. However, the aim of SMART is particularly to help young people with relatively little human capital or other disadvantages to find employment and leave the school-to-work transition system. To this end, SMART will create a complex matching mechanism that can bring together young people looking for employment and appropriate employers. Additionally, the tool can be used by career counsellors or people working in the field of vocational orientation to help young people get a better and more accurate understanding of themselves. 

The core idea behind SMART is to match young people's skills, interests and qualifications with the job profiles of vacancies in companies or with the requirements specified by employment agencies (matching process). If there is a match, the young people are given the opportunity to make contact with the companies and vice versa.

When young people use SMART, they have the opportunity to create a very complex profile of themselves. However, they are not obliged to take all the tests or assessments that are offered. They decide for themselves how detailed their profile will be.

SMART aims to be both practice-oriented and scientifically sound. Due to the fact that sensitive data is processed in the SMART matching process, special attention is paid to ensure high data protection standards.