One of the Lisbon agenda’s aims is to develop a competitive European workforce through effective training and the development of demand and market driven skills. However, a key barrier to tackling unemployment and promoting employability is the social exclusion of various groups within society from education, skills training and as such from the labour market.

“Employment is one of the major challenges facing Europe and has been the main source of concern for Europeans for far too many years,” says Vladimír Špidla, former European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.

The Centre for Parliamentary Studies organised an international symposium in Brussels on 23 February about Tackling Unemployment in the EU through Social Exclusion and Training Programmes. The symposium was a platform for stakeholders across EU to discuss the latest challenges and share best practices in promoting employment strategies and equality in the labour market.

ESN director John Halloran contributed to the first panel session of the symposium that focused on boosting sustainable employment through effective labour market strategies. He highlighted that unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, leads to social exclusion, thus increasing the risk of hereditary jobless households. “In the long run, it affects not only the individual, but his family, neighbourhood and the whole community,” he said.

Lone parents, people with mental problems, people with disabilities or older workers across Europe risk being at the margins of the labour market. Due to the financial crisis, young people, especially the low skilled, have difficulty entering the market to start with. Local social services have an important role to play to help the activation of these groups.  They do this by improving data sharing to reduce the risk of people disappearing off the radar, by supporting people’s integration into the community alongside the work integration, and by tailoring incentives to individual cases.

Halloran presented a study case of Anna from Southdown in the UK (pictured in the photo) who is living a normal and independent life thanks to partnerships between local services. Anna has a learning disability and, like many others, she could have lived at home with her parents supported by benefits. Instead, thanks to the cooperation of housing and social services, she has been placed in a sheltered flat with on-site care. Further cooperation with the employment services and Anna was also helped to find a part-time job. “She now lives and works like every other young adult in her community, enjoying an independent life and contributing to the community,” Halloran explains. Download full ESN presentation.

The second panel sessions of the symposium discussed reducing unemployment through social creativity, cohesion and innovation, while the third session addressed the development of training systems in the EU that would help the move towards knowledge and skills based employment. Michele Calandrino from the European Commission, described the contribution of ‘active inclusion’ to a broader understanding of the need for more effective social activation policies in Members States, while professor Ides Nicaise from the University of Leuven described an important outcome evaluation of different models of employment and social activation in Flanders, Belgium and the Netherlands.
 

More about the symposium HERE.