Digital Welcome

Status

ongoing

City

Brussels Capital Region

Main actors

City Government, Private Sector, NGO / Philanthropy, Public Utility

Project area

other

Duration

Ongoing since 2016

An ICT and technology skills training programme to improve migrant and refugee integration.

Digital Welcome’s focus on creative methodology for digital inclusion and digital empowerment is a strategy to equip young refugees and migrants with the necessary skills to fully participate in the host society, including digital skills, but also pedagogical and soft skills to make connections with local people, volunteer, run workshops and to seek employment.

IT organisations from cities in Belgium, Greece, Germany, Spain and Italy are administering the programme with support from local governments, NGO’s, educational institutions, non-profit organisations, public agencies and the private sector.

This case study was contributed from the Digital Skills Map: https://digiskillsmap.com/en

For further information about the case study, click here.

Sustainable Development Goals

City information

City

Brussels Capital Region, Belgium

Size and population development

The population of Brussels Capital Region was recorded as 1,191,604 in 2017. By 2030, the total population is expected to reach 1,309,264 people, corresponding to an increase of approximately 10% over this period.

Population composition

65% (777,465 people) of the Brussels Capital Region are of Belgian nationality. Due to the high number of European institutions and businesses located in Brussels, a large proportion, 23%, of the population are from other EU countries. 12% are from countries other than Belgium and the EU. The average age of the population is 37, in comparison with the European average of 42. Based on the World Migration Report of 2015, after Dubai, Brussels is the city with the highest percentage of residents from foreign origin. About 6 in 10 Brussels residents were born outside Belgium.

Main functions

The Brussels-Capital Region was formed in June 1989 and is part of both the French and Flemish communities of Belgium. It has bilingual status and is one of the three federal regions of Belgium along with Flanders and Wallonia. The Brussels Capital Region is the administrative centre for many international organisations, including the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the World Customs Organization and EUROCONTROL as well as a large number of international corporations.

Main industries / business

From 1995 to 2015, the Brussels Capital Region experienced economic growth of approximately 1.5% per year and accounts for nearly 9% of all exports from Belgium. Despite this, the unemployment rate in the Capital Region was recorded as 17% in 2017. The main industries operating in the Brussels Capital Region include electronics, chemicals, printing, publishing, clothing, telecommunications, aircraft construction, and the food industry. During the 2016-2022 period, the ‘other market services’ industry, including business services, is projected to make the largest contribution to economic growth in the Brussels Capital Region.

Sources for city budget

The National Government of Belgium and taxation revenue from the Brussels Capital Region.

Political structure

The Brussels Parliament is made up of 89 members, elected by universal suffrage every five years by Belgian adults registered in one of the communes of the Brussels-Capital Region. The regional deputies are split into two groups: 72 parliamentarians are elected from a list for French speakers and 17 from a list for Dutch speakers. The Parliament chooses the members of Government of the Brussels-Capital Region and the regional state secretaries from among the elected parliamentarians, who are then replaced by their substitutes on the electoral list. The Government of the Brussels-Capital Region is comprised of a Minister-President, 4 Ministers (2 French speakers and 2 Dutch speakers) and 3 Secretaries of State. The Government is elected every five years by the Brussels Parliament (the Council of the Brussels-Capital Region). The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region represents the legislative branch of government that prepares, debates and votes on the laws. The members of the Government are responsible for matters defined by the regional competences.

Administrative structure

The policy of the Regional Government is implemented in a number of areas, particularly in economic and territorial matters by the Brussels Regional Public Service and the regional bodies. The Brussels-Capital Region is the competent authority in: Urban development (plans, planning permission, urban renewal, real estate policy, protection of monuments and sites) and housing; Environment, water and nature conservation; Economy (economic expansion, foreign trade) and Employment policy; Transport; Public works; Energy policy; Local authorities and subsidiary authorities; External relations; Scientific research. The Brussels-Capital Region is composed of 19 communes, including the City of Brussels. The communes manage matters relating to the daily life of citizens and the communal territory. They play an essential role in urban governance and are responsible for a range of services in diverse areas including water, energy, waste management and telecommunications.

Website

http://be.brussels/

Background and objectives

The initial idea for a Programme for IT courses for migrants and refugees was born within the ALL DIGITAL (then Telecentre-Europe) network during the Telecentre Europe General Assembly in Amsterdam in 2016 and was endorsed by many members. The working title of the programme was “WELCOME”.

The aim of the project “WELCOME Programme” is to exchange best practices between organisations specialised in digital inclusion of disadvantaged groups and, based on this exchange, to develop and pilot an innovative methodology for social inclusion of third country nationals in educational and social activities, cultural life, volunteering and digital creation activities.

Implementation

The Digital Welcome training course provides an excellent opportunity to practice the local language, improve digital skills and meet new people.

The training is 60 hours and includes 4 modules:

Introduction to coding
Digital storytelling
Digital journalism
Soft skills and communication

At the end of each of the modules and stages of the training, the participants evaluate the outputs they have achieved.

Participants also learn how to present workshops on those topics. At the end of the training course, they organise and conduct IT workshops for other migrants and refugees, local residents or both.

The programme was developed by expert trainers and is based on 50+ good practices, collected and analysed in the design stage. It was updated twice during the project and updated again based on the lessons learned.

The programme and know-how is being made available to anyone working for the integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

Financing and resources

Financing

EU Asylum, migration and integration fund

Funding call: AMIF-2016-AG-INTE-01 “Integration of 3rd country nationals”

Co-operation partners

All Digital (Belgium), Media Actie Kuregem Stad (Belgium), IASIS (Greece),

Stiftung Digitale Chancen (Germany), Fondazion Mondo Digitale (Italy), Centro Studi Citta di Foligno Associazione (Italy), Colectic (Spain).

Stakeholders

Other organisations involved in the recruitment of participants were reception centres, Red Cross. Sint Guido Institute Anderlecht, adult education centres and others.

Results and impacts

The training has been implemented in 5 counties (6 cities) by 12 trainers (2x country).
120 young 3rd country nationals have been trained and produced 120 digital stories.
More than 720 hours of training have been provided
Young 3rd country nationals organised and presented more than 20 workshops.

The feedback from both trainers, training participants and the workshop participants has been very positive.

Barriers and challenges

An interesting point to highlight is that the program helps participants to learn the local language but, at the same time, not having a basic knowledge of the language is a barrier. It is a challenge for both participants and trainers during the training and also during the process of mentoring. It is recommended that participants have an intermediate level in the local language and/or that the training is complemented by language courses.

The training is neither long, nor short. A challenge is the non-formal format. It is not easy to retain participants in the classroom for a long time unless they are institutionalized, since their daily reality is very dynamic. It often happens that they find work, start going to mandatory integration classes, begin internship periods, etc. Drop-out rate is significant.

Lessons learned and transferability

The modularity, flexibility and ease of adaptation of the program to the different national contexts was seen as a great advantage.

The group work and the peer-to-peer concept, which are at the core of the methodology, also have great value and are key to responding to the challenges related to the different technological and linguistic competence of the participants.

Participants ask repeatedly for the direct impact of training on their job opportunities, the value that the certification will have, etc. and only if they visualize the training as an opportunity, they continue to be involved. In a complementary way, the construction of new relationships of friendship and the relationship with the trainer is also a positive element that helps to complete the program and visualize its benefits.

Finally, as part of the integration process, the programme is very interesting, both for competency-based learning and interaction with the host society and work with mixed groups.

References

Digital Welcome: https://digitalwelcome.eu/

Digital Skills Map: https://digiskillsmap.com/en/projects/digital-welcome