Success for atWork4NEETs' event in Florence, Italy
129 people took part in the 2-day event organised by Anci Toscana in Florence, Italy, on Nov. 14th and 15th 2023 at MAD Murate Art District to engage local and international stakeholders in a debate on the most suitable policy instruments and schemes to support young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) to access meaningful opportunities.
98 people attended the IN CRESCENDO community meeting (regional stakeholder engagement initiative) on the 1st day. The initiative aimed at sharing innovative programmes, projects and tools that can support young people, particularly those who are in a NEET condition, to acquire skills that can be used to enter the job market.
It brough together 39 different organisations (among which all the atWork4NEETs partners) from the public and private sectors in a peer-to-peer sharing and learning process:
- Municipalities were represented by the national and Tuscan branch of Anci and the cities of Florence with also 2 local InfoPoints (for young people and women), Impruneta, Livorno, Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia, Pontassieve and Sesto Fiorentino;
- The regional and national competent bodies for labour policies and services were represented by ARTI and the Region of Tuscany, the Employment Services of Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia, the Ministry of Labour of Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia and the Ministry of Social Policies of Malta;
- The research and consulting sector included Polish CASE, German ICON INSTITUT, Maltese BEurope, Tuscan IRPET and Pluriversum;
- The education and training sector was represented by school 42 Firenze, Foundations Anpas Toscana Formazione, Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Polo Universitario Grossetano, ITS Energia e Ambiente, Malta University and National School Support Services;
- Social cooperatives active in the field of employment and social services included Tuscan Cepiss, Cassiopea and Il Girasole, with the participation of young volunteers too;
- The private sector was represented by Malta’s Chamber of SME.
All these actors were encouraged to share their experiences and best practices to support NEETs. IN CRESCENDO brought together contributions from various national / regional schemes and international projects, marking an important milestone for the involvement of all the main players in the NEET sector in Tuscany in the atWork4NEETs project: the key ideas which emerged from the debate were captured live in the following conceptual map and commented by the moderators, also thanks to the support of an interpreting service.
31 people attended the training sessions (International Training Workshops) which were delivered on the 2nd day, to ensure capacity building for policy learning: partners and stakeholders of the atWork4NEETs project had the precious chance to reflect on which elements make a good practice and why, thanks to the workshop led by CASE. The workshop also made references to the Interreg Policy Learning Platform and how it should be used / populated.
An overview of the labour market statistics, with data sources, main indicators and uses, was given by International Training Centre of the ILO, while ICON INSTITUT focused on the how the collection and analysis of the NEET-related statistics can be used for evidence-informed policymaking.
Overall, the 2-day event contributed to 1) engage Tuscan stakeholders in the atWork4NEETs project, 2) create synergies with other projects on this topic from the local to the European level, 3) foster the skills of partners’ staff and stakeholders on good practices’ recognition, on the collection and analysis and labour market and NEET-related statistics and 4) pave the way for the selection of the very best practices to gather data on the NEET phenomenon which will be presented by Anci Toscana in a public webinar in January 2024.
Stay tuned for further updates on the upcoming webinar!
PRESENTATIONS (DAY 1)
- Francesca Beatrice Colli (ARTI)
- Silvia Duranti (IRPET)
- Gabriele Grondoni (Region of Tuscany)
- Hilde March (Anci Toscana)
- Mila Mudrić (Croatian Employment Services)
- Joanna Starczewska (CASE)
- Catia Segnini (Fondazione Polo Universitario Grossetano)
- Eleonora Turchetto (Anci Toscana)
PRESENTATIONS (DAY 2)