Establishment of a monitoring system for NEET persons
About this good practice
The selected practice is an ESF project carried out in 2018 with the purpose of establishing a system of detection and monitoring of NEETs aged 15-29 with the aim of their reintegration into the education system or the labour market. Within the project, the data exchange between CES, Ministry of Science and Education (CARNET and SRCE system) and the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute has been established. This was the first attempt in using data from different sources with a dual goal: to identify and document NEETs and to activate and integrate them into the labour market. Through analysis of the obtained data, a system was developed to help identify persons who completed secondary or higher education, but failed to continue their education or obtain a job. However, due to data limitations which were identified during the project such as having access to data from only one point in time as well as having access to a limited data set, the system of monitoring young people was not fully developed; rather, the system of mapping people aged 15-29.
In 2018, the first analysis of obtained data was made with an attempt to identify the entry of young people into NEET status. In 2021 an overview of the situation of young people aged 15-29 on the Croatian labour market was produced based on the established data exchange. Despite the challenges that emerged during the project, recommendations were made to improve on future data collection and analysis to fulfill its initial goals.
Resources needed
The project budget equaled 85785 EUR, which was a direct ESF grant to the Ministry of Labor, within Priority Axis 1. Project was implemented by the project team of institutional experts. The specific amount of human resources is not specified since the project was conducted by the in-house staff.
Evidence of success
The practice has met its objective: implementation of inter-institutional data exchange which enabled NEETs mapping. The project was a baseline for developing nationwide mapping of all inactive people. To do that, an Act on suppression of undeclared work is in force which foresees to build the inactive people register. For that purpose databases of several stakeholders need to be mapped. The test mapping should begin in 2024 with the goal to design appropriate measures to activate the inactive.
Potential for learning or transfer
Although it has not yet been transferred to other countries or regions, we believe the practice has the potential to provide some insight on data collection and analysis. Also, it can serve as an example of cooperation between different government bodies to other regions which can be applied much broader than only on this particular target group.
The practice would need to be adapted to individual countries or regions considering organizational structure, the size of the target population, available data etc. However, the main principles and activities could be transferred, such as methodology used in the establishment of the data exchange system and the analysis of the data itself. Also, since our data has already been analysed and recommendations made, our experience can be used as a guidance to better future studies of this type. For example, gathered data could be broadened to enable a larger set of individual data on each participant.
Further information
Good practice owner
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