Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SYNCLUSIVE (System approach to close the employment gap and create a more inclusive labor market for vulnerable groups)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-02-29
Promoting labour market inclusion of vulnerable groups is not only about inclusion of vulnerable groups who are still outside the labour market. The vision of SYNCLUSIVE is that stimulating labour market mobility of current employees in organisations creates traction for inclusion of vulnerable job seekers in the regional labor market. To create labor market mobility and at the same time mitigate discrimination an innovative system-oriented approach is required.
SYNCLUSIVE aims to develop, implement and evaluate an integral and interdisciplinary systems approach to promote inflow, retention and further professional development of vulnerable groups in the labour market.
Start March 2023 with Kick Off in Leiden. In March 2024 the 2nd annual meeting was in Helsinki.
A website was developed where all deliverables and Newsletters can be found as well as other dissemination material in English as well in the national languages. Several social media activities were developed. In its first year a literature review was performed, interviews at EU-level were held as well as with national and regional stakeholders in the four countries where Living Labs were developed. In addition, regional coalitions were developed and action plans were co-created in each Living Lab with the research partners, municipality, regional employers and other coalition members. To homogenize the monitoring process over the Living Labs, a monitoring framework was developed to accommodate both impact analyses to assess the impact of the integrated intervention plans in each Living Lab as well as the realist evaluation to better understand the mechanisms underlying the impact and assess what works, for whom in which context and measurement instruments were prepared for piloting. Preliminary meetings were held with the reflecting partners to prepare their first meeting with their stakeholders. The short term impact of the project will be on -building of the regional coalition in the Living Labs in the four countries which participate in Synclusive and -the design and implementation of the ENGINE’s integrated intervention package in the Living Labs. The latter were decided upon by the regional coalition members. Later in the project, the impacts found in each of the Living Labs, as well as the reflections of the stakeholders in 3 reflecting countries will be used to formulate policy recommendations and the recommendations on upscaling in the broader region, in the countries as well as at EU level.
SYNCLUSIVE aims to develop, implement and evaluate an integral and interdisciplinary systems approach to promote inflow, retention and further professional development of vulnerable groups in the labour market.
Start March 2023 with Kick Off in Leiden. In March 2024 the 2nd annual meeting was in Helsinki.
A website was developed where all deliverables and Newsletters can be found as well as other dissemination material in English as well in the national languages. Several social media activities were developed. In its first year a literature review was performed, interviews at EU-level were held as well as with national and regional stakeholders in the four countries where Living Labs were developed. In addition, regional coalitions were developed and action plans were co-created in each Living Lab with the research partners, municipality, regional employers and other coalition members. To homogenize the monitoring process over the Living Labs, a monitoring framework was developed to accommodate both impact analyses to assess the impact of the integrated intervention plans in each Living Lab as well as the realist evaluation to better understand the mechanisms underlying the impact and assess what works, for whom in which context and measurement instruments were prepared for piloting. Preliminary meetings were held with the reflecting partners to prepare their first meeting with their stakeholders. The short term impact of the project will be on -building of the regional coalition in the Living Labs in the four countries which participate in Synclusive and -the design and implementation of the ENGINE’s integrated intervention package in the Living Labs. The latter were decided upon by the regional coalition members. Later in the project, the impacts found in each of the Living Labs, as well as the reflections of the stakeholders in 3 reflecting countries will be used to formulate policy recommendations and the recommendations on upscaling in the broader region, in the countries as well as at EU level.
Activities RP1
WP1: A state-of-the-art report has been produced including a literature review, EU-level interviews, description of Living Labs regions and of interviews with national and regional stakeholders; municipality, employers, policy makers, employer and employee representatives, social security organisations, training institutes and other relevant regional civil society organisations (D1.1). Next, the regional coalition is being built and the implementation of the ENGINE, i.e. the integrated intervention package, is identified and published as the Action Plans (D2.1). The ENGINE is based on drivers and barriers as well as solutions identified by regional stakeholders for both the inflow of vulnerable job seekers as well as mobility and talent development of vulnerable employees within organisations participating in the regional coalition.
WP2: No activities in the first year. A realist evaluation training took place in Nov 2023 in order to better understand the ENGINE mechanisms.
WP3: Some preparatory activities done.
WP4: A Monitoring Framework is developed (D4.1). This living document will be updated including the concrete questionnaires for vulnerable employees and job seekers. For the quantitative impact assessment, indicators have been identified. Part of these are generic to all Living Labs. These will relate to mobility. Also Lab specific indicators will be developed as skills acquisition will be different in the different Living Labs.
For the realist evaluation ‘CMO’s’ will be developed (Context-Mechanisms-Outcome configurations) based on the ‘middle-range theories’ to identify why an intervention works or not, for whom in which context, based on interviews. These may be further develop when new interventions will be introduced and monitored as new ENGINE’s will be developed or adopted.
WP5. The Plan for Communication, Exploitation and Dissemination of Results was developed and delivered (D5.1). The Synclusive website has been developed (D5.2). It has 4,766 visits and 28,508 publication engagements. The project social media channels were launched in M5 (Twitter/LinkedIn/YouTube). Newsletter, 490 subscribers designed - 2 issues in this first year.
Project partners' own publications about the project so far are 100 in total, in 7 languages.
The project achieved good coverage in the media with a total of 127 Synclusive project mentions in 47 media outlets and social media channels. Among those are the newsletter of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), "Towards 100,000 jobs" - a portal that supports employers in creating jobs for people with disabilities, and others.
Video recordings have been made and made available on the website.
Synergies were established with other sister projects funded under the same call: Care4Care and PATHS2INCLUDE.
WP6: Two deliverables were produced: D6.1/D6.2. General pm activities have been ongoing throughout the year including day-to-day project management, financial and administrative management including the communication with the EC officers.
WP1: A state-of-the-art report has been produced including a literature review, EU-level interviews, description of Living Labs regions and of interviews with national and regional stakeholders; municipality, employers, policy makers, employer and employee representatives, social security organisations, training institutes and other relevant regional civil society organisations (D1.1). Next, the regional coalition is being built and the implementation of the ENGINE, i.e. the integrated intervention package, is identified and published as the Action Plans (D2.1). The ENGINE is based on drivers and barriers as well as solutions identified by regional stakeholders for both the inflow of vulnerable job seekers as well as mobility and talent development of vulnerable employees within organisations participating in the regional coalition.
WP2: No activities in the first year. A realist evaluation training took place in Nov 2023 in order to better understand the ENGINE mechanisms.
WP3: Some preparatory activities done.
WP4: A Monitoring Framework is developed (D4.1). This living document will be updated including the concrete questionnaires for vulnerable employees and job seekers. For the quantitative impact assessment, indicators have been identified. Part of these are generic to all Living Labs. These will relate to mobility. Also Lab specific indicators will be developed as skills acquisition will be different in the different Living Labs.
For the realist evaluation ‘CMO’s’ will be developed (Context-Mechanisms-Outcome configurations) based on the ‘middle-range theories’ to identify why an intervention works or not, for whom in which context, based on interviews. These may be further develop when new interventions will be introduced and monitored as new ENGINE’s will be developed or adopted.
WP5. The Plan for Communication, Exploitation and Dissemination of Results was developed and delivered (D5.1). The Synclusive website has been developed (D5.2). It has 4,766 visits and 28,508 publication engagements. The project social media channels were launched in M5 (Twitter/LinkedIn/YouTube). Newsletter, 490 subscribers designed - 2 issues in this first year.
Project partners' own publications about the project so far are 100 in total, in 7 languages.
The project achieved good coverage in the media with a total of 127 Synclusive project mentions in 47 media outlets and social media channels. Among those are the newsletter of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), "Towards 100,000 jobs" - a portal that supports employers in creating jobs for people with disabilities, and others.
Video recordings have been made and made available on the website.
Synergies were established with other sister projects funded under the same call: Care4Care and PATHS2INCLUDE.
WP6: Two deliverables were produced: D6.1/D6.2. General pm activities have been ongoing throughout the year including day-to-day project management, financial and administrative management including the communication with the EC officers.
The expected potential impacts are:
The ENGINE as a mechanism to mobilize the labor market:
Deciding on an integrated package of interventions as the ENGINE and including it in the Action Plans appeared to be difficult in three of the four Living Labs. The partners are still working on it. The reasons are:
1 employers are hesitant to invest in talent development facilitating upward mobility because they fear they might lose employees to other companies;
2 There are often ample low-skilled vacancies available in the current tight labour market, making upward mobility unnecessary;
3 The lack of large employers in the region and the reluctance of small and micro enterprises to invest in both existing employees and vulnerable job seekers pose significant challenges.
- Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT) as support for the ENGINE in creating regional collaboration:
Coalition Building using the steps of the CCAT is effectively taking place in the living labs, but appears to be easier in some (e.g. Amersfoort) than others (e.g. Bulgaria, Amersfoort).
- Peer learning to tackle barriers for learning of vulnerable groups thus addressing stigma, discrimination and inequalities through increasing self-efficacy:
Peer learning is aimed to be integrated when implementing training as described in the action plans.
- Inclusive work environment results in reducing discrimination and inequalities:
This is aimed for and will be evaluated in WP4.
- (Policy) indicators, standards and evaluation:
Are identified and will be further developed
The ENGINE as a mechanism to mobilize the labor market:
Deciding on an integrated package of interventions as the ENGINE and including it in the Action Plans appeared to be difficult in three of the four Living Labs. The partners are still working on it. The reasons are:
1 employers are hesitant to invest in talent development facilitating upward mobility because they fear they might lose employees to other companies;
2 There are often ample low-skilled vacancies available in the current tight labour market, making upward mobility unnecessary;
3 The lack of large employers in the region and the reluctance of small and micro enterprises to invest in both existing employees and vulnerable job seekers pose significant challenges.
- Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT) as support for the ENGINE in creating regional collaboration:
Coalition Building using the steps of the CCAT is effectively taking place in the living labs, but appears to be easier in some (e.g. Amersfoort) than others (e.g. Bulgaria, Amersfoort).
- Peer learning to tackle barriers for learning of vulnerable groups thus addressing stigma, discrimination and inequalities through increasing self-efficacy:
Peer learning is aimed to be integrated when implementing training as described in the action plans.
- Inclusive work environment results in reducing discrimination and inequalities:
This is aimed for and will be evaluated in WP4.
- (Policy) indicators, standards and evaluation:
Are identified and will be further developed