MIICT

MIICT has designed, developed and deployed the digital IMMERSE platform that addresses the management of migrant integration, the customisation of services to match migrants’ needs and the need for sustained and improved inclusion of migrants. This evidence-based and inclusive platform aims to improve labour market access, matching individuals with jobs and development opportunities based upon their specific and unique contexts.

Considering the technical roadmap of the project, the implementation of the IMMERSE platform followed an iterative approach, beginning from an initial paper prototype to the platform version that has been piloted in the partner countries. Since the beginning of the project, specific use cases and user requirements have been outlined on behalf of the end-users from the pilot locations. This article briefly demonstrates the functionalities and services that have been implemented and are to be tested during the 6-month SSD phase.

Provided services and functionalities

Based on the user requirements and the outcomes of co-creation workshops, the following modules have been developed. They are separated along their interactive notion, with some of them focussing on providing information and others focussing on delivering services. While the information modules and the service modules can be accessed and reviewed without a registration by the users, the users have to register if they want to interact with the services modules, submit applications and review recommendations based on the matchmaking functionality that depends on the existence of a user profile.

Information services

• Language
• Education
• Health
•  Transportation
•   Status
•  Civil society support
• Welfare, State and Local Support
•  Employment

Interactive services

• Find training courses
• Find local support and help
• Become a volunteer
• Ask an expert

Customization

Due to the flexibility of the system architecture, the IMMERSE platform can be customized according to the user requirements. This not only includes the available languages, but also the activation and de-activation of single modules and functionalities (and therefore services) in order to fulfil the high-level-requirement of providing a “plug-and-play” architecture.

Based on the pilot country preferences, only selected functionalities have been activated for the MIICT-pilots in Cyprus, Spain, and Italy. While in Italy for example, most of the information functionalities are available, the services module has been limited to two core functionalities. A screenshot from the Cyprus landing page in Greek is given below. As the Cyprus pilot partners emphasized the significance of French for their work, the full system is also provided in French (see Figure 6). However, of course also the other languages including Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic are available and can be selected by users in order to allow maximum flexibility and service for the end-users.

User profiles

Considering the selected services, three user roles (in addition to the admin roles) have been implemented. User roles are reserved for migrants, service providers and volunteers.

Each user upon registration has access to a user panel where they can maintain information and data. More specifically, service providers can manage their profile information, create, and manage their posts, review applications made by users etc. Similarly, migrant users can create manage their applications, review their favourite posts and change their notification settings. In addition, volunteer users can manage their profile information, review their applications and favourite posts.

Information content

The IMMERSE platform addresses the provision of information to its users. In Cyprus, the information has been grouped into major categories, which have been identified in the requirements analysis and the co-creation workshops in April and October of 2019. Each information page is accessible through the top header menu. In each information page users can either search for information using a search bar or by utilizing available filters. Each post consists of a title, a description and other useful information depending on the type of the post. In addition, each post has a link that re-directs to the official resource for the information. All the information is added and maintained the administrators and is validated before being added to the IMMERSE.

Interactive content

IMMERSE also facilitates a set of services where users such as migrants can find opportunities and interact by responding to posts provided by a service provider, showing their interest in an event, or get in contact with the organizers for more information. In Cyprus, a total of 4 services have been implemented.

These include:

1. a) Find Training Courses
2. b) Find Local Support and Help
3. c) Become a Volunteer
4. d) Ask an Expert

For each service, a form has been implemented to create a new post that will later become available in the user interface.

Events calendar

IMMERSE hosts a dedicated Events Calendar to inform the users about upcoming events that are available in their country or area. It presents relevant events in a country such as neighbourhood meetings, music events or even free language courses. In addition to being able to access the information in different languages, the calendar allows the users to suggest physical and virtual events, which are then assessed and posted by the national platform administrator (yet to be determined). The following figure shows the events calendar for Cyprus in French.

User guides

Finally, two additional guides have been developed in order to provide information and instructions on the different tasks that can be performed by each user role. A User Guide dedicated to migrant users and service providers and an Admin Guide dedicated to the users that will administer the platform.

Links

https://www.miict.eu

Keywords

ICT platform, job finder, matchmaking, dashboard