Innovative practices of public employment services for the labour market integration of the long-term unemployed

09/02/2022

In line with the recommendation of the Council of the EU, employment services across Europe consider the (re)integration of disadvantaged jobseekers into the labour market as one of their main tasks. But how do they implement this in the different Member States?

The latest online event in the series of thematic review workshops, organised by the Network of European Public Employment Services, has been implemented (as the previous ones) with the expert support of Márton Csillag, senior researcher at BI, on 28-29 September 2021.

The aim of this workshop was to bring together representants of public employment services from different Member States to discuss the results of innovative practices specifically designed to support the long-term unemployed.

In Slovenia, for example, disadvantaged jobseekers in need first receive professional training and mental health services for around six months with the help of a mentor (provided by their prospective employer), and only after that do they start to work. The Slovenian employment service plans to provide the mental health counselling (currently outsourced) by its own expert colleagues in the future. The aim is to ensure more frequent meetings between employment counsellors and jobseekers, thus improving the latter's chances of finding a job.

Márton Csillag, in his thematic paper commissioned by the Network of European Public Employment Services, also presents a number of other innovative solutions and good practices discussed at the thematic review workshop, and describe the difficulties faced by the employment services in supporting the long-term unemployed as well.

Read on for more details.