Developing the right tools for reintegrating the vulnerable: Norway’s ‘Qualification Programme’
Newsletter 2009-4
Publication date : 2010-01-19
Although
Norway
has very high labour market participation rates (approximately 80%), one
quarter of the working-age population receives health-related and disability
pensions and 3.7% receive social assistance benefits, of which 22% are on
long-term benefits. It
is people in this latter group, in particular, that the Qualification Programme
targets, as they are often the ones that struggle most to get a job and to
return to the labour market. Established
as part of the country’s major welfare system reform (‘NAV-reform’), the
programme offers these long-term unemployed the opportunity to participate in a
year-long programme of activities that will gradually prepare them to
(re-)enter the labour market or training programmes. Participants receive a
regular weekly income, as well as benefits such as child support, in exchange for
attending. The
Programme begins with an evaluation of potential participants through a Workability
Assessment test that ascertains their potential for finding work and the type
of support and coaching they need to break out of their situation. Based on this,
participants are provided with an ‘activity programme’, which has an initial focus
on basic life and working skills to help them to regain the necessary
selfconfidence and well-being to be able to operate in the working world. In
the later stages of the Programme, participants receive more targeted
labourmarket training to improve their employability and are assigned a
work-experience placement with a local employer, who receives a 50% wage
subsidy for each placement offered. A
central aspect of the Programme is the close followup of participants by
consultants in the local ‘NAV’ offices. These offices are one of the key
outcomes of Norway’s
welfare system reform, which aimed to merge nationally and locally-run social,
welfare and labour services, so as to provide ‘one-stop-shops’ for all users and
stop them being passed around from one administration to another to receive benefits
or services. The
individual follow-up of participants is highly labour- intensive, making the Programme
expensive, but this was also judged to be a crucial factor in the Programme’s success.
What’s more, given the long-term savings that can be generated by helping
people off benefits and into the labour market, where they will make social
contributions, it was considered cost-effective. Although
the Programme is too fresh to be assessed in full, it boasts high participation
and low drop-out rates, and initial figures as regards placement rates appear
favourable. During
the Peer Review that was hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social
Inclusion in Oslo
on 29 and 30 October 2009, a wide-ranging discussion took place that touched upon
different aspects of the Qualification Programme such as staffing issues, the role
of the diagnostic (workability) test (how to reach the target group), working
with employers and how to measure success. Peer reviewers welcomed the fact that
specific evaluation studies had been launched so that in time a systematic assessment
of the results of the programme should become available.
During the Norwegian Peer Review, government
representatives and experts from Austria,
Cyprus,
Ireland, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as experts from
the European Anti-Poverty Network and the European Commission set out to the
NAV office in Grorud, Oslo,
to get a feel of how the programme works in practice.
The Grorud office was opened in October 2008
and services a population of 26,000 people, of which 39% are immigrants. The
area’s unemployment rate of 5.2% is above the national average of 3.7%, and a
relatively high proportion of the population receive social benefits and
disability pensions. Against this backdrop, the Qualification Programme could
prove particularly useful, namely via the opportunity it offers to participants
to take Norwegian language classes.
The NAV office has 90 employees, among which
13 consultants are dedicated to the Qualification Programme. The target for
2009 is to attract 150 participants to the Programme, which would represent just
under a quarter of the area’s unemployed. At the time of the Peer Review, 80
people were participating in the Programme.
Of the 13 members of staff, eight work
directly with participants, steering them through a detailed programme of
modules that will help their return to the job market. One staff member
concentrates on participants with a drug addiction, while the remaining ones
concentrate on outreach, developing contacts with employers and helping
participants who are applying for work placements.
The staff at Grorud described the importance
of the first stage of the QuP, which helps participants manage their immediate
problems, such as debts or housing, as these can be so overwhelming that they
prevent them from focusing on getting a job and having a ‘regular life’.
Among their main challenges, the staff cited
that of balancing quality with quantity. Nevertheless, the very low drop-out
and absenteeism rates highlight the Programme’s success, particularly in a borough
like Grorud with all its problems.
