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Sector-driven Innovations towards an Efficient Labour Market in the Slovak Republic
Published on 02 June 2020
Slovakia
Miroslav Polacek
Manager of international activities
About this good practice
NP SRI was launched in April 2019 by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of Slovak Republic. It is funded by the ESF and managed by the private agency Trexima Bratislava Ltd with strong expertise in monitoring of the occupation, education outputs and in forecasting the market needs of labour force. Project aims to reinvigorate the role of Sector Skills Councils (SSC), by enabling them to identify and anticipate skills requirements in the respective occupations up to 2030. 24 established SSC are voluntary, independent, professional associations of experts continuously monitoring labour market needs in relevant sectors of the national economy and their transfer to the lifelong learning system. Each SSC has 20-30 experts working regularly within much limited time lines. In the 1st year of project, SSC have identified the main challenges, innovations and trends influencing their sector when it comes to the development of human resources and their skills and translated them into sectoral human resources (HR) development strategies. These strategies include detailed analysis of sectors and concrete strategic measures and action plan for achieving a more qualified and skilled workforce within the sector. At the moment, the key measures and recommendations from each strategy are being selected for the design of the nationwide strategy Work 4.0. The next step will be development and revision of the national occupational standards with clearly defined competence profiles.
Resources needed
The total eligible expenses for the implementation of project activities amount to EUR 19,799,176.29.
The total contribution from ESF amounts up to a maximum of EUR 16,829,299.85.
The total contribution from ESF amounts up to a maximum of EUR 16,829,299.85.
Evidence of success
NP SRI is a 4th phase of NSO project launched in 2009. So far over 1000 job specifications guaranteed by each SSC were published on www.sustavapovolani.sk. These are sources of information to people seeking employment on the requirements of employers for specific position. Other results of this continuous effort include an important update (2015) of the SK ISCO-08 national job classification that incorporated changes in the labour market and 24 sectoral HR development strategies.
Potential for learning or transfer
Like other 2 best practices proposed by SBA in the INNO INDUSTRY project, NP SRI was selected by the project partners as one of the most interesting for learning and possible transfer. Reasons behind it may be commonly identified weaknesses across countries which are lack of staff with specialised ICT skills and lack of skilled staff in companies in general. To address such shortages of the labour market is the main goal of NP SRI. Besides cross sector cooperation, the key success factor is to recognise SSC as key players within the established system for identification of skills mismatch and programmes/projects addressing identified needs. They must be directly responsible for defining the vocational qualification standards from the employers' point of view, thus reflecting practical needs. In this way, SSC can influence the training programmes and curricula for specific qualifications and professions, and channel it to responsible public institutions (Ministry of Education/Labour).
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
Organisation
Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic
Slovakia
Bratislavský kraj
Contact
Miroslav Polacek
Manager of international activities