Curriculum for Peer Mentors and Job Coaches for Young Persons with Disabilities (YPWD)

Jump to Job! is a Erasmus + funded project coordinated by EPR in partnership with other six organisations including EPR members GTB (Belgium), Theotokos Foundation (Greece), URI (Slovenia) and Fundacion INTRAS (Spain) as well as the University of Leuven Limburg (UCLL, Belgium) and LYK – Z (Norway). This project focuses on training peer mentors and job coaches for young people with disabilities.

Here you will find the training course designed by LYK-Z, implemented and tested for the project  to enhance participant’s skills and to get better support for YPWD job inclusion.

Summary information on identity training programmes for young people based on the FROG methodology©
The identity training programme is conceived to assist young people of different ages – including those with disabilities (YPWD) and those from socially vulnerable backgrounds – to identify and develop their inherent qualities and unique individual abilities. It applies the so-called the FROG Methodology for Leadership and Life Mastery©. It has been designed by the norwegian partner lyk-z. The company with headquarters in Skien, Norway, was started in 1994 and was run as a personal company up until 2011 when lyk-z & daughters became a corporation.
All the activities and exercises using the FROG Methodology for Leadership and Life Mastery are adapted to work for adolescents who struggle with their concentration, focus, self-esteem, self-confidence, and anxiety. They aim at strengthening children and adolescents to identify their life project and dreams, to build a safe identity, to improve life mastery and for them to better get in charge of their own life and develop self-leadership. The training contains elements from neurophysiology, cognitive training, communication techniques from film studies, co-active coaching, and leadership. It should result in YPWD gaining faith and confidence in their own unique capabilities and values and thus create a stable basis for lasting behavioural change and personal growth.
Doing the activities and exercises serves as springboard to facilitate the return to school, to help the access vocational education and training (VET) – or to return to it – and to support the access to employment and more specifically to a job. A participation in the training programme should thus first prevent from dropping out of school, VET and employment and secondly also reduce the high costs related to dropouts of those “systems” for our economies and societies. It is important not to forget that reduced dropouts on an individual level also imply less suffering causes by them for the individuals and their families.

All tools used in the FROG Training Programme© are built on the understanding of Libet’s research of unconscious decision making and the free will. Benjamin Libet (1916-2007), an American neuroscientist, was a pioneer for the investigation into human consciousness. He could provide evidence of how conscious awareness is produced by the brain.

Abstract

This is a methodology that will help you get in touch with yourself, for empowerment, strength and new motivation. It builds self confidence and improves your own leadership for a stronger, clearer presence and impact. Through the different exercises, you will identify and map your own dreams, vision and driving force, and you’ll become aware of important visions of your own life. You will get to see yourself from the outside, through Matryoshka and her layers, you’ll see the connections between your identity, values, qualities, actions and surroundings. This will help you identify whether or not you are living your life according to what matters to you. You’ll figure out in an easier way why something feels wrong, and more clearly see the obstacles in your life in order to take charge and move forward. You will see the connection between thoughts, emotions and behaviour/action. You’ll understand in an easier way why you act the way you do and how to handle difficult thoughts through the cognitive triad. You’ll get to know some handy guidelines and rules of living life easier. This will teach you four simple guidelines in life. If you’re willing to commit, your life will transform.
The full description of the methodology is available in English, Dutch, Greek, Slovenian and Spanish below.

The analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses of the FROG Methodology used in the project and in the Curriculum for Peer Mentors and Job Coaches for YPWD implemented during the project is available in English, Dutch, Greek, Slovenian and Spanish below.

J2J-Project-Curriculum-Peer-Mentors-Job-Coaches-SWOT-Analysis-FROG-Methodology-EN.pdf

J2J-Project-Curriculum-Peer-Mentors-Job-Coaches-SWOT-Analysis-FROG-Methodology-ES.pdf

J2J-Project-Curriculum-Peer-Mentors-Job-Coaches-SWOT-Analysis-FROG-Methodology-GR.pdf

J2J-Project-Curriculum-Peer-Mentors-Job-Coaches-SWOT-Analysis-FROG-Methodology-NL.pdf

J2J-Project-Curriculum-Peer-Mentors-Job-Coaches-SWOT-Analysis-FROG-Methodology-SLO.pdf

Protocol on “Experience expertise and job coaching of young people with disabilities (YPWD)” (Co-Production Protocol)

One of the core actions in the Jump to Job project is that end-users – concretely young people with a disability or health problem in their transition from school to work – are actively engaged in further developing and adapting the Jump to Job training programme and Curriculum for Peer Mentors and Job Coaches. More and more end-users are involved in a systematic manner by service providers in VET or job mediation to get familiar with and then to take up the role as peer mentor/supporter.

An important innovation in the Jump to Job project is that the end-users of the support services are also engaged in creating the content of the training. The project partners fully embrace the motto: “Nothing about us, without us”. In practical terms they experimented how to most effectively involve at least 5 end-users in their new role as peer mentors in the process of co-creating the Jump to Job programme and Curriculum for Peer Mentors and Job Coaches. 

Read the full protocol here: Protocol-Use-Experience-ExpertiseJob-Coaching-YPWD.pdf