ASS.FOR.SEO. Società Consortile a r.l.

Type of Organisation: School/Institute/Educational centre – Vocational Training (tertiary level)

Country: Italy

Region: Lazio

City: Roma

Ass.For.SEO is a non-profit consortium company established in 1986 to provide services in the field of vocational training.

The company complies with Law nr. 40/1987 hence is recognized by the Ministry of Labor as a “Training agency of national relevance”. Ass.For.SEO is based in Rome (Lazio Region) and has a secondary office in Palermo (Sicily Region). The company is accredited by Lazio Region and Sicily Region to provide “Vocational training and guidance services” and “Labor market services” hence can apply to European (mainly European Social Fund) and national funds that support training and labor market policies and can release vocational training qualifications/certificates in accordance with the Directory of professional qualifications (Decree nr. 13/2013).

Ass.For.SEO designs and implements projects mainly in the field of vocational training but also in continuous training, adult education and several others fields (e.g. social inclusion, entrepreneurship promotion, local development, international cooperation, consulting services for private companies and public bodies, etc.). Besides its internal staff (about 14 employees), Ass.For.SEO has a wide network of external consultants (e.g. project designers, trainers, tutors, counsellors, mentors, etc.) that can cover several areas of intervention hence can easily activate specialised “project teams” to involve in the projects from time to time approved.

Since 2002 Ass.For.SEO has obtained a Quality certification UNI EN ISO 9001:2008 for the following areas “Design and provision of guidance, training and entrepreneurship promotion services”. Ass.For.SEO, in fact, considers monitoring and evaluation key processes to guarantee that projects are implemented efficiently and effectively and reach the results envisaged in the design phase. «Neets» (young people between 16 and 29 years that are not in education, employment or training) represent the main target group of the company. More in general, Ass.For.SEO’s offer is addressed to the unemployed that face problems in entering/re-entering the labor market and need re-skilling or up-skilling to strengthen their employability. The company’s offer is headed also towards employed people (continuous training) and adult population in general (adult education, permanent training). Moreover, over the years Ass.For.SEO has been paying increasing attention to vulnerable categories (e.g. immigrants, women, former detainees, recipients of unemployment benefits, etc.) that face more difficulties to enter/re-enter the labor market and wider problems of social inclusion.

Ass.For.SEO, since early nineties, has taken part in several international projects financed by EU Programs and inititiatives (e.g. Now, Urban, Integra, Art. 6 ESF, Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates, etc.). Moreover the company has implemented international activities also in the framework of EU cohesion policy (e.g. Equal, Interreg, NOP ESF 2000-2006, ROP ESF Lazio Region, etc.) or financed by national programs (e.g. Ministry of Labor training program for Italian citizens residing in non EU Contries). Currently the company is managing as Lead partner two Interreg projects – “MedDecouplage” (OP Interreg Italy-Tunisia 2014-2020, 2020 – 2019/on going); “MOVE ON: crossborder mobility through a voucher scheme” (OP Interreg Italy – Malta 2014-2020, 2020/on going) – and is Project partner of the recently closed “Embrace” (OP Interreg MED 2014-2020, 2018 – 2021).

Ass.For.SEO’s training offer is always based on deep training needs analysis and other tyes of researches that focus on both skill gaps in the labor market and development needs of the sector/territory of reference of the specific project to design. Moreover, in order to guarantee the maximum of transparency to the knowledges and skills acquired by its learners, the training courses proposed by the company are usually compliant to the official “Directory of professional qualifications” of the Region where the courses are implemented. The training courses proposed by Ass.For.SEO are focused mainly on the transmission of professionalizing technical skills but give great relevance also to “transversal skills” that nowadays are almost essential to insert and effectively operate in the labor market (e.g. digital skills, language skills, communication and behavioral skills, etc.).

In particular Ass.For.SEO gives great attention to digital skills development, theme almost always present in its training offer although in diversified ways (e.g. specialized courses for professions of the ICT sector, transversal training module, wide use of ICT in practical laboratories, etc.). On this regard it is worth to mention that Ass.For.SEO is currently implementing a “smart working” plan (“Smart Ass.For.SEO”) aimed at increasing the digital skills of its own employees not only to face the emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic but also to better adapt to the continuous changes that the “digital transition” is introducing in the field of education, training and consulting services. This attention to digital skills will be fundamental to effectively implement the project and its results, besides the training sector, will be extended (with the necessary adaptations) also to other areas of activity of Ass.For.SEO (e.g. guidance, counselling for labor insertion, entrepreneurship promotion, consulting services for private companies and public bodies).