Around 11% of all 15- to 24-year-olds are neither in education nor in employment after completing compulsory schooling. These people are categorized as "NEET" (not in employment, education, or training). Most of these young people and young adults have a migration background. The risk for migrants to become a part of the NEET group is about 3.3 times higher than for young people without a migration background. Members of the NEET group find it particularly difficult to gain a foothold in working life, which can subsequently lead to social insecurity and isolation. Young unemployed people usually lack self-confidence and have had bad experiences with the school system and conventional learning opportunities. Especially children from socially disadvantaged communities have less support in learning social, mental, and emotional skills away from school and are poorly prepared for the time after compulsory schooling. Therefore, alternative forms of learning play a key role here. This is where the educational concept of "Kicken ohne Grenzen" comes in.
“Kicken ohne Grenzen” pursues the vision of a society in which all young people have the same opportunities to discover and develop their skills and potential. Its mission is to help young people from disadvantaged communities integrate into society on a sustainable and equal basis through the unifying power of football. Here, football is a tool and a common language with which taught content can be directly transferred and applied in practice and everyday life. The participating young people are between 10 and 24 years old. The participants often have a migration or refugee background and mostly come from socio-economically disadvantaged communities.
An open football training (Football+) is the basis of the program. The concept uses the learning potential through play and links motor, emotional and cognitive learning. In the form of specific exercises within the training, the young people can discover and develop important key competencies on various levels, which they need for successful integration. Soft skills can be experienced in a playful way and their own approaches to solving problems can be tested. Furthermore, the football training serves to build up a relationship of trust between the young people and the project team, which can then provide the participants with more targeted support and more easily place them in further educational opportunities.
At LIFE GOALS, emotional, mental, and social skills are transferred from the football field to the youth's everyday life through reflection sessions. In the reflection unit, participants can bring in their own concrete problems from everyday life and work through them strategically with the educator.
Finally, over the course of a year, JOB GOALS evaluates the participants' skills and interests in individual coaching sessions, identifies training opportunities and organizes job taster days, thus introducing the NEET young people to further training or the labor market in a targeted manner.
