Introducing a new Erasmus+ project
Project duration: 1.10.2022-30.9.2024
PROJECT PARTNERS:
BRCCI (Bulgaria)
Mindshift Talent Agency (Portugal)
Neophytos Charalambous_Institute of Development (Cyprus)
Exeo Lab Srl (Italy)
Future In Perspective (Ireland)
SEMwell and Motion Digital s.r.o. (Czech Republic)
Economic Chamber of Slovenia (Slovenia)
Storybag (Netherlands)
TARGET GROUP
VET professionals/trainers (VET providers)
HR
SME owners
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Diversity management is an essential part of human resource management strategy in today's increasingly diverse Europe. The workforce is diverse (not only in terms of nationality, age or gender) and businesses need to be in tune with this fact, as building diverse teams and respecting this personal and cultural diversity will soon be the norm that will lead to success. This is also why the European Union is placing increasing emphasis on promoting diversity in the workplace through various initiatives and projects such as Think Global, Act Local (TGAL).
The Think Global, Act Local project seeks to promote cultural change in companies through storytelling to inspire managers and employees to change, share values and pass on not only knowledge but also experience and wisdom. Storytelling can be helpful when leaders want to communicate the company's values. Internally, storytelling is what motivates and engages all employees and helps them to embrace the company's values.
VET professionals can play an important role in implementing and embedding inclusive practices in companies. Through the project we will therefore develop the skills and competences of these professionals to use storytelling techniques to explore diversity management and cultural change in SMEs.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Responding to the need to expand VET provision to meet the emerging labour market needs of an increasingly diverse workplace and to ensure that European companies see the topic of diversity as an opportunity, our main objectives for the project are:
1) To encourage employers to actively address diversity and inclusion in their companies and to develop diversity management strategies. |
2) To use storytelling techniques and approaches to engage female employees on diversity issues and provide them with a space in which they feel included and valued. |
3) Engage female VET professionals in upskilling so that they can use the full set of TGAL generated outcomes and gain confidence in working and teaching using storytelling. |
4) Contribute to making European workplaces inclusive in terms of diversity. |
SPECIFIC OUTPUTS
1. Training for the target group focusing on the topics of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
2. A toolkit for working with storytelling in the area of diversity and inclusion management in the workplace.
3. A partnership with a local company to test and pilot training resources.
4. A web-based platform with freely available TGAL training materials.
USE OF GENDER-SENSITIVE CZECH
By using gender-correct language, we want to contribute to creating a training for all female trainers and employees in which they can safely explore the topic of diversity and inclusion together.
At SEMwell and Motion Digital, this effort to actively include all persons is seen as a necessity, a statement of respect for all persons identifying with a gender other than the traditional male/female divide. Therefore, by using gender-correct language, we want to express and acknowledge the real contribution of women or gender non-conforming individuals to the running of society without at the same time diminishing the importance of men, diminishing respect for them, or even, in turn, wanting to now exclude them from the language.
The practical use of gender-correct language we have chosen for the project (and our communication in SEMwell and Motion Digital) is based on the Language Recommendation for the Czech Language by linguist Mgr. Jana Valdrová, Ph.D., and the recommendation from Prague Pride.
We use an asterisk* in written speech to show respect for groups that are virtually invisible in the Czech language due to the use of generic masculinities. Basically, we are talking about women and people of other different genders and sexes. Most of us have already encountered the use of a slash in the case of words of the same base that differ in gender. Unlike the slash, which means "or", however, the asterisk encompasses the entire spectrum of gender diversity and thus fills the entire space between masculine and feminine in the language.