WEEELABS
The main objective of the WEEELABS project was the creation of a strategic partnership between organizations with experience in the social field, for working and learning together exploring new opportunities for employability of youth in a situation or at serious risk of exclusion, through:
● the development of a non-formal education methodology adapted from technological innovation contexts (FabLab – Fabrication Laboratories) and based on the principle of “learning by doing” to provide these youngsters with socio-occupational / pre-employment skills.
● the analysis of the reuse of electrical waste and electronic equipment as a niche for generating social enterprises or social intra-entrepreneurial initiatives in organizations committed to finding solutions to difficulties of youth at risk of social exclusion.
Therefore the targeted group was formed by the following profile: young people with diverse circumstances that share specific elements of their territory and local context, such as expectations and difficulties in integrating into the social and productive system, but with common educational and integration needs. To facilitate their social integration and incorporation in the labour market, the project partners have identified the recovery and recycling of electrical waste and electronic equipment (WEEEs) as an opportunity for the labour incorporation and social integration of these young people, in line with the European Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.
This is an opportunity of employability that could be realized with the creation of new social enterprises or / and intra-entrepreneurial projects in organizations. In this sense, WEEELABS will explore a new way of non-formal education processes, tailored and specifically oriented at our targeted group of young people in situation or at serious risk of exclusion, both to serve as specific training in handling, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment -not yet reflected in formal education system- and the development of core basic skills (spoken language, reading comprehension and calculation) and transversal skills (problem solving, teamwork, organization of work, creative thinking and follow-up instructions …).
That new way is the validation of the WeeeLabs as an adapted FabLab model.
These Fabrication Laboratories were promoted by the Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) as workshops / learning communities in digital design and manufacturing scale for personal or local use (usually with 3D printing technologies, precision laser cutters and moulding and milling tools).
Final video of the WEELABS project.
