Introduction

glolab has honored to received the feedback from Mr. Ichiro Watado, Honorary professor of Meisei University (Former Chairman of Immigration Policy Society, and Former Executive Director of Japan Society for Urban Sociology)on our issue analysis and the theory of change for the career development support for young people with immigrant background.

The following is the abstract of Mr. Ichiro Watado’s comments. We are honor to receive his feedback and highly appreciate that. We would like to continue to listen to the requests of beneficiaries, the advice of experts, and the voices of stakeholders, and work to build a comprehensive support platform for young people with immigrant background.

Comments on glolab’s issue analysis and the theory of change for the career development support for young people with immigrant background.

１．Identified issue
　This project can be evaluated as it identified various issues which immigrant background adolescents who entered high school in Japan may encounter by grasping and analyzing their needs. (Note: This survey was considerably restricted in terms of time and physicality, however, I think that it has a certain degree of understanding of the needs and issues of the parties concerned and the school). Specifically, a survey of immigrant background adolescents revealed the importance of support for high school admission as well as support after enrollment (especially if a place or role model cannot be found, there is a high possibility of dropping out of high school). On the other hand, surveys on NPO and high school teachers indicate that it is difficult to find out the issues students with immigrant background are facing, and clarified the current situation at school sites where teachers are not able to provide support resources. Therefore, it is basically important for NPO and schools (teachers) to share students’ information, knowledge and collaborate and work together.

２．Identified target persona
This project mainly targets on young people with immigrant background in metropolitan areas centered on Tokyo, but by utilizing the online tool, it also includes young people with immigrant background who are widely scattered in rural areas. It is also effective to provide a place where you can consult online.

３．The theory of change

It is worthy of sufficient evaluation that this project designed is emphasizing the following three approaches.

(1) Foster changes in students’ consciousness through visualization of problems and countermeasures, and support their “self-help” efforts. In this case, based on the student’s “degree of motivation to work on future design” and “degree of concreteness of future image”, career information and support subject learning and career selection is advised.

(2) Solve the problem in cooperation with the teachers who is interested in or concern about it. However, each individual teachers has different capability in working time to interact with students, and it is particularly difficult to provide legal advice. In this case, career and legal advice is provided in cooperation with the school.

(3) Through providing the training and workshops, encourage and resolve changes in the consciousness and behavior of teachers who are not interested in these problems. Based on changes in teachers’ understanding and awareness of problems, and improvements in how they treat students after training, the cooperation with those teachers is strengthened.

As a platform for such support, this project will provide online content distribution, self-diagnosis, and consultation. It is likely that it is necessary to raise awareness of services and accumulate support cases.

４．Business plan
　Under the current education system, the business plan of this project aims to find feasible solutions in collaboration with high schools to find out student’s problems and accumulate solution cases. By proactively disseminating information, providing diagnostic functions such as status of residence, and setting up a consultation desk online as much as possible, it is likely that it will overcome problems that are difficult to support offline and reduce running costs. These are generally reasonable.

However, the biggest issue is that this project is widely recognized and its effectiveness is steadily evaluated by the high school students and teachers and related parties involved, and as a result of the project, more students will be able to make choices on their carrer after graduating from high school. The key to the sustainability of this business plan seems to be the creation of attractive content that can be spread widely and the reliability of the information services provided. (Also, creating an appropriate offline “third-place” where students can come in).