Policy instruments

The instrument is set to address needs of the employer through an internship, where the job seeker gets the skills required by the employer. The internship duration is between 4 and 26 weeks for people under 25 (over 25s and lower educated adults can intern for up to 52 weeks). There is a trial period of 2 to 8 weeks. After the formation-insertion contract, the employer has to offer a working contract to the intern with a length equal to the previous one. The rationale is to give job seekers professional experience and the opportunity to get hired in a company, while the Walloon employers get the best matching intern in terms of competence required by the vacancy. The programme targets, although not exclusively, young job seekers and long term unemployed.

The programme ‘Career start’ addresses the gap between education and employment. It facilitates the transition between education and employment by providing a possibility to gain work experience.

The Programme addresses the difficulties that young secondary school and university graduates face immediately after graduation in their efforts to find jobs that match the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their education. The 'Career Start' programme includes two components. The target group of the first component are university graduates aged up to 29 years without work experience, who are registered at the Labour Offices. They are given the possibility to gain experience in public administration (i.e. national institutions, regional and local administrations) for the period of nine months. The Minister of Labour and Social Policy approves an annual quota for the job placements.

The target group of the second component refers to young people up to 24 years old, who have completed vocational education in the past two years, have no work experience in their occupation and are registered at the Labour Offices. They are provided with an opportunity to gain experience in private companies for the period of six months.

The policy instrument addresses the need for better defining the range of skills and knowledge offered in the system of higher education, through establishing active cooperation mechanisms between higher education institutions and business entities and their associations. Thus, the policy goal of the initiative is to translate the social order for new professionals of the Bulgarian business into the language of education. The intervention contributed to the establishment of a direct link between HEIs on the one hand and employers on the other, including at higher and mid-management level. Key business experts were attracted, together with academics to redefine and update university curricula to better respond to labour market needs. Strategies were elaborated at HEI level for the development of the different degrees of education by professional fields and/or specialties, as a direct response to the needs of the business sector.

To reduce unemployment amongst tertiary-education graduates by helping them find productive and suitable employment through acquiring work experience and specialised additional knowledge suitable to market needs. At the same time help businesses/organisations to improve their productivity and competitiveness by employing highly educated young graduates. The programme focused on the integration of highly qualified young people into the labour market by providing practical on-the-job experience in a company for a maximum period of 12 months.

The instrument addresses the problem of unemployment among young people. The aim of the Schemes is to provide young unemployed persons (below tertiary-education graduates) the opportunity to acquire work experience in order to improve their employability, at the same time, giving the opportunity to enterprises/organisations to use the services of those young persons at no financial cost to them. The scheme gives young graduates of secondary education the opportunity to enter/re-enter the labour market and improve their employability through acquiring training and work experience in companies and organisations.

Support for employment with the aim of stimulating employment of unemployed people in unfavourable position at workplaces, available to all beneficiaries under the same conditions. They are in accordance with national and EU legislation in the field of state support. Support in the form of subventions for salaries, are allocated to entrepreneurs that employ young people without work experiences, and they amount to 50% of the expense of work of that person per year.

Public policy makers as well as social partners (associations of private employers) in the Czech Republic have been facing the problem of skill mismatch between the supply of skills of graduates from formal education and the demand for new/specialised skills continually generated in the labour market. It was decided to set up a platform for systematic cooperation between the two sides. Sector Councils are employer-led and publicly partly co-funded, and supervise expert groups, whose task is to monitor skill shortages and consult corresponding policy measures (Vocational Qualifications, National System of Professions etc). The activities of Sector Councils help to narrow the gap between requirements of employers (in terms of qualifications and competencies of employees) and the supply of workforce (both current and future), through identification of future needs and recommendations for improvement.

The policy goal of the instrument is to raise the number of skilled workers and to influence the decision of young people to choose vocational trainings where more skilled workers are needed. The scheme provides subsidies to businesses who agree to sign an internship agreement with a student from one of the favourable educations. It is especially designed to meet future skill needs, as the employer federations, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, will decide which educational programs are eligible for the scheme. In addition, it provides guidance to the students or employees who wish to take a vocational education program, with good opportunities for internships and job opportunities in the future.

The policy instrument comprehensively addresses the issue of better matching the needs of the labour market with the provided education and training. The policy goal is to improve and tighten the linkages between the world of learning and the quantitative and qualitative needs and expectations of the labour market. The rationale for the intervention is the creation and implementation of a systematic process to engage all relevant stakeholders, so that they can provide input into skills anticipation and give recommendations to upgrade competency standards, provide relevant training and courses, also retraining possibilities. The general aim of OSKA is to teach and learn about the right skills relevant in the society. The OSKA system creates a cooperation platform, which enables the exchange of information between employers and training providers and educational institutions to comprehensively analyse the growth potential of different economic sectors and their needs, and to facilitate the planning of education provision at different levels of education and by types of school, as well as in the fields of retraining and in-service training.

To develop career guidance in the national system of education seeking to cope with the current and future skills mismatch. The general goal of the policy instrument was to provide easily accessible and high quality career guidance services and to guarantee that the development of the career guidance system in Estonia is systematic and sustainable.
The policy goal was related to lifelong learning and the development of human resources, specifically the goal was increased participation in lifelong learning according to the possibilities and needs of the population. The development of the Career Guidance System in Estonia contributes to the reduction of the future skills shortages through the following tasks: development of the national system of career guidance in the system of education; development of career education in general and vocational schools; development of the provision of career information and career counselling in regional information and counselling centres, including the creation of quality assurance system; development and introduction of ICT applications in guidance and counselling (questionnaires for choosing suitable occupations and the ability to recognise suitable professions etc); and strengthening of cooperation and information exchange within the institutional network in the fields of education, training, guidance, youth work and labour market in Estonia.
As the policy goal was to increase participation in lifelong learning, the instrument contributed to it by methodologically and systematically helping youth in their (career related) decision making process and making career studies and career planning part of their ordinary, everyday education. Furthermore, with the introduction of ICT applications, digital literacy was improved which nowadays is an essential part of lifelong learning. Institutional cooperation in the field of career guidance and counselling was strengthened through the creation of the Cooperation Council (Koostöökogu), which united various ministry representatives, youth organization representatives and employer federations etc. Also, during the programme period, various temporary working groups were assembled to solve relevant issues.

The policy goal is to make it faster and easier to match job seekers to open jobs and increase productivity of employment services. It should also help educational institutions to plan their curriculum better to meet the needs of the labour market. Employment services have the role of matching unemployed people to open vacancies. The rationale is to use digital tools to increase the effectiveness, so that each job seeker gets improved job offers that better match their qualifications. A common problem has been that: unemployed people are frequently sent job offers that don't match their qualifications; and employers complain that reading application from unqualified persons is waste of their time. The Labour Market Square may (it has not yet been decided) have a control function to track if the unemployed are making genuine applications.

The aim is to anticipate the skills needs in the different occupations to design the initial vocational education programmes and vocational training programmes. All the results about future jobs and skills needs are published and disseminated to those responsible for education and training programmes within the whole country.

The aim is to increase the number of jobseekers trained in line with companies and sectors' skills needs. Training for jobseekers is chosen after local diagnosis of companies and sectors needs.

Informing people in the labour market on career choice opportunities. It helps all interested parties (PES employees, journalists, politicians, company representatives, people who want to choose their career) to process information on the local, regional, and national labour market.

The main policy goal is to offer under 18s the possibility to achieve a formal IVET qualification within the regional IVET system through pathways which are: a) shorter than those delivered in State education vocational and technical programmes (5 years long); b) explicitly and tightly linked to the local labour markets needs and structures; c) recognized, in their final qualifications at national level. The main problem the policy instrument addresses is to raise the initial level of knowledge and skills of under 18s who do not chose to enter a 5 years education programme, enabling them to find employment with a qualification or to continue in the upper secondary and/or tertiary education or training system. The instrument contributes to achieving the policy goal through the identification and provision of IVET courses to be offered and delivered throughout the regional territory by accredited training providers and a certain number of upper secondary schools. IVET courses supply is supported, within the programme, by other complementary activities like the development of courses prototypes, the delivery of IVET leaving prevention measures, training for trainers, innovative pilot-projects, training standards' updating.

Facilitating the matching of demand and supply and sharing useful information with education/vocational training and labour market stakeholders and job seekers via an online platform. The system provides qualitative and quantitative information about economic trends, labour market forecasting and professional trends and provides information about the features of the so-called "professional unit" (unità professionali), professional needs, classified into professional units, linked to labour market trends; mid-term professional needs stimulated by new trends in sectoral economies, mid-term economic trends at the national level; economic trends at the local level; and employment forecasts for professional categories, both nationally and locally.

The main goal of the policy is to fulfil specific sectorial needs, by providing training and to create a sub-system of high qualification development at a work place. The rationale for the intervention is strengthening the potential of human resources. The instrument covers the whole country and a wide network of employees and employers.

The policy goal is to modernise and update the technical infrastructure of the initial VET and lifelong learning. It widens the accessibility of practical training by providing workplace-based competences needed in the different sectoral occupations.

The goal of the policy is to ensure relevant and comprehensive information about labour market and education and training possibilities in Lithuania is provided. It is an open online information portal, providing information on qualifications, VET and HE study programmes, as well as about the providers of these programmes to the different target groups. The target group includes pupils and young people seeking to obtain the information about occupations and qualifications, students, employers, education and training providers.

The goal is to reduce the incidence and duration of youth unemployment. By subsidizing the initial year of work, necessary work experience can be gained by the young worker.

The project aimed to address challenges in reaching the 2020 energy policy targets through the development of a roadmap to upgrade relevant skills for the building industry in Malta. The implementation of the Build Up Skills Malta project has helped to identify the national status quo when it comes to the construction industry, in order to upgrade the training and certification of the workforce in the same sector.

The policy instrument aims to solve the issue of graduates from tertiary level education (WO and HBO degrees in the Netherlands) not being able to find work due to lack of work experience. Often employers do not have the financial capacity or desire to take on an employee with no practical work experience. The instrument aims to enable graduates to acquire work experience through subsidized internships at enterprises, thus making them more attractive in the labour market. Without practical working experience, labour market information shows that graduates leaving tertiary education do not have the relevant skills and practical work experience that enterprises are looking for. Therefore, hiring a fresh graduate represents a risk for enterprises, as they must invest time and money to train a graduate to work in their enterprise. The rationale of the instrument is that by subsiding the training of graduates, it is more attractive for enterprises to hire them. Moreover, graduates gain work experience, making them more attractive on the labour market as a whole. Furthermore, having trained at an enterprise, a graduate has higher chances of being hired there. Overall, the main purpose is to help graduates find work more easily.

The policy goal is to bring together demand of employers and the supply of skills of potential employees. The measure was introduced in 2009 and continued as an important programme in 2013. The aim was to help soften the impacts of the European crisis on youth unemployment. The rationale behind this particular programme is that in times of economic difficulty, it can be more advantageous for an individual to keep studying and learning. As such, the School Ex Programme helps guide the graduates (or leavers) of secondary VET to the next level of study which suits the graduate, for which there is also demand in the labour market. In cases where a graduate wants to work, a suitable job is found via the PES.

The measure aims ultimately to help better prepare students from various vocational educational levels and backgrounds for the labour market. Enterprises and employers in turn gain better educated employees. The subsidy allows enterprises and employers to offer work-based learning places within their organisation to better train students. The rationale is that there are groups of students in vocational education programmes and research students that require practical work experience to complete their educational programmes or to gain practical working experience. The measure seeks to ensure that enough good quality work-based positions are available by encouraging and supporting enterprises and employers to set up such work-based training positions. In this way, students are ensured good positions where they learn the skills they need for their immediate education and their future jobs as well.

Supplying young people with information about the present situation and trends in the regional and global labour market, to help them in making educational and professional decisions; supplying vocational counsellors, teachers, parents with the same range of information to make them able to help young people in their decisions; and monitoring the labour market for education authorities. Support for decision making for pupils, young graduates, career counsellors, parents, regional authorities, and school authorities is provided by popularizing analyses of regional labour market.

Comprehensive support for vocational education in the Małopolska region, aimed at improving its quality. The Strategy prepared by Małopolska Voivodesip (Malopolska Voivodship is a regional government unit/regional public authority) is aimed at comprehensive support for the vocational education system in the region, with the use of instruments available in the Human Capital OP and in the Regional Operational Programme. The emphasis is especially put on co-operation between schools and enterprises, as well as organising internships.

The policy goal is to gradually reduce the number of unemployed graduates from public universities and polytechnic institutes by limiting the number of vacancies in the public higher education institutes, taking in consideration the level of unemployment of graduates in the calculation of the number of new places to be opened. It is an instrument regulating vacancies to be opened by calculating formulae of employability of graduates. There is a set of formulae that must be applied by each public university and polytechnic institute every year to determine if they can increase or must decrease the number of vacancies for each of the bachelors and integrated master courses they intend to open.

The improvement of qualifications and skills of unemployed young people (18-30 years), as well as of unemployed people who are in a situation of particular vulnerability, in order to promote their employability. The professional internships aim at smoothing transitions to labour market. Their major intention is providing a first work experience to young unemployed who lack practical skills and knowledge of the work environment. After the big economic crisis, they were extended to cover the transition to the labour market of long term unemployed who need to reconnect with work experience, as well as other groups that are victims of different kinds of prejudice or difficulties of access to labour market due to their social background.

The vocational courses have three main goals: contribute to the development of personal and professional skills in order to pursuit a profession; develop training offers related with the local and regional work needs; and enable the students to continue to post-secondary education or higher education. They provide a double certification (secondary and professional) giving an EQF level 4. The vocational courses are courses of the secondary level of education (double certification), characterized by a strong connection with the professional world. Taking into account the personal profile of the students, the learning carried out enhances the development of competences for a profession, in cooperation with the local business sector.

Identification of future skills shortages and needs/demands, labour market trends, which is useful for the design and assessment of active labour market policies. This instrument uses a more sophisticated methodology (dynamic general equilibrium) and implies a macro-economic forecasting tool to indicate all macro-economic aggregates in an autonomous process. It was recently designed by INCSMPS and Fondazione G. Brodolini Italy in an ESF-financed project. Two models of the project has been merged to enable the National Labour Research Institute to anticipate future skills needs, so as to enable decision-makers to use it for tailoring and targeting LM interventions.

The policy focuses on matching the supply of higher educated graduates with the demand of the employers, the adaptation of curricula and strengthen the link between higher education supply and the changing demands of the real economy. The instrument has been designed to assist the decision making at national level and thus reduce the gap between the supply of higher educated graduates and the demand coming from the labour market. It has been used to forecast trends by occupation and thus inform the national decision making process, as well as at the university level, with respect to the trends of the labour market and help adjust the structure of the university studies, adjust curricula and education plans and ultimately assist in creating a better match between education and the needs of the enterprises.

Identification of future skills shortages and needs/demands. This project focused on the identification of the potential demand for VET, based on quantitative approach, having been inspired by the Pan-European model to forecast the supply and demand for skills, referring to levels of occupations and terms of development of regions and their relation to VET demand.

The aim is to respond to a growing need of updated information from employers, social partners and other stakeholders of the labour market, in order to improve access to labour market information, to deal with mismatches, as well as to enhance the capabilities of the National Agency for Employment to provide and elaborate labour market analyses and forecasts.

The policy goal is to better adjust the IVET system to labour market needs, in order to supply occupations in demand to the labour market and to prevent unemployment of IVET graduates. The intervention aims to better align supply and demand in the labour market. The instrument contributes to this by changing funding incentives for selected fields of study in IVET, to steer regulatory decisions of regional territorial units, which are founders of IVET schools in Slovakia.

The instrument aims to address skill mismatch in the economy. The project implements statistical models as tools for systematic monitoring of labour market needs, developments in skills mismatch, and skills supply/demand ratios at regional level, as well as with respect to graduates.

The instrument addresses the skills mismatch in the economy and aims at linking employers' demands for skills with labour supply (via education and training). This instrument is the third (final) phase and continuation of previous projects National Register of Occupations I and II. After defining occupational standards that reflect employers needs for skills, and linking them to education and training (first and second phase), this instrument was finalised by the creation of the information portal with job classifications.

The policy instrument was designed to help graduates’ transition from education to work. Counselling in career planning and career guidance provide better match of students‘ knowledge and skills to labour needs, thus contributing to better quality of study and easier labour market integration. The instrument promotes further activity and development of career guidance, especially career counselling for students in higher education, with the aim of achieving timely career planning and development. This will ensure:
- better employability of graduates and their more efficient labour market entry.
- better alignment of acquired knowledge with labour market needs.
- elimination of discrepancies between the study programs and labour market demand.
- reduction of dropout and shortening the length of studies.

eVŠ was developed for the purposes of:
- determining students’ eligibility to study and other rights chargeable to public funds.
- HE policy planning and the monitoring of the HE system.
- the monitoring of a network of HE institutions and study programmes.
- the monitoring of the employability of higher education graduates, which will enable appropriate professional and career counselling and will provide the basis for forecasting the needs for higher education staff in the labour market.
- public information.
- for research, analytical and statistical purposes, i.e. for the implementation of statistical, social and economic and other research activities in the area of HE. eVŠ addresses the fundamental need for the monitoring of students' employability, related to the question of transition from education system to labour market, and the problem of poor competencies - work match. eVŠ also addresses the general public policy trend of increased transparency, accountability and evidence-based decision-making, the growing international competitiveness of HEIs and the ever-increasing need for collecting and processing data.

The instrument addresses the problem of skills mismatch in the labour market. The policy goal is that the training delivered within a ALMP framework is correctly matched with labour market demands. Thus, the final goal is to improve workers' employability and competitiveness in the economy. The rationale is to carry out qualitative research about selected occupations in order to identify skill shortages and the main changes in skill demands (due to technological change, changes in regulation, etc.). This information should be taken into account for the design of training provision, within ALMP. Training provision within ALMP is structured through training courses for unemployed and professional certificates (VET managed by the PES).

The rationale is to carry out qualitative research about selected occupations, in order to identify the skill shortages and the main changes in the skill demands. This information is taken into account in the design of new VET diplomas and in the update of the contents of the already existing VET diplomas. Thus, VET provision should match better labour market demands, improving the employability of VET graduates and the capacity of companies to access adequate skilled workers. The final goal of the instrument is a correct matching between education and labour market demands. This is seen as necessary to reduce unemployment and to have a skilled workforce that enables economic growth.

To improve the national co-ordination of skills supply and to strengthen local and regional cooperation between public institutions and agencies in charge of skills supply. Set up platforms for cooperation in skill supply and short and long-term educational planning in each region.

The goal is to enable detailed, grounded and complex analysis on skills match on the labour market. The extensive work that lies behind the Matching map is made in an attempt to develop the method for measuring skills match, taking it beyond direct comparisons between the classification of educations and the classification of occupations.

Assessing the skills match through directly comparing an individual’s educational level or field with his/hers occupational level/field, risk (at least in Sweden) to lead to misleading conclusions. One common reason for this is that many occupations in practice allow or require a different educational level than the stated, for example through changes in the educational system or in the employers demand. Another reason is that many occupations, such as analyst or private instructor, cannot be deduced to one single field of education.

The objective with the Matching map is therefore to provide policy makers, employers, labour market analysts etc. with better statistics on skills match, in relation to a wide range of policy areas.

The policy goal is to develop a training system that is fully focused on customers, businesses and employees, aligning skills potential with growth investment. By changing the way funding flows through the system, and to place responsibility and reward for investment more squarely with employers for employer-facing programmes, such as Apprenticeships. The Employer Ownership of Skills pilot is a competitive fund open to employers to invest in their current and future workforce in England. Government will invest in projects in which employers are also prepared to commit their own funds, in order to make better use of our combined resources.