Faqs

What is the meaning of Emple-ap?

Emple-ap: Observatory for Labor Insertion and Strengthening of Employability in Member Countries of the Pacific Alliance.

Why was this project created?

To contribute to the improvement of employability and labor insertion rates among higher education graduates in countries of the Pacific Alliance – PA (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile). Permanent monitoring and analysis of needs and characteristics of the labor market will be carried out for this purpose, as well as the construction of national guidelines and policies that contribute to create relevant education offers and strengthening of academic programs provided by higher education institutions (HEI) in participating countries.

Why is this an innovative project?

Emple-ap is the first initiative in Latin America that addresses the expressed need of the region governments to collect and analyze relevant information on each of the countries' labor markets, the characteristics of the economically active population and employability indicators of tertiary education graduates, contributing with inputs and results to the implementation of multilateral agreements to create programs of labor mobility within the PA.

What are the project partner entities and what sort of support they provide?

Seven universities support the Consortium in order to improve the quality of its work; however, these will not be responsible for the main activities of the project, such as management, coordination and monitoring and they will not lead the work teams. They will neither provide nor receive financial support. Six of these institutions belong to Red Ilumno, namely: Politécnico Grancolombiano, Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21, Centro Universitario Jorge Amado, Universidad Veiga de Almeida, Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina, Universidad San Marcos.

Which are the main project features?

Emple-ap will contribute to human talent strengthening and promotion of productivity and competitiveness in involved countries (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile), through the strengthening of skills and competencies of the member countries population by fostering and promoting access to quality education.

 

In addition, the establishment of the Regional Labor Observatory will promote a data collection, analysis and comparison system for a close follow-up of the insertion and behavior of graduates in the labor market and to learn first-hand information about salaries, job placement periods and real sector demand. This makes it an insuperable source of information relevant for academic program restructuring and updating, as well as the construction of curricular and non-curricular tools that facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and competencies requested by employers.

Would this project have some control?

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Yes. A quality committee consisting of a representative from an HEI partner, a representative from each European HEI, and one member of ILUMNO will ensure the quality of the project and of each one of its components. This committee will conduct several follow-up actions and assessments of the project results and deliveries.

 

The project design includes a more detailed monitoring and follow-up of quality in project intervention, particularly of work packages which lead to the delivery of products and services key to achieve results and objectives throughout the project implementation. Essentially, the following actions will be conducted to ensure quality deliverables:

 

1. Design of a follow-up plan for each project stage.

2. Building of a contingency plan.

3. Development and implementation of tools for follow-up and assessment of the activities of the Regional Labor Observatory.

4. Follow-up and assessment visits.

 

These activities seek the improvement of key project processes aimed at ensuring the best implementation and maximization of results. This enables the identification of project risks, activity timeframe follow-up and measures to be taken in case of delay; also defining sound processes of evaluation to measure project progress and delivery with guaranteed quality.

 

The European institutions involved in the Consortium play a leading role in the process of monitoring and control since they contribute their expertise to ensure the implementation with the best possible level of efficiency and effectiveness. Their expertise in European projects and in higher education quality assurance is key to the careful follow-up of proposed indicators, for timely activity implementation and drafting of annual reports on project performance.

 

In addition, quality external audit is carried out by experts on European and educative projects who conduct a review of project results, progress and management, assessing result relevance, objective achievement, indicator compliance and resource performance.

What is the project expected impact?

The project will have an impact on several groups, such as students, graduates, countries of the Pacific region, universities and companies.

 

First of all, the direct beneficiaries will be students and graduates, considering that the main objective is their employability, therefore all actions will be developed around them. The improvement of graduates’ employability including mobility between countries of the Pacific Alliance involves knowing their socio-academic profiles. Therefore, their data and participation in surveys will be essential for the project continuity. In return they will be able to obtain, based on conducted studies and reports, all information needed for the best job orientation within the region.

 

On the other hand, Emple-ap will have an impact on the quality of employment specialized services at a national and regional level, promoting labor insertion of the population with third level education thus improving the economic structure through direct investment in knowledge.

 

The participating universities will also benefit from the project through the use of the exclusive methodologies for labor insertion analysis comparable to other methodologies used in the region and even in European counties. Thus, the participating HEIs will obtain employability indicators they can share with students or businesses for their self-management, enhancing their own brand identity as universities belonging to this Consortium. These institutions will also count on specialized areas in terms of employment to give advice to students, graduates and companies.

 

Lastly, the business network of the Pacific Alliance member countries will benefit since the improvement of graduate employability means necessarily to learn about the need for the region companies to adapt teaching to labor markets and to close existing human talent gaps. The economic activities will be mapped by region identifying the labor needs in each zone. Companies can obtain labor information from reports issued by the Regional Labor Observatory, including a potential employment pool specialized for labor force with third-level education.

How sustainable is this project?

The project is sustainable through time since it involves labor observatories from Latin American institutions ensuring institutional commitment and using own resources to guarantee the continuity of the Observatory. Moreover, in future years it will be possible to include new partners, additional HEIs and countries to further enlarge the network, becoming the main focus of labor information dissemination across the region.

 

In addition, the third year of the project calls for the creation of a sustainability plan to count on a strategy for the follow-up and sustainability of project results.

 

Also, the information generated permanently as well as the activities, research and outputs of specific analysis of labor market aspects will help international cooperation agencies, public agencies, large companies, trade associations, chambers of commerce, NGOs, among others, to provide an input or request advice and services for the development of studies related to socio economic conditions of the population that lives in areas of influence, or regarding causes of vulnerability of some of the region's inhabitants.

 

Participation in calls for proposals by governments of the Pacific Alliance countries is also expected; these will deliver incentives and funds to promote research and these resources can be applied to the operation and sustainability of labor observatories.

How the members of the Consortium were selected?

The Consortium members were conscientiously selected taking into account the interest of institutions in transferring skills and expertise in this regional initiative of vital importance for the Pacific Alliance. Key factors for selecting institutions were their prestige and experience in the region besides their portfolio of labor insertion support services for graduates and students.

Who can benefit from Emple-ap and how?

HEIs, graduates, students, professors, researchers, governments, ministries of labor and education and entrepreneurs from countries involved in the Consortium. Also the international community coordinating graduates, students and entrepreneurs can obtain meaningful information to conduct business or employability initiatives through permanently published results and through the Regional Labor Observatory.

 

In the same way, interested parties can contact and raise their employability concerns through the web site where they will find the information or support required on issues of employability, opportunities and challenges.

Where the resources to finance the project come from?

Emple-ap is funded by the European Union as part of the Erasmus+ program.

 

Project reference is: 586107-EPP-1-2017-1-CO-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

 

Amount financed (euros):         985695 EUR

Program:                                      Erasmus+

Key action:                                  Cooperation for the innovation and exchange of good practices

Action type:                                  Higher education capacity-building

 

Selected projects are annually nominated through open calls by Erasmus+ and the winners are chosen considering different factors, including project relevance according to European Cooperation priorities for the region, quality of proposed activities, project actions, quality of the Consortium and participating institutions, and project impact and sustainability.

How long will the project last?

The project started on October 15, 2017 and will finish on October 14, 2020.