proHear project is developed within Erasmus + Programme, Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. It is a 2-year project starting from November 2017 and ending in October 2019. The project is a strategic partnership consisting of 6 organizations from four European countries – Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Iceland.

 

The project background is that persons with disabilities are traditionally amongst the most disadvantaged groups in the labour market. Disabilities impact on people’s lives in many areas, for example in terms of labour market and leisure pursuits; participation in education and training; social contacts and economic independence. According to recent findings of NGOs “only 20% of persons with disabilities are employed” in Europe and “among those who are working many are underemployed as they are not paid a decent wage, work below their capabilities and/or temporary contracts and have poor career prospective”. The proHear project addresses the employability of people with hearing impairments and aims at mitigating their employment gap and the barriers they face on the labour market.

 

Millions of hearing impaired people across Europe face barriers to employment, whereas most of them believe, that they are generally taken out of consideration for jobs they apply for, simply because of their disability. But, however problematic joining the labour market may be to people with hearing impairments, employment improves their general quality of life and it can be achieved by promoting VET training and employment competences.

 

Thus, the aim of the project is to provide integrated support tailored to the needs and specificities of people with hearing impairments through the development of innovative training tools and materials in order to increase motivation and self-awareness, create incentives for acquiring new soft skills necessary for efficient job search and employment performance and thus promote efficient integration of hearing impaired people into employment.

 

After all, “deaf people can do anything except hearing”!