Soft Skills development. Special approach in young job seekers’ training. (Grundtvig 2) Soest, 15 January 2004

Equal Project Pathway to Employment and Career Rationale The project aims to develop and establish a nationwide network of "one-shop" structures, which will provide integrated services of vocational consulting and support, vocational training, promotion and placement in job positions, for unemployed people, discriminated against race, sex, age, and physical condition. Objective The main aim is the development and implementation of an innovative integrated system for the Vocational Consulting and Employment Promotion, by leveraging existing capabilities and resources and by connecting effectively the vocational training services with job promotion, in order to achieve employment of discriminated people in quality working positions.

Guides for Professional Counseling Delta Singular Educational Services as a partner to the project “Pathway to employment and Career” contributed to the design of a series of guides for professional counseling. 1) Looking for an adequate training. 2) Impulsive candidacies. 3) Analysis of job announcements. 4) How to reply to a job announcement. 5) Effective communication. All these guides aim at improving young people skills to find jobs. They combine theory and tests orientated to give the opportunity to the job seeker to enter efficiently the job market.

Looking for an adequate training: This guide aims at assisting the young job seeker to: 1) Look for and choose the appropriate training. 2) Define his/her training needs in order to improve: - knowledge - competencies - and understand the job market requirements. 3) Prepare his/her arguments in order to be selected by a specific vocational training program.

This guide also help young job-seeker to: Select the appropriate type of training according to his/her needs. Example given: - Additional knowledge. - Qualifications. - Practical experience. - Techniques to seek job. Approach the main information sources relative to the program. Understand the procedures for successful admission to the program.

Furthermore, this guide provides guidance to a job seeker about: How to make a career plan. How to understand the needs of the job market. Analyze the requirements needed. Some useful rules to be followed in search for the appropriate training. How to follow some useful rules when looking for the appropriate training. How to avoid mistakes in the selection of the training.

Impulsive candidacies This guide is describing techniques in regards to published announcements of job vacancies. How to search for job vacancies. How to submit an application for job. Example given: - Face to face submission. - Phone contact. - Submitting a CV accompanied by a letter of interest by courier, fax or . Understand the ways employers look after impulsive candidacies. Guidelines to prepare a successful candidacy. Practical information for follow up of the candidacy. Basic rules to be followed and mistakes to be avoided.

Analysis of job announcements: This guide provides some guidelines to young job-seeker with regard to his/her professional profile and hidden issues behind the text of a job announcement. The reason why someone should choose the job announcements. How to analyze and choose the appropriate job announcement. Ways to analyze the job announcement. “Golden rules” to follow. Mistakes to be avoided. Practical information for the selection and decoding of job announcements.

How to reply to a job announcement: This guide is describing the steps to be followed by the candidate choosing to express interest to an announced job. Techniques to write the reply letter. Mistakes to be avoided. Basic rules to be followed.

Effective communication This guide is dedicated to the description of the right use of phone communication as a mean of expressing interest for a job vacancy. Why is telephone an important mean for job seeking. How to reach a potential employer by phone. Mistakes to be avoided. Useful rules to be followed. Possible shortcomings that the telephone could have for job seeking and that someone should be aware of. Practical advices.