More information
Description
How effectively are young people supported on the labour market? Project Youth Employment PartnerSHIP aims to answer this question by evaluating employment initiatives targeting youth in Spain, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. The project aims to evaluate two set of initiatives:
- outreach activities of Public Employment Services (PES) and
- job trials/job subsidies to different job contracts offered to youth.
The issue of youth unemployment is relevant in all participating countries, although the specific conditions differ. The results of our evaluation studies show that whereas in Italy and Spain the main problem is that young people are often able to secure only temporary employment, in Hungary and Poland, youth from vulnerable backgrounds are often unable to enter the labour market altogether All evaluations studies are carried out using individual-level administrative data (unemployment registers, social security records, etc.), which are available in most European countries. As a part of the project, we published a methodological guide – a practical toolkit for researchers - which focuses in particular on the challenges and the problems that arise when using administrative data in policy evaluations. The evaluation studies will be complemented with RCT (Randomized Control Trials) experiments in Hungary, Poland and Spain. They will assess which interventions have the potential to boost outreach to inactive, unregistered youth. In addition, the project will build capacity in research institutions to implement evaluation studies of employment initiatives by creating a transnational research network on youth employment policies, internships for PhD students and workshops on evaluation methods for researchers from other institutions. It will also promote the use of impact studies among policy-makers. As a result, youth employment policies can become more effective.
Summary of project results
Evaluation of public policies is of crucial importance as it allows us to understand what works, why, and improve existing policies. The best results may be achieved when researchers combine reliable methodology with good-quality data. Within our project, we managed to do that in four EU countries which struggle with relatively high unemployment among young people. In all countries taking part in the project, with help of experts from the best academic institutions in the field, we evaluated the effectiveness of various policies (such as training, wage subsidies, public works etc.) targeted at young unemployed people, especially from the NEET group (not in employment, education or training). We prepared almost 20 reports with results, some of which were published in academic journals. Main messages were wrapped up in policy briefs that were distributed among policymakers and other stakeholders. We also prepared the methodological guide which is available publicly and can be used by researchers and policymakers interested in carrying out similar studies. Results were distributed at the scientific and policymaking conferences and workshops at the country and European levels. We also transferred the knowledge by organizing internships for students interested in evaluation studies. The project will have long-lasting impact as the results will be publicly available years after the project, we created a network of experts who will continue work on similar issues within other projects in the future. We also see that our target groups already express interest in continuing our work (e.g. in Poland we started cooperation with one local government which was interested in carrying out similar studies at the local level).
Summary of bilateral results
Donor project partners shared their experiences with researchers from the consortium. They were commenting and giving suggestions to the project reports, they took part in the final conference as speakers. What is more one academic paper which was prepared within the project is co-authored by a researcher from the donor project partner. Their presence increased the quality of project output and allowed us to reach a wider audience.