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This paper examines the effectiveness of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in improving labour market outcomes, especially of low-skilled individuals. The empirical analysis consists of an aggregate impact approach based on a pooled cross country and time-series database for 31 advanced countries during the period 1985-2010. A novelty of the paper is that it includes aspects of the delivery system to see how the performance of ALMPs is affected by different implementation characteristics. Among the notable results, the paper finds that ALMPs matter at the aggregate level, both, in terms of reducing unemployment, but also in terms of increasing employment and participation. Interestingly, start-up incentives are more effective in reducing unemployment than other ALMPs. The positive effects seem to be particularly beneficial for the low-skilled. In terms of implementation, the paper finds that the most favourable aspect is the allocation of resources to programme administration. Finally, a disruption of policy continuity is associated with negative effects for all labour market variables analysed.

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The Skills Gateway for Adults incorporated a single access point for individuals seeking skills support in Wales. It was intended to identify the needs of an individual and provide advice and guidance on how to access the appropriate support to meet those needs. The evaluation aimed to establish the effectiveness and efficiency of the Skills Gateway for Adults in facilitating access to employment and skills support for individuals; and identify lessons learned to support the development and improvement of the service. Key findings include: (1) the Skills Gateway for Adults is generally a well-managed and delivered service that is meeting or exceeding its output targets; (2) the evaluation showed that Skills Gateway for Adults has been successful in building a strong degree of support from delivery staff and a strong sense of engagement and self-efficacy from clients in identifying improvements themselves from the engagement; and (3) there was inconsistency in approaches to tracking and follow-up. It is acknowledged by the evaluation team that post-engagement tracking is the hardest element of the service to deliver consistently by its very nature since clients may fall out of contact or not return calls, etc.

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This policy analysis identifies specific structural and cyclical causes of youth unemployment and underemployment in the US, and examines four policy alternatives with potential to address these causes and improve outcomes: (1) hiring credits; (2) career academies; (3) apprenticeships; and (4) college co-op programs. These alternatives are assessed relative to current policy using seven criteria, including improvement in earnings, employment effect, ability to address sources of the problem, cost-effectiveness, political feasibility, target population, and timeline of effectiveness.

All four alternatives were projected to have positive employment outcomes. Hiring credits were most effective at creating jobs in the short term, but had no long-term effects. In contrast, the other three alternatives had significant increases in earnings in the long-term, but mixed findings on reducing the level of unemployment. Each of these alternatives focuses on different segments of the population and therefore this paper recommends a holistic approach that implements all four alternatives at the national level to address short and long term issues for each segment of the population.

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This paper discusses the capability of vocational education in creating jobs to reduce unemployment among the Nigerian youths, which will result in sustainable economic development of Nigeria. It also defines vocational education within the provisions of the National Policy on Education. The philosophy of vocational education is also defined. In African states, including Nigeria, [not much emphasis is] given to vocational education, which is a major instrument for the nation's rapid and sustainable development with proper planning and implementation. Vocational education is capable of creating millions of jobs for Nigerian youths. This will lead to sustainable economic development for Nigeria in particular and the African continent in general.

The capability of vocational education for job creation is not doubted but constrained by several challenges among which are poor funding, lack of training personnel and facilities. In order to overcome these challenges, it is recommended that vocational experts, government officials and the business world work together for the purpose of job creation, poverty alleviation and sustainable economic development.

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Given that countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region face many labor market challenges - notably high unemployment, prevalence of skills mismatches, low labor market mobility, and lack of formal employment networks - employment services could be a relevant policy instrument to help unemployed individuals find jobs. Despite high and increasing unemployment rates, employers in the region have a hard time finding workers whose competencies and skills fit their employment needs.

This book first surveys international best practices for the delivery of employment services and then reviews the provision of those services in a selected group of countries in the MENA region, with a focus on public provision through existing public employment agencies. Findings indicate that public agencies in the region face many challenges to the effective delivery of employment programs, namely insufficient administrative capacity, system fragmentation, lack of governance and accountability, regulation bottlenecks, and flaws in program design.

In order to help unemployed workers obtain the competencies required by available jobs, this study proposes a reform agenda based on the development of strong partnerships among public agencies, public providers, and employers for the design and implementation of flexible employment programs that respond to real employment needs. These partnerships will need to be developed with strong governance mechanisms that make beneficiaries, private providers, and firms accountable for making sure that investments in employment programs lead to employment insertion.

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The chapters are as follows: Overview / Diego F. Angel-Urdinola and Rene Leon-Solano; Public employment agencies in the Middle East and North Africa region / Diego F. Angel-Urdinola, Arvo Kuddo, and Amina Semlali; Public employment programs in Egypt / Amina Semlali and Diego F. Angel-Urdinola; Public employment programs in Jordan / May Wazzan and Diane Zovighian; Public employment programs in Lebanon / May Wazzan and Diane Zovighian; Public employment programs in Morocco / Saad Belghazi; Public employment programs in Syria / May Wazzan and Diane Zovighian; Public employment programs in Tunisia / Diego F. Angel-Urdinola, Anne Hilger, and Rene Leon-Solano; Public employment programs in the Republic of Yemen / Diane Zovighian. Show less

Creating economic opportunities for Arab youth has long been a leading policy priority in a region facing economic and political challenges. In recent years, international organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations, and social entrepreneurs have responded to this challenge with a wide range of approaches, including interventions focused on skills development, career guidance, job search support, entrepreneurship promotion and various types of active labor market programs. However, there remains little evidence across the region as to whether such programs have had a positive impact on the economic lives of young people or how to expand successful programs and implement them at the scale needed to resolve the economic challenges facing the region's youth.

In response to this lack of evidence, the ILO joined with partners, including Silatech, the World Bank, the Jacobs Foundation and the Swedish International Development Foundation in 2009 to establish the Taqeem Initiative. Taqeem supports youth employment policy-makers and practitioners in the Arab world in enhancing the monitoring and evaluation of their programs. This collection of case studies documents the evolution of monitoring and evaluation systems in seven youth serving organizations. The volume seeks to contribute to the knowledge and learning around 'what works' in youth employment and how organizations can contribute to this knowledge base and to provide important insight on how the knowledge base can be expanded by strengthening learning and accountability across organizations and programs, large and small.

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'Investing in America's workforce' is a Federal Reserve System initiative in collaboration with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, the Ray Marshall Center of the Lyndon B. Johnson School at the University of Texas, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. How can well-structured and effective workforce programs and policies result in better economic outcomes for individuals, businesses, and communities? This book is part of a three-volume series that explores contemporary research, resources, and solutions on workforce development policy and practice. The three volumes are: 'Investing in workers', 'Investing in work', and 'Investing in systems for employment opportunity'. Within each volume are discrete sections made up of chapters that identify specific workforce development programs and policies that provide positive returns to society, to employers, and to job seekers. The policies and practices presented in the book are intended to spur innovative thinking that results in context-specific solutions. The perspectives are not intended as an endorsement from the Federal Reserve System or its partnering institutions. Volume two and volume three are available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 135.163 and TD/TNC 135.164 respectively. An earlier report was published in 2017 and is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 135.161.

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The contributions to this volume investigate how job seekers, particularly workers facing challenges in the labour market, are viewed as assets that can drive innovation and build employers' competitiveness. The contents are as follows: Foreword: The evolving U.S. labor market / Patrick T. Harker; Introduction: Investing in America's workforce / Stuart Andreason, Todd Greene, Heath Prince, and Carl E. Van Horn. Part one, 'Building employer investment in workforce development', contains the following chapters: Leveraging evidence-based and practical strategies to reduce skills gaps / Anand Marri and Jennifer Schramm (pages 11-15); Turning the skills gap into opportunity for collaboration: case studies from New York and Puerto Rico / Anand Marri and Edison Reyes (pages 17-32); Bridging the talent gap through data insights and community action / Bridgett Strickler, Dan Ash, Hadass Sheffer, and Zachary Zimmerman (pages 33-50); Apprenticeship benefits and costs: a roadmap to measurement / Jessica Nicholson, Ryan Noonan, Susan Helper, and David Langdon (pages 51-66); Engaging manufacturers to promote skills development / Katherine McClelland (pages 67-80); Power skills for jobs of the future / Jeanne C. Meister (pages 81-91); Leadership development for a twenty-first century workplace / Henry G. 'Hank' Jackson (pages 93-99).

Part two, 'Investing in undervalued human capital', contains the following chapters: Programs to increase the supply of skilled workers / Alexander Ruder (pages 103-106); Adult learners: activating prior knowledge and acquiring new skills / E. Wilson Finch (pages 107-123); The challenges facing veteran workers / R. Jason Faberman and Thomas Haasl (pages 125-137); Narrowing gaps through educational investments for American Indians and Alaska Natives / Patrice H. Kunesh and Richard M. Todd (pages 139-155); The middle-skills gap: community-based solutions to meet employer demands / Maurice A. Jones (pages 157-169); Manufacturing Connect: teaching advanced manufacturing skills to inner-city students / Rick Mattoon and Susan Longworth (pages 171-186). Part three, 'Investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities', contains: The critical role of Historically black colleges and universities in workforce development / Todd Greene and Ashley Bozarth (pages 189-193); HBCUs as pipelines for diversified intellect, creativity, and innovation / Ronald A. Johnson (pages 195-203); Assessing infrastructural health: optimizing return on investment in HBCUs / John Silvanus Wilson (pages 205-218); Promoting the health of communities for long-term benefits / Valerie Montgomery Rice and David Hefner (pages 219-230).

Part four, 'Investing in workers with different abilities', contains the following chapters: Creating economic opportunity through work and support / Kathy Krepcio (pages 233-237); Empowering workers with disabilities: a Philadelphia story / John Colborn, Stephanie Koch, and Laura Welder (pages 239-252); Philanthropy: building best practices in disability inclusion / James Emmett, Meg O'Connell, and Judith M. Smith (pages 253-266); Reducing job loss among workers with new health problems / Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Jennifer Christian, and David Stapleton (pages 267-288). Part five, 'Investing in workers of the future', contains: The workforce development pipeline from cradle to career / Rob Grunewald (pages 291-296); Early childhood investments: paving the way for the future workforce / Rob Grunewald (pages 297-314); Workforce policies and programs to end child poverty in Puerto Rico / Barbara Rivera-Batista, Amanda Rivera-Flores, Eduardo Carrera Morales, and Javier Silva (pages 315-328); Reintegrating the formerly incarcerated into the workforce / Emily Engel (pages 329-341). Show less

In the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis, large shares of working-age individuals in Italy either did not work or only to a limited extent. As the employment rate bottomed out in 2013, 32 per cent were without employment during the entire year, and a further 7 per cent had weak labour market attachment, working only a fraction of the year, or on restricted working hours. This paper applies a novel method for measuring and visualising employment barriers of individuals with no or weak labour market attachment, using household micro-data. It first develops indicators to quantify employment obstacles under three broad headings: (i) work-related capabilities; (ii) incentives; and (iii) employment opportunities. It then uses these indicators in conjunction with a statistical clustering approach to identify unobserved ('latent') groups of individuals facing similar combinations of barriers.

The resulting typology of labour market difficulties provides insights on the most pressing policy priorities in supporting different groups into employment. A detailed policy discussion illustrates how the empirical results can inform people-centred assessments of existing labour market integration measures and of key challenges across different policy areas and institutions. The most common employment obstacles in Italy were limited work experience, low education and skill levels, and scarce job opportunities. Although financial disincentives, health limitations and care responsibilities were less widespread overall, they remained important barriers for some groups. A striking finding is that more than half of jobless or low-intensity workers face three or more simultaneous barriers, highlighting the limits of narrow policy approaches that focus on subsets of these employment obstacles in isolation.

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The Treaty of Lisbon (European Commission 2007b) brought a new dimension to cohesion, the territorial dimension, which has become one of the most frequently discussed aspects for achieving cohesion and, at the same time, one of the challenges for European Union (EU) policies. The 'territorial dimension' determines many socioeconomic problems and presents challenges for the European Social Fund (ESF), which has to enhance its flexibility and highlight the capacity and needs of specific territories at national, regional and local levels at the programming and implementation stages. While our understanding of the national and regional levels has advanced, the dynamics with the local level need further consideration, chiefly in the context of Europe 2020 strategy, and regarding the territorial dimension of the European Social Fund and mechanisms of territorialisation. This paper was prepared for the high level conference on 'Territorial dimension of the European Social Fund', 29-30 September 2011, to be held in Warsaw, Poland within the framework of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council. The paper discusses the conference themes and clarifies the conceptualisation of territoriality and the different levels of applicability in regional development approaches. The paper draws on OECD and other organisations research and analysis; particularly the work of the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED). The paper argues that the local level is emerging as the key spatial dimension where EU development instruments apply and therefore a systemic local approach may be needed when designing national and regional cohesion policies and instruments. The aim of this paper is to present some good practices of territorial approach at the regional and local level and show how these mechanisms could possibly improve the implementation of the ESF. The paper is divided into five sections discussing: (1) the importance of an integrated spatial approach to development; (2) the success of the local approach to development: complexity, integration and the policy mix; (3) integrating territorial mechanisms for job creation, employability and inclusive growth; (4) fostering education policies for qualification and skills rich ecosystems; and (5) the way forward.

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The possibility to have foreign qualifications recognised now exists almost everywhere in the OECD although in many member countries the process can be a long one and off-putting in its lack of transparency. Recent policy development in the field of qualification recognition has therefore focused on speeding up the process, streamlining the recognition system and raising awareness of recognition procedures. Nevertheless, a range of barriers to existing recognition mechanisms remain, explaining why still only relatively few immigrants use assessment offers. This publication identifies these barriers and presents 10 main policy lessons about effective tools with supporting examples of good practice. It also provides a comprehensive comparison of the policy frameworks that govern policy strategies for the assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications in OECD countries. Information about the different policy frameworks was gathered through a questionnaire sent to all the countries.

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