V.I.D.E.O. Video-cv to Increase and Develop Employment Opportunities

2. V.I.D.E.O.Video-cv to Increase and Develop Employment Opportunities THE EXPERIENCE REALISED BY THE CITY OF ROME FOR THE CREATION OF VIDEO CURRICULA Federico BARDANZELLU First Transnational Workshop Rome, 18-19 March 2009

3. GENERAL DESCRIPTION • Since the year 2005, the City of Rome – Dept. XIV, has been promoting several innovative experiences, which have been focused on the realisation of some experimental prototypes of Video Curriculum. • The City of Rome has realised 3 main experiences in creating Video-CV tools: • A Course for Vocational Training, devoted to the creation of a digital portfolio; • 2. A Video spot realised at the C.O.L. Lincei of Rome; • 3. Three Video CVs realised at the C.O.L. Marconi of Rome.

4. THE COURSE FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINIGN • The first experience was in 2005, when a Course for Vocational Training was realised. • The course was attended by 20 operators of the C.O.L.s (C.O.L.= Centres for Vocational Guidance) of Rome. • The course of 120 hours was divided into 2 parts: lessons in classroom on one hand; on job experience on the other hand. • Target of the Course were: • Operators of the COLs; • Disadvantaged subjects; • People having difficulty to sustain a vis-à-vis interview. • Among the outputs of this experience, there are: • A Video Curriculum (digital portfolio) recorded on a CD Rom • Skills acquired by the operators concerning the use of programs for video-acquisition, video editing, and use of the scanner.

5. THE VIDEO SPOT REALISED AT THE C.O.L.LINCEI In 2006 at the C.O.L. Lincei in Rome a Video spot was realised. A 42 years old man, working as an insurer agent but with the passion, never abandoned, of the drawing, wanted to realise a tool more effective than a simple digital portfolio. The Video has been realised in a short time and after only a few preparatory sessions. The “spot” had a duration of around 40 seconds, and included the simulation of an interview to the applicant, who had, in this way, the possibility to talk about himself and his professional experience. The most interesting aspect of that experience –that it is worth to keep in mind for the implementation of the V.I.D.E.O. Project-, lies in the fact that the job seeker has not appeared as a 'needy' person but, rather, as a resource.

6. THREE VIDEO CVs FOR SHORT-TERM UNEPLOYED PEOPLE The last experience realised by the City of Rome has concerned the C.O.L. Marconi. In this structure, a video related to the balance of competences has been realised in 2006: three unemployed people, users of the C.O.L. Marconi, have been shot with the video camera during the individual interviews with the operators of the C.O.L. and the group laboratories, in the delicate process of analysis of the professional attitudes of the job seekers, to be spent on the labour market. The Video was part o fan experimental Project promoted by the Isfol and finalised to the diffusion of the good practices in the field of vocational guidance.

7. THREE VIDEO CVs FOR SHORT-TERM UNEPLOYED PEOPLE TARGET GROUPS AND METHODOLOGY The target was made of adult, short-term unemployed people with middle-high expertise, who had decided to change their job. The attention has been focused on some aspects held as particularly meaningful, as cultural integration, self-esteem strategies aimed at facing the problems and the conciliation between professional and private life. A first phase of this Project, shown by the video, concerned the self-diagnosis of the job-seeker, made through questionnaires and vocational tests. In the second phase the three people’s professional interests as well as the skills acquired in previous jobs have been analysed. The last phase of this experience has been devoted to the formulation of the curriculum of the three participants, and to the definition of the work project suitable for any of the three people so as to evaluate its on-field feasibility, on the basis of the demand of the market.

8. EVALUATION OF THE EXPERIENCES DONE • Very good was the feedback by the operators participating in the Vocational Training Course and to the few users who realised a Video Cv. • Very good evaluation of the experience by the three people who realised their Video-CV . • For what concerns the utility of the tool realised with regard on its effectiveness in help finding a job, the experiences realised need to be further developed in order to be properly evaluated.

9. EVALUATION OF THE EXPERIENCES DONE • Strength points: possibility to consider users/job seekers as resources rather than as “needy” people. Possibility to give result to practical skills difficult to be described in writing; • Weak points: the experiences realised are only experimental. They need to be further developed; • For what concerns Italy and the reality of the C.O.L.s of the City of Rome, the video CV tool could be of difficult use with a target of long-term unemployed people, with people needing to find a job in a very short time (also considering that the users of the C.O.L.s in Rome are, in the majority of the cases, people signaled by the social services); • Furthermore, in the C.O.L.s of Rome it could be problematic to adapt the Video Cv tool to a target of over 45 people.

10. SUGGESTIONS FOR A POSITIVE APPRECIATION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE VIDEO CV Through the feedback of the C.O.L .s operators, on the basis of the experiences previously realised, it is possible to give suggestions and indication for the development of the Video CV as follows: • Selection of the target: the Video CV can be a very good tool, but it is not to be regarded as suitable for all the target groups and users of the C.O.L.s of the City of Rome; • It would be necessary to develop technical , communicational and organisational competences of the operators of the Centres; • It would be necessary to create a web platform for the matching of the job demand and supply, with several links and sharing points.