In Europe, Immigrant labour market integration is significantly lower than the level of employment of the local population. Therefore, we at the Phoebus project worked to find ways in which we could help minimize the barriers to labour market integration that refugees and asylum seekers face. Confusion over legal rights and services is often one of the significant barriers identified in studies. We wanted to tackle this problem by developing a platform that aims to empower refugees and migrants to access the Belgian labour market system.
We have been selected to participate in a Social Hackathon that will take place the 5-8 of July in Foligno in Italy. The Hackathon is supported by EPALE (Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe),ERASMUS+ and Comune di Foligno. We will be competing against one other international team to build an App aimed to assist in disseminating important information to refugees and asylum seekers. The app will be able to adapt to certain nuances of the app users needs, whether they are refugees, asylum seekers or employers interested in working with a refugee, and that is able to provide information in an efficient, comprehensive and accessible way.
Our project manager Kate Jackson will be going there to guide the development of an online platform for labour market integration of refugees and migrants. The platform would comprehensively present the service centres, required steps, helpful phrases, and other relevant pieces of information regarding everything a newcomer should know about Belgium complicated bureaucratic system. This platform will also be available in a variety of useful languages.e. To reach the right information, users will be able to simply answer a few short questions to help tailor the responses to their needs.
Along with our project manager, the team will be led by Marcello Perone,the CEO of Ardeek S.r.l., a company that operates in the field of IT consultancy to privates and enterprises. He is commercial manager of Keedra.com, he is also active in teaching, mentoring and coaching of local startups.The Hackathon will last 48 hours during which teams will choose if producing a pitch, a prototype or a product to be presented in front of a national jury.