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Background of the COOCOU project

The Erasmus+ funded EU-Project COOCOU focuses on the recognition of skills, qualifications and competences of cognitively impaired persons by developing and using a set of tools to assess and document those competences. Based on the analysis of competences and with the guidance of counsellors, COOCOU aims to help cognitively impaired persons find out about their competences, boost their self-confidence, support their empowerment and support them in finding a job or educational measure that suits their competence profile and interests, i.e. support their social and economic inclusion. The project offers innovative solutions to foster integration of people with cognitive impairments and fewer opportunities regarding the integration into the labour market and into society, mainly by further developing and adopting the already existing “ProfilPASS” (i.e. ProfilPASS in Simple Language) to the needs of the project’s target group.

First steps – Identification of needs

As a first step in the project, the six project partners die Berater® (Austria), DIE – Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung (Germany), DAFNI KEK – Dafni Kentro Epaggelmatikis Katartisis (Greece), LUV – Andragoski zavod Ljudska univerza Velenje (Slovenia), DEFOIN – Formacion para el Desarrollo y la Inserción (Spain) and SwIdeas AB (Sweden) carried out an identification of needs including a synopsis of examples of good practice in the COOCOU partner countries. The activity was led by the Austrian project partner die Berater®. The guiding questions were:

1. What do organizations working with cognitively impaired persons need in order to assess their competences and what do cognitively impaired persons need in order to make their competences visible?
2. What examples of good practice are already available? 
3. What should be included in addition to an adopted ProfilPASS?

The needs assessment combined desk research and focus group meetings with experts (or alternatively individual interviews with experts). During the desk research phase, information on the topic already available in the partner countries was gathered and analysed. For the expert groups, representatives of stakeholders in the field tackled by the COOCOU project (employers, professionals working with cognitively impaired persons, researchers, decision makers, funders, programme developers, cognitively impaired persons) were asked to participate in a focus group meeting or to be available for an interview. The aim of the focus group meetings/interviews was to gain a broader view of the needs targeted in the COOCOU project proposal and to get an assessment of the measures already available and to identify concrete needs from different perspectives. 

Needs identified by the partner countries

The results delivered by the partner countries show that there is a great need, both by organizations working with cognitively impaired persons as well as by people with learning difficulties and/or cognitive impairments themselves, regarding measures of educational/vocational counselling and support/empowerment in order to foster their economic and social inclusion.

The Austrian findings mainly showed that the support of the autonomy of people with learning difficulties and/or cognitive impairments plays an essential role in order to be able to (re-)integrate them into the labour market. According to the German socio-demographic surveys, the percentage of people with cognitive impairments who are competitively employed in the primary labour market is relatively low (for instance 5% of people with autism). The need to find the right education or profession must not be overseen, as the research in Greece has revealed. An education or a job that is not appropriate for a person with a learning difficulty and/or cognitive impairment may cause decrease on effectiveness and efficiency of his/her work performance, along with a major decrease of confidence and empowerment. Interviews performed by the Slovenian project partner have led to the following conclusions regarding the needs that must be considered when designing counselling measures for people with learning difficulties and/or cognitive impairments: 1) Adequate knowledge and experience of the counsellors with regards to cognitive impairments is crucial; 2) Clear instructions and simple examples to ensure that the purpose of each section and task is understood; 3) Clear and easy language with images; 4) No time restrictions when it comes to counselling; 5) Safe and supportive environment where one feels comfortable and understood; 6) Individual approach supported by group activities; 7) Supportive activities where skills/competences can be demonstrated (role play, ice-breakers); 8) Certificates or similar documents proving existing and/or acquired competences/skills of the participants. This is in line with the Spanish research results which have shown that people with learning difficulties and/or cognitive impairments often have a lack of self-awareness and self-confidence which makes it even more important to facilitate the process of competence assessment. Another challenge that was identified by the Swedish partner is the fact that the group of people with learning difficulties and/or cognitive impairments is very diverse in terms of degree and character of the difficulty/impairment, which makes it very important to always consider and respect the individual situations in the counselling process. The results of the national research activities were compiled in the Comprehensive Report of Identification of Needs. The report represents a compilation of the partner’s findings and includes good practices as well as useful recommendations for the development of the COOCOU toolkit.

The COOCOU toolkit – collection of tools and methods for counsellors working with cognitively impaired people

The results of the research and interviews in the project countries illustrate the fundamental contents of the COOCOU toolkit. The toolkit intends to offer counsellors the opportunity to find tools and methods of competence assessment that can help them work with cognitively impaired people. Several tools and methods for competence assessment could be identified in the partner countries. They include (free) tools, methods and training materials provided by organisations, associations and companies for educational and vocational training, other (EU-funded) projects working in this field and various offers of counselling and support. In order to meet the specific needs of the cognitively impaired people the already existing ProfilPASS will be adapted with regard to the needs of the project target group. The aim is to develop a “Barrier-free ProfilPASS in Easy Language”. This adapted ProfilPASS will be the core of the toolkit and an effective support when it comes to identifying the competences of cognitively impaired people.

Conclusions: How to develop the Barrier-free ProfilPASS in Easy Language 

In order to develop the Barrier-free ProfilPASS in Easy Language, the existing ProfilPASS portfolio will be taken as a basis and adaptations will be made with regard to the needs of people with learning difficulties and/or cognitive impairments. In response, the needs of this target group, after an initial research, adjustments of the language (1), the content (2) and the layout (3) will be made. Existing guidelines for “Easy Language” will be followedto ensure that all text elements are easily understandable and the tasks are straight-forward thus giving the cognitively impaired people a clear direction. Furthermore, the content will be adapted in order to also do justice to the situation of the target group. Additional chapters such as “My daily routine” or “My household chores”, fill-in-the-blank texts or the like might further facilitate work with the ProfilPASS for the target group. Testimonial (i.e. biographical example) will be used to support the target group as it will demonstrate how people with cognitive abilities can work with the ProfilPASS and provide examples on how these people can deploy their competences. This will not only serve as an orientation for the cognitively impaired persons but also motivate them. Another important aspect will be to help these people get clarity about what kind of employment they want and also what they need in their working environment in order to feel comfortable and be able to successfully work there. This will be essential in placing these people in a suitable employment situation with a long-term perspective. Finally, a new design and layout will help to make the new Barrier-free ProfilPASS in Easy Language even more easily accessible.

Project framework

On 1 October 2019 the two-year EU-project “COmpetence Oriented COUnselling for cognitively impaired people” began as part of the Erasmus+ programme (project reference: 2019-1-DE02-KA204-006137). COOCOU is led by the Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung – Leibniz-Zentrum für Lebenslanges Lernen(DIE) [German Institute for Adult Education - Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning] in the role of coordinator, together with partner organisations die Berater® from Austria, DAFNI KEK - Dafni Kentro Epaggelmatikis Katartisis from Greece, SwIdeas AB from Sweden, Andragoski zavod Ljudska univerza Velenje from Slovenia and DEFOIN – Formacion para el Desarrollo y la Inserción from Spain.

About the authors:

Elisabeth Lattinger is a research associate at die Berater® (Austria), partner organisation in the EU Project COOCOU - “COmpetence Oriented COUnselling for cognitively impaired people”.

Goran Jordanoski is a research associate at Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung – Leibniz-Zentrum für Lebenslanges Lernen e.V. Since 2019, he has been coordinator of the EU Project COOCOU - “COmpetence Oriented COUnselling for cognitively impaired people” (2019-1-DE02-KA204-006137).