System approach to close the employment gap and create a more inclusive labor market for vulnerable groups

Project Information

SYNCLUSIVE

Grant agreement ID: 101094526

DOI

10.3030/101094526

EC signature date 11 December 2022

Start date 1 March 2023

End date 28 February 2027

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 998 752,50

EU contribution

€ 2 998 752,50

Coordinated by

NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SYNCLUSIVE (System approach to close the employment gap and create a more inclusive labor market for vulnerable groups)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Despite sustained policy efforts, labour market inclusion of vulnerable groups remains a major challenge across Europe. Existing approaches focus on entry into employment, while insufficient attention is paid to internal labour market dynamics that shape mobility, retention and career progression. SYNCLUSIVE builds on the premise that stimulating mobility of current employees creates space and opportunity for the inclusion of vulnerable jobseekers. Addressing labour market inclusion requires an integrated, system-oriented approach that tackles organisational practices, regional labour market structures and social norms. This approach aligns with EU priorities on social inclusion, equal opportunities and fair labour market transitions. The project aims to develop, implement and evaluate an interdisciplinary systems approach to promote the inflow, retention and professional development of vulnerable groups. Drawing on social sciences and humanities research SYNCLUSIVE analyses drivers of inclusion and co-designs context-sensitive interventions. Implementation takes place through Living Labs in Bulgaria, Finland, Netherlands and Portugal, where regional coalitions of employers, social partners, public authorities and civil society implement integrated intervention packages to enhance labor market mobility and inclusion. Indicators are developed to assess impact across diverse regional and cultural contexts. In the short term, SYNCLUSIVE designs and implements interventions for labor market inclusion in the Living Labs. In the longer term, it supports upscaling and policy uptake through engagement with stakeholders in Ireland, Estonia and Italy, and through policy briefs, scientific dissemination and EU-level transition pathways.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP1: Completed in period 1
WP2: Living Labs are established in Bulgaria, Finland, Netherlands and Portugal. In each Living Lab action plans were co-created and implemented involving research partners, municipalities, regional employers, and other key actors. This was supported by regional coalition meetings and activation events promoting the SYNCLUSIVE approach and showcase project achievements. In parallel, realist evaluation interviews and quantitative evaluation activities were carried out. Realist evaluation training in Nov 2023 was followed up in 2024/2025 to better understand the ENGINE mechanisms.
WP3: Rounds of reflection meetings in Ireland, Estonia and Italy were conducted in 2024/2025. Discussions revealed interrelated interventions at organizational and regional levels to be most suitable for promoting inclusion in low-skill, entry-level careers across different countries. Insights from these reflections will inform policy recommendations and scaling strategies at regional, national and EU levels.
WP4: SYNCLUSIVE developed a Monitoring Framework (D4.1) to support impact analyses—assessing the effects of the integrated interventions—and a realist evaluation to understand underlying mechanisms. Measurement instruments were prepared and piloted. Indicators will be identified. Part of these will be generic, others will be specific for different Living Labs and contexts.
For the realist evaluation ‘CMO’s’ are developed based on ‘middle-range theories’ to identify why an intervention works or not, for whom in which context, based on interviews.
WP5. The project website attracted over 14,000 unique visitors, its social media channels are followed by around 1,000 users each, the newsletter has over 500 subscribers. SYNCLUSIVE has been presented at seven scientific conferences, some together with sister projects, and other events to engage diverse audiences. Approved deliverables are openly disseminated. Project partners' own published materials on the project so far are 173 in total, in 7 languages.
Synclusive achieved good media coverage with a total of 127 mentions in 35 media outlets and social media channels.
Synergies were established with sister projects funded under the same call: Care4Care and PATHS2INCLUDE, as well as with other relevant projects.
WP6: The 3rd annual meeting was held in April 25, Sofia. In September, SYNCLUSIVE organised a mid-term symposium entitled “Labour Market Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups” in Brussels (hybrid) with 80 participants, followed by a policy roundtable held back-to-back with the event.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The expected impacts are:
The ENGINE as a mechanism to mobilize the labor market:
(Co)Designing and implementing an integrated intervention package was difficult in three of the four Living Labs. The partners are still working on it. Reasons:
1 employers hesitate to invest in talent development facilitating upward mobility because of fear of losing employees to other companies;
2 There are ample low-skilled vacancies in the current tight labor market, making upward mobility unnecessary;
3 The lack of large regional employers and the reluctance of SME’s 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 steps of the CCAT is taking place in the living labs, but appears to be easier in some (e.g. Amersfoort) than others (e.g. Bulgaria).
- 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 environments result in reducing discrimination and inequalities:
This is aimed for and will be evaluated in WP2.
- (Policy) indicators, standards and evaluation:
Are identified and will be further developed

project-structure.jpg

logo.jpg

policy-roundtable-brussels.jpg

synclusive-team.jpg