Studies show that there is an urgent need for qualified personnel in Europe: As shown, for ex. in the 2 cited studies ‘How mobile is tech talent?’ by Centre for European Policy Studies, 2016 and McKinsey study, 2012 called World at Work the need for young talented people entering the labour market is very high. This study reached conclusion: employers in Europe and N. America will require 16 to 18 million more college-educated workers in 2020 than are going to be available. McKinsey consulting coined the term ‘War for Talent’ to describe this phenomenon. In many EU countries, this is a particular problem for SMEs looking to hire and keep personnel, as SMEs cannot compete with corporations when it comes to salaries and other incentives. SMEs may not be able to fill 1 in 10 roles they need, much less fill them with top talent.At the same time, Europe experiences unprecedented high levels of migration, many of whom are well qualified. In Eurostat report ‘Migrant integration’ from 2017 the result was concluded concerning migrants in Europe: the EU-born population recorded the highest share of graduates (36.7 %). This proportion was 4 pp higher than for the native-born population and 5 pp higher than for non-EU-born population. These statistics reflect potential benefits of migration of EU Citizens where more extensive recruitment of young people with migrant backgrounds or young refugees could help SMEs in finding appropriate employees. Especially that motivation to gain access to the labour market among them remains exceptionally high: e.g. 93,3% of the population in Germany with a migrant background retain that a fix workplace is an important factor for integration in the accepting country.In contrast with these facts however, 7 out of 10 (71%) of DE companies with trainee programmes don’t employ trainees with migration background. This figure is higher for SMEs with less than 50 employees. Those over 50 show higher rates of willingness to employ trainees with migrant backgr. but still 46%. (SVR-FB_Diskriminierung-am-Ausbildungsmarkt, p. 31). This situation indicates a strong tendency by SME towards risk avoidance: The risk is that financial consequences for SME of the trainee breaking off the apprenticeship ahead of time. Research indicates that due to the nature and size, SME give trainees and new employees more responsible tasks relatively early. This requires the trainee to fit in the company’s structure easily and smoothly (SVR-FB, p. 30). In order to avoid these potential negative consequences, decision-makers in SMEs are guided by the unconscious human preference for people like themselves based on the unconscious psychological assumption ‘people who are like each other, like each other’, which seems generally true and in so doing demonstrate an unconscious bias to trainees and employees who are from their own culture. Consequently, for the sake of financial security and social integration in the staff, when it comes to choosing the right trainees and employees, these unconscious decisions, however, lead to the exclusion of many talents only because of the cultural background.Existence of unconscious bias is the fact, there is a need to recognise it and to cope with it. The project’s main aim is to develop competences of SMEs managers and recruitment staff in understanding, recognising, reflecting on and managing the unconscious bias and validating those competences in order to enable SMEs to recruit suitable personnel. The main objective will be achieved through developing the vocational education tool - CUB@work system.Target groups:- Management and recruitment staff of SME- VET trainers and public officials responsible for VET policyIt is expected that the impact of the project will be significant at all levels. Local, regional and national levels will be impacted by the dissemination activities performed by partners in their regions and countries. The project is likely to have a sustainable impact within and beyond its lifetime, especially on the target group, management and recruitment staff of SMEs. The participation in the project activities will increase their vocational skills needed in the recruitment and in the workplace. They will become not only aware of unconscious bias but also will know how to recognise it and how to manage it. In effect small and medium-sized companies will be better able to recruit suitable coworkers, also from the migrant population. It is expected that over 1000 people will participate directly in the project activities and over 20 000 will learn about its results via different digital channels. The project will also have impact on all those institutions and organizations that operate in the field of VET education. As unconscious bias is becoming more and more important due to high immigration recently, the CUB@work system should be found useful by many actors across Europe.