WORKING PACKAGE 1
Policies & PES NEETs’ tracking effectiveness in rural areas
Coordination: ISCTE (Portugal); Co-coordination: South-West University (Bulgaria) and AYEC (Estonia); Heidelberg University (Germany).
Specific goal: To have delivered a (trans)national baseline for policies that influence PES tracking of rural NEETs aged 25-29 years old, by Month 28.
Theoretically, with this WP we examine the risks/opportunities for rural NEETs’ PES tracking at the macrosystem (leading policies) described by the bioecological model.
This WP addresses Challenge 1, the mismatch between broadband policy packages aims, on-the-ground PES deliverance quality, and rural NEETs’ needs. Recent findings pinpoint that policy implementation struggles to reach vertical coordination (meaning coherence between international, national, and regional levels) and horizontal coordination (meaning the appropriate inter-sectoral synchronization in overlapping issues) in PES tracking deliverance (Shore and Tosun 2019). In rural regions, political aspirations are often mismatched from (1) (in)tangible resources made available to PES (infrastructures, greater management autonomy); (2) NEETs’ profile (low skills, longer unemployment spells, and disengagement) and (3) barriers to employability (e.g. gender gaps, ethnic inequalities) (Simões and Rio 2020). These discrepancies are greater in Southern and Southeastern countries, where rural NEETs’ rates are higher, women and ethnic minority groups struggle more to find jobs, and the school-to-work transition is complicated by sub-protective welfare regimes (Schoon and Heckhausen 2019).
Methodologically, this WP includes Study 1, a transnational comparative assessment of policies affecting NEETs’ PES tracking in rural areas in all beneficiary countries, to be executed in 3 steps: (1) Data collection: triangulation between a systematic review of reports from international organizations (e.g. Eurofound, ILO, OECD), academic literature on the topic of public employment policies for NEETs and (inter)national legislative packages issued in the past 10 years associated with PES deliverance; (2) Policy analysis protocol development and implementation covering: stages of analysis, policy indicators definition, comparison methodologies, etc.; and (3) Data analysis: covering quantitative, qualitative and secondary analyses.
Learning results will uphold two of our selected outcomes, increased knowledge of the effects of employment initiatives targeting rural NEETs and increased use of impact studies among policymakers, by (1) identifying factors that contribute to mismatches between broadband policy packages and their on-the-ground operationalization in rural areas; and (2) supporting evidence-based policies, based on within and across-countries similarities and discrepancies in policy-making affecting PES delivery to rural NEETs. Our results will be streamed to one peer-reviewed paper and one policy-brief, duly disseminated through national parliament hearings.
Activities
1. WP team monitoring meetings implemented (M1 to M15)
2. WP study protocol & guide delivered (M1)
3. WP study protocol implemented (M2 to M14)
4. Two short-term, transnational scientific missions for Early Career Researchers implemented (M6 and M12)
5. Peer-reviewed paper nº 1 submitted (M17)
6. Policy-brief delivered (M17)
MORE INFO ABOUT WORKING PACKAGES:
WP1: Policies & PES NEETs’ tracking effectiveness in rural areas
WP2: Rural PES tracking programs mapping and validation
WP3: NEETs’ Tracking Support Types Impact on Rural Areas
WP4: Collaboration & Training WP
WP5: Communication WP