Mutual Learning Programme

Transcription

1 Mutual Learning Programme DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Key policy messages from the High Level Learning Exchange on Designing and implementing effective strategies to support the integration and retention in the labour market of youth at risk Sweden (Stockholm), February 2016 Written by ICF International March 2016

2 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Unit A1 European Commission, B-1049 Brussels Contact: Emilio Castrillejo Web site:

3 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Mutual Learning Programme DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Key policy messages from the High Level Learning Exchange on Designing and implementing effective strategies to support the integration and retention in the labour market of youth at risk Sweden (Stockholm), February 2016 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion High Level Learning Exchange on Designing and implementing effective strategies to support the integration and retention in the labour market of youth at risk, Stockholm, February 2016

4 Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number (*): (*) The information given is free, as are most calls (though some operators, phone boxes or hotels may charge you). LEGAL NOTICE The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission This document has received financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation "EaSI" ( ). For further information please consult: European Union, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

5 Table of Contents Introduction Identified key challenges Reaching out to and engaging young people Key success factors Conclusions and next steps... 8

6 Introduction This paper summarises the key messages from the High Level Learning Exchange under the Mutual Learning Programme of the European Commission which took place in Stockholm, February The event explored the policies that countries use to reach out to and engage youth at risk and which strategies and approaches have proven most effective in activating this target group. The purpose of the meeting was to share experiences and effective practices from each country and build on earlier lessons concerning young people who have difficulty establishing themselves in the labour market. The ministerial event hosted by the Swedish Ministry for Employment brought together five European ministers responsible for labour market issues from Estonia, Denmark, Portugal and Hamburg (Germany) 1 as well as representatives from the European Commission and independent experts. This was the first ever high-level ministerial meeting in the history of the MLP. It provided a supportive environment for an open discussion amongst peers in an informal setting. The discussion opened with an overview of recent trends in youth unemployment, followed by conclusions emerging from the implementation of the Youth Guarantee and the Commission s plans for the upcoming year. Ministers reflected on the key challenges and concerns regarding young people in their countries, particularly the most at-risk groups. These common challenges were the focus of the discussions at the event. Further discussions revolved around the key features of successful outreach practices (i.e. channels, methods and ways of motivating and engaging young people) and the cooperation between stakeholders involved in reaching out and providing support to young people. The impact of different approaches for different groups of young people was also debated. This report is structured as follows: Section 1 summarises the key challenges that countries are facing in relation to youth; Section 2 explores the ways of reaching out to and engaging young people; Section 3 focuses on success factors in activating young people; Section 4 presents the main conclusions from the High Level Learning Exchange and next steps. 1 Jørn Neergard Larsen, Minister for Employment Denmark, Jevgeni Ossinovski, Minister of Health and Labour Estonia, Melanie Leonhard, State Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Family and Integration Hamburg Germany, José António Vieira da Silva, Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security Portugal, and Ylva Johansson, Minister for Employment Sweden. March,

7 1 Identified key challenges Despite different economic and labour market situations, the participating countries face similar challenges in relation to youth. Unemployment is no longer the only problem affecting young people. Many job opportunities available to young people are unstable and involve non-standard forms of employment. While some young people might accept to be employed under flexible working arrangements, others are left out and forced into them. Precarious work and the over-representation of women in this type of employment have deeper societal consequences. Young people are forced to postpone decisions to live independently and start family, which leads to lower fertility rates. Following Estonia s membership of the EU, many young Estonians have decided to look for better life opportunities in other European countries, leading to shortages of skills in the home country. Difficult labour market situations in the destination countries might force some of the low-skilled emigrants to come back. However, the jobs of highlyqualified emigrants are more secure. Therefore it is unlikely they will come back to the country of origin, representing a loss of educational investment. The shrinking labour pool puts pressure on employers to increase salaries. On the other hand, this situation reduces companies productivity as people have no incentive to upskill because they know job offers will be available to them regardless. High levels of unemployment, job insecurity and low wages have also led to a brain drain in countries that for years had positive net migration rate, like Portugal. Also there appears to be no incentives to continue in education as inability to find employment by better educated youth decreased its value. The countries with better labour market situations also identified skills mismatch as a challenge, with many countries requiring skilled blue collar workers or having workers not well-matched with their current jobs or the demands of the labour market. Identified skills mismatches and the lack of motivation among employees and employers to upskill made ministers reflect on schemes encouraging to lifelong learning both among the unemployed and, preventatively, the employed. In conclusion, policy efforts should focus in particular on small companies where low participation in training is problematic and affects productivity. The ministers agreed that older groups of young people (25-30 year old) also have particular problems entering the labour market but are currently outside the scope of programmes. Overall NEETs (young people not in education, employment or training) are a highly heterogeneous group with different degrees and types of vulnerability. Low-skilled young people, those with disabilities, with special health or psychological issues or from a migrant background face specific and often multiple barriers to re-engaging or staying in education and training and/or accessing the labour market. They are at a higher risk of inactivity and long-term unemployment, job insecurity, low pay and limited social protection rights as well as discouragement to continue education. March,

8 2 Reaching out to and engaging young people The profile of the NEET population in a country or local community determines the outreach and engagement strategies used. Countries that have early warning systems in place have found that good results can be achieved when the system is accompanied by clear and timely support for young people identified as being at risk of leaving school early. In such systems, low school attendance beyond two weeks triggers a procedure that involves personal contact (home visit, letter, call) with a student at risk of dropping out. Also engaging parents/families is an important element of reaching out to young people. Among other effective preventive measures aimed at reducing early school leaving and/or disengagement from education are: early diagnostic measures to identify youths at risk of dropping out, the provision of alternative teaching formats and learning environments, and flexible modularised curricula with a more work-related focus. The same direct contact approach might not work for a person who has already dropped out of school. In their case, there is a need to develop second chance education that will entice young who left the system with a bad impression or experience of it. Other types of support aiming to reduce the likelihood of early school leaving include financial incentives for schools (to narrow the gap in achievement between students), young people themselves (to encourage school attendance) or their parents (to ensure their children s school attendance) 2. In some countries minimum income schemes are not popular among the general public and the conditionality for the whole family based on children s school attendance makes them more socially acceptable. The conditionality of social security works especially well for certain groups (for instance, Roma communities). Schools also have a key role in reducing social inequalities. Research shows that early childhood education improves the life chances of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and contribute to successful transitions. For many countries, identifying NEETs remains a challenge as they are often not registered with the Public Employment Services (PES) and are unknown to social services and youth services. Some countries try to reach out to young people while they are still at school by sharing information about institutions to which they can turn to after school, e.g. German students already learn about PES at the age of 13. Other countries are obliged to gather relevant information to identify who they are, where they are and what their needs are. The value of tracking services to contact young people before and after they drop out of school and/or become unemployed was highlighted during the meeting. Depending on the national and regional context, this role is fulfilled by different stakeholders such as schools (or education authorities), PES (including specialised services), and/or different types of youth agencies and other forms of youth-oriented social work at the local level (see Box 1). Especially in big cities, the bridging of administrative data could be used to identify people at risk of social exclusion. Also social media prove to be successful in reaching out to young people (see Box 2). Box 1: Peer to peer outreach in Unga In The Swedish PES, Arbetsförmedlingen, ran an ESF project called Unga In in five Swedish towns/cities, including Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. Outreach was carried out by young people who themselves were selected from the target group. Young people representing Unga In ( marketers ) attended concerts, sports events and visited schools. In addition, social media and other communication tools were used for 2 Hadjivassiliou, K. P. (2016) What works for the labour market integration of youth at risk, The Mutual Learning Program Thematic Paper. March,

9 reaching NEETs. Strategic positioning of flyers and posters in the underground and radio advertisements in selected programmes for young people were effective and generated good results. The activities in the project included individual counselling and guidance through multi-competent teams from different agencies. Building on the good experience with Unga In, UngKOMP started in spring 2015, as a project aimed at scaling up the concept of Unga in. At the moment there is 12 UngKOMP -units and the aim is to increase it to 15. Source: The Mutual Learning Programme, Summary Sheet Sweden Box 2: Youth Guarantee: Information Campaign and dissemination of webbased Platform In the context of the Youth Guarantee implementation, aiming in particular at the outreach of non-registered young people, a nationwide outreach campaign took place from April to September 2015 in Portugal. Besides traditional media, the campaign strategy mainly focused on using various digital media resources (such as digital flyers, dissemination of success stories through videos, YouTube and ing etc., music festivals and other youth events, posters, roll-ups). As a result, the Youth Guarantee Platform registered over website visits during this period and the number of enrolments through this tool more than doubled. This campaign was part of a pilot project supported by and jointly prepared with the European Commission, taking place also in Romania, Latvia and Finland. Source: The Mutual Learning Programme, Summary Sheet Portugal. Working in partnership with all organisations that have a say in the lives of young people is a necessity in order to address complex needs and maximise resources. Strong and formalised co-operation and information/data sharing between all stakeholders is critical to ensure that young people are not lost in the system. Recently, Sweden introduced an initiative based on establishing formalise agreements with local communities aiming to increase cooperation and information sharing in relation to young people at local level. This initiative is based on the concept of combining the efforts of authorities that are closest to the young NEETs and can develop tailor made approaches at local level (see Box 2). Box 2: Agreements with local municipalities In Sweden the state authorities are responsible for labour market measures, but the municipalities also have a so-called information responsibility. According to the Swedish Education Act, this means the municipalities should at all times make sure they know about young people under 20 who are not working or studying, and they should be able to provide measures. In January 2015 the act changed and the duty to stay informed was replaced with a responsibility to be active a change which means the municipalities must follow up those young people who do not attend secondary school and have not completed their secondary education. Furthermore, head teachers of secondary schools must notify and report to the municipality the pupils who are frequently absent from school without valid reasons. The supportive measures offered should primarily aim to help the young person to resume training and return to education. The municipalities also keep a record of the young people participating in the measures and document their efforts accordingly. The National Agency for Education (Skolverket) is commissioned to support the municipalities in carrying out their follow-up responsibilities. The national authority will also develop a model for the national level to raise awareness about this good practice. Furthermore, the State School Inspection (Statens Skolinspektion) is mandated to examine how the municipalities fulfil their follow-up responsibilities. Source: EEPO thematic review on implementation of the Youth Guarantee Country report. March,

10 A focal point to facilitate the contact with NEETs can be one-stop-shop centres offering integrated, multi-agency services to young people. Created in Germany, these centres target all young people regardless of their background to avoid any stigmatisation (see Box 3). But for other countries the setting up of one-stop-shops might be challenging due to different administrative settings and traditions. Box 3: One-stop shops providing employment services to young unemployed (Jugendberufsagentur) Youth Employment Agencies (YEA) provide a combination of career and job counselling, youth welfare services, training and school education helpdesk services to young people under the age of 25. The YEA services are available at their seven centres across Hamburg. An important part of the YEA is the provision of guidance and information in schools on various professions. Starting from the 8th grade, young people complete an obligatory internship and learn about different apprenticeships in Germany. The YEA use data directly from the educational system allowing them to target a high number of young people aged (and also young people up to the age of 25 if they sign a privacy statement. In the case of Hamburg s YEA, all registered students were contacted. The YEA also makes contact with young people after their graduation to offer further support services. Source: The Mutual Learning Programme, Summary Sheet Germany (Hamburg). Box 4: Navigator centres in Sweden Navigator centres have been in operation since 2004 and seek to help NEETs aged and/or the hardest to reach young people reintegrate into education/training or employment by providing them with a one-stop shop integrated services. Crucially, these centres are designed as hubs which bring together municipalities, the non-profit sector, social and labour market authorities and employers. They assign a case worker to each young person and provide holistic support so as to address deep-rooted personal, social, family, health and other problems. Source: The Mutual Learning Programme, Case study on Outreach (2015) and Eurofound, Effectiveness of policy measures to increase the employment participation of young people (2012) For many countries, building trust with young people is an issue that might help with getting them through the door. Peer-to-peer support, word of mouth recommendations and engaging with youth organisations are considered an important part of the process of building trust with young people. Box 5: Active youth employment (Emprego Jovem Ativo) This initiative, launched in July 2014, promotes the socio-professional integration in the labour market of low-skilled and disadvantaged young people. Young people who have not completed compulsory education work in two or three teams for six months under the supervision of a young person with a high level of education. The programme promotes peer learning and the development of professional, social and emotional skills, such as the ability to meet deadlines, collaborate with others and work autonomously. Participation in the programme also aims to incentivise young people to return to formal education and training or to the labour market. Outcomes from the programme are currently being assessed. Source: OECD Skills Strategy (2015), Diagnostic Report Portugal. March,

11 3 Key success factors Among different elements that contribute to successful transitions for young people (see Box 4), prevention and early intervention were considered as the most important. Box 5: Key success factors Policies designed with enough flexibility to cater for the different needs of specific sub-groups of NEETs, or targeted at particular sub-groups; Proactive outreach work, incl. through active involvement of NGOs and/or youth organisations and e-outreach; Systems for diagnosing vulnerable young people s specific needs; Early, integrated and person-centred interventions to address complex needs; Effective case management combined with individualised action planning together with personalised mentoring, help and support as well as follow-up well after the end of the intervention; Sufficient PES capacity and resources to properly service youths at risk who require much more intensive and personalised attention; Programmes integrating and combining services to offer a comprehensive approach tailored to young people s individual needs in school to work transition; Involvement of all relevant stakeholders, incl. youth organisations; Partnership/multi-agency working and co-ordination for an integrated service to youth at risk, especially at local level. Source: Hadjivassiliou K.P., What works for the labour market integration of youth at risk, The Mutual Learning Programme. Schools should foster creativity and adaptation to change, required in the labour market, by developing problem solving, non-routine thinking, self-confidence and interpersonal skills. Therefore there is a need to challenge the learning and teaching methods to meet the needs of the labour market and improve the performance of schools. This could be done for example, through changes in the way resources are allocated. Participants also discussed the social consequences of gender imbalances among teachers and their effect on higher early school leaving rates among boys. In relation to identified shortages of skilled manual workers, more needs to be done to improve the attractiveness of Vocational Education and Training (VET) by challenging common perceptions as well as facilitating pathways between VET and higher education. Better cooperation between education authorities and the world of work remains a challenge. Meanwhile effective approaches to improve employability of young people are those combining guidance, training and work experience components in a real work environment. Due to the prevalence of SMEs and of certain business models in some countries, the introduction of dual-education on a wide scale is not possible. Many companies do not have the capacity to train and potentially employ students later. Also companies are reluctant to offer apprenticeship/traineeship places to year olds who need more supervision and often lack time management skills. Different measures are used to involve employers in the school system: coaches from companies teach students how to write a CV and to present themselves at a job interview; prior to an apprenticeship/traineeship, students get basic skills training to increase the level of apprenticeship/traineeship completion; March,

12 financial incentives and conditionality are used to secure the engagement of employers; social partners are involved in motivating employees. Box 6: Building Bridge to Education The programme aims to prepare young unemployed people to begin and complete a vocational education programme by upgrading their skills and qualifications and by motivating them back into education. The programme caters for young people under 30 years of age receiving education benefits, and who are expected to be able to begin and complete a conventional educational programme within a year. The programme is delivered by the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment, and consists of 12 projects at vocational schools across the country (44 Partner schools and 52 employment centres). Funding is provided to each educational institution. Each young person is provided with a mentor to support them through their time and to provide them with some follow up support. It offers a mix of education and enterprise internships and teaching methods are practically-focused. The length of the initiative differs depending on the needs of the young person. Satisfaction surveys show that 80% of young people think that the initiative has helped them to move towards completing an educational programme and 85% of participants feel that the mentor is important to help them to address their challenges. The 2015 evaluation shows that 25 weeks after the start of a bridging course, the proportion of young people in education is 20 percentage points higher for those who participated in the course than for those who did not (control group). The effects are positive for all groups of young men and women, regardless of their previous education and contact with the social security system. The Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment together with the Danish Ministry for Children, Education and Gender Equality are planning various initiatives to expand the Building Bridge initiative to educational measures in more municipalities. Source: Rosholm, M; Svarer, M (2015): Kvantitativ evaluering af Brobygning til uddannelse ( After: EEPO Country Reports (2016), Implementation of the 2013 Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee. Mutual Learning Programme Madsen, P. K. (2015) Peer Country Comments Paper Need for Action Targeting NEETs in Denmark. Mutual Learning Programme Database of Labour Market Practices, forthcoming. Lifelong learning has a key role in supporting work-to-work transitions particularly for those who need it the most (the low-skilled, the unemployed or those in less secure jobs). Establishing a system that guarantees sufficient funding for (non-workplace specific) training throughout a person s career is a challenge. Participants shared in particular their country s experiences with personal account schemes. In practice, this scheme might not reach the intended target groups especially young people employed in non-standard contracts and they might be unable to secure enough funds on their account to retrain and change career when required. March,

13 4 Conclusions and next steps The key messages from the High Level Learning Exchange can be summarised as follows: Identified challenges NEETs are a highly heterogeneous group with different degrees and types of vulnerability. The older groups of young people (25-30 year old) also have problems entering the labour market but are currently outside the scope of programmes. High levels of unemployment, job insecurity and low wages have deeper socioeconomic consequences e.g. lower fertility rate, higher migration. Despite different economic situations, Member States face skills mismatches, in particular among skilled blue collar workers. Outreach Clear and timely support for young people identified as being at risk of leaving school early is important. Strong and formalised co-operation and information/data sharing between all stakeholders is critical to ensure that young people are not lost in the system. Peer-to-peer support, word of mouth, social media and engaging with youth organisations are considered an important part of the process of building trust with young people. Supporting smooth school to work transitions School plays an important role in providing students with the skills required to engage in further learning and accessing the labour market. Education should foster creativity and adaptation to change according to future labour demands. Schools also have a role in reducing social inequalities. Early childhood education improves the life chances of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. More needs to be done to improve the attractiveness of VET by challenging common perceptions as well as facilitating pathways between VET and higher education. Better cooperation between education authorities and the world of work remains a challenge. Supporting work to work transitions Lifelong learning has a key role in supporting work-to-work transitions. For successful work-to-work transitions, consideration should be given to the importance of retraining measures. Social partners play a role in motivating employees to upskill/return to education. Activation of NEETs Prevention and early intervention in all transitional stages are key in successfully supporting young people. Working in partnership with all youth organisations is a necessity in order to address complex needs and maximise resources. Effective approaches combine guidance, training and work experience components in a real work environment. March,

14 Financial incentives and conditionality could be used creatively to secure the engagement of employers and employees to upskill (e.g. personal accounts). Further information Presentations and background papers are available at: vents=yes March,