COMPETENCIES FOR LABOUR MARKET Regional Employment Programme in Moravia-Silesia (Czech Republic)

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COMPETENCIES FOR LABOUR MARKET Regional
Employment Programme in Moravia-Silesia (Czech
Republic)
Zdenek Karasek karasek_at_rpic-vip.cz www.rpic-vip.cz
www.rza.cz
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Regional Background

• Moravia-Silesia NUTS II region is located in the
  North-East part of the Czech Republic
• Borders with Poland and Slovakia
• 1.3 mil. inhabitants (12 of the country)
• City of Ostrava the centre (320,000 inhab.)
• Steel industry
• 1989 136,000 employees
• 2005 circa 26,000 employees
• Hard coal industry
• 1989 110,000 employees
• 2005 circa 24,000 employees

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Closures and Communities

• 95 of the national steel industry and hard coal
  industry capacities located in the region
• 14 unemployment rate in the region (8 -
  national average)
• 95,000 unemployed (20 of the CR total)
• More than 65 longer than 6 months
• More than 25 longer than 2 years

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Regional Employment Agency - services for
ex-steel workers

• July 2001 till 2006 programme sponsored through
  Ministry for Regional Development
• Regional Employment Agency (RPIC-ViP)
• gt5,000 clients of employment agencies
• gt 12,000 of individual services
• gt 1,200 clients in requalifications
• gt 500 clients in job-search skills trainings
• gt 1,000 clients in on-line internet job-search
• gt 1,000 clients who found a new job

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EQUAL Initiative 1st Round

• Equal project RESTART - development of new
  methods and tools to support integration of
  ex-steel workers on the labour market
• Duration 10/2002 to 3/2005
• Development partnership 23 partners led by
  RPIC-ViP (Regional Employment Agency)
• EU Partners Scotland, Spain, Germany
• National support on a tripartite basis
  (ministries, trade unions and employers)
• Regional co-operation of employment agencies
  (private) and labour offices (public)

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EQUAL 1 - Lessons learned

• EQUAL Initiative a unique EU programme
  supporting innovative experiments of
  local/regional players for labour market and
  transnational co-operation within EU
• Inspiration from Scotland (a) Future Skills
  Scotland labour market intelligence, (b)
  Support of employability through development of
  key competencies
• EQUAL inspiration - a basis for a new EQUAL
  project Competencies for Labour Market
  regional initiative for labour market

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Rationale of the initiative

• Development of transferable key competencies
  (soft skills) demanded by employers can increase
  opportunities of unemployed, employees and
  students to succeed on the labour market.
• Key competencies, however, do not play an
  important role in the school curricula and in the
  training programmes for adults (unemployed and
  SME employees).
• The existing education system is focused mainly
  on development of general and profession related
  knowledge
• It is a strategic goal to increase employability
  of the existing and potential labour force
  through a systematic development of 14 key
  competencies identified in Competence Model for
  MS Region

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Creation of Development Partnership

• 2003 to 2004 a survey among 864 employers
  sponsored by the MS region helped to identify a
  Competence Model of the MS region (14 key
  competencies)
• 2004 discussion with ministries (national
  level) about the regional employment initiative
  identification of barriers considering
  modifications search for relevant programme to
  co-finance selection of EQUAL Initiative (Round
  2) creation of DP and preparation of the
  project

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Development Partnership

• RPIC-ViP (leading organization)22 partners
• Moravian Silesian Region (Regional Government)
• Czech Power Plants (Large-size employer)
• 6 public Employment Services (Labour Offices)
• University of Ostrava
• Regional Education Centre for Pedagogical Staff
• Regional Chamber of Commerce
• Regional Association of LLL centres (17 members)
• 7 private HRD consulting implementation firms
• 2 NGOs in HRD
• 1 PR agency
• 1 software house

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Expected Outputs of the EQUAL project

• 14 training programmes toolkits 1 for each key
  competency in 3 levels (a) Basic, (b) Medium,
  (c) Advanced (incl. AC/DC tools, manual
  for trainers and users, interactive DVD
  programme, SW tools for AC, Internet
  applications for self-assessment)
• Regional Register of Certified Competency
  Trainers (at least 50 by the end of the project)
• Rating System for Competencies (Users, Trainers,
  Training Institutions)
• Regional Observatory for the Labour Market
• Know-how to be used and disseminated in other
  relevant activities and projects (critical mass
  of impact)

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Expected Major Outputs

• Min. 420 participants of the competence based
  trainings (verification phase)
• Min. 1,000 in the dissemination phase (2008)
• Min. 500 participants of the information seminars
• Min. 20,000 users of internet based applications
• Local/Regional level introduction of competence
  based trainings into education system
  introduction of Regional Labour Market
  Observatory
• National level an opportunity to introduce
  competence based trainings into education of
  adults and students as well
• European level an opportunity to compare and
  use verified tools for growing competitiveness of
  the EU employees through competence based
  trainings

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EQUAL 2 - Lessons learned

• EQUAL Initiative is a very useful programme
  supporting innovation on a local/regional level
• It enables local/regional players to develop and
  implement their employment initiatives in
  partnerships and with a high level of autonomy
• It enables comparison of approaches and
  on-the-job enrichment among EU regions,
  organizations and experts
• It gives a lot of practical results to be
  mainstreamed on a national level and some of them
  on EU level
• It is really hard to understand why this
  programme should not continue in the next period
  2007-13