As part of facilitating the employment integration of young people with disabilities, oaed secured funding through the European Erasmus+ 2020 programme for the new two-year "Steps towards Autonomy" programme, in cooperation with the German Vocational Centre for Young People with Disabilities Berufsbildungswerk Mosbach-Heidelberg. In particular, the proposal of the EEKA disabled thessaloniki (Educational Training Centre for Vocational Training of Adolescents and Young People with Disabilities) of the OAED for a learning mobility programme during the school years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, consisting of six flows of trainees, teachers and students each lasting 16 days, was approved. A total of 30 teachers and 30 students with 15 accompanying teachers will participate in this. An organisational and operational upgrade of the EEK with a disabled person will also be implemented, with an emphasis on the Protected Work Centres that have operated this year for the first time and at the national level. Students will enhance their technical and professional skills by training in professional classes, as well as in real working environments of enterprises.
As far as teachers are, the main objective is to seek and transfer know-how, good practices and innovation in order to open up a new path of interconnection or reconnection with the labour market and employment, thereby offering traineeships and jobs to students. It is noted that due to the particular conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the phases of the programme will be implemented according to the respective prevention and protection measures. The budget of the programme is EUR 193,425.