This report discusses employment projects aimed at building the information society. It will be useful for developing projects, programmes and policies to assist the transition of disadvantaged groups into sustainable employment in the information society.
The study explored how targeted interventions could engage with a pathway approach to employment and how they could harness the opportunities and tools of the information society to ensure the inclusion of disadvantaged people in sustainable employment.
The research found that a pathway approach to interventions is a model of good practice for the information society. A pathway approach means that the full set of specific barriers to employment experienced by different groups is recognised and a series of linked interventions and supports is put in place to address the various needs and to enable the person make the transition from marginalisation to employment.
The study is rooted in the European Union's strategy defined at the Lisbon European Council in 2000: long-term economic growth, full employment, social cohesion, and sustainable development in the knowledge-based society.
The fusion of employment policy with information society policy, and the reinforced commitment to combating social exclusion within both, presents challenges and opportunities for individual Member States and for the European Union overall.
Marginalised groups are also marginalised within the information society, and this is a concern in the context of the Lisbon strategy. Inclusion in the knowledge society, and in employment, is crucial if all of Europe's resources are to be harnessed for social and economic growth.
For this reason, the European Commission and Member States have acknowledged that targeted interventions are necessary to encourage a more inclusive information society. Member States have been urged to provide women, the unemployed, inactive people and workers at risk of exclusion - including older workers, young people without qualifications, and people with disabilities - with ICT training and other learning that responds to their individual needs and requirements for employment.
A key lesson from the study is that ICT skills training is only one part of a broader set of interventions - a pathway approach - necessary for the transition into sustainable employment.
Author(s):
Susan O'Donnell
Original URL:
http://www.susanodonnell.info/downloads/build_report03.pdf
Language(s) available:
EN
Number of pages (Original version):
82
Nature of documentation: Independent reports and studies