4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The Action for Welfare to Work system for the period 2012/2014 aims to implement policies and welfare to work services to balance the effects of the crisis on employment and labor markets to push towards achieving the employment targets of Italy set for 2020. It promotes active policies able to support the process of reintegration into the labor market of workers who are disadvantaged, expelled or threatened with expulsion from the production process. To achieve these results, it focuses on training and developing of people skills to meet the needs of companies, it aims at a more efficient use of the system of social safety nets, it aims to enhance the matching of demand and supply of labor by establishing standards quality of services, it promotes the use of the most suitable forms of contract, especially apprenticeship, and the available means for the reconciliation of work and life schedules. The goals are accomplished through four lines of action:
1. State / Regions Agreement on exceptional social safety nets and active policies
2. Strengthening and enhancing the role of the public Job centers
3. Ri-placement of young and unemployed workers, and the development of competitiveness
4. Integrated planning of employment policies and development.
The project ends on 31 December 2014. With the Regional Council Resolution no. 249 of 19 February 2013, the Region of Puglia has set, independently from its original financial resources, the resources of income support for workers who, having lost their jobs have also lost the benefit of social safety nets.
On 19 February 2013, the approval of the "Plan of extraordinary income support" set to pay a special regional benefit to workers that affected by the crisis and acquired the right to mobility schemes in 2012, were excluded from the benefits of mobility schemes in 2013 and were still unemployed. The Region has funded fully and independently this action allocating almost € 11 million in support of these workers. The Region has also identified the recipients of the special allowance, monitoring its requirements. With the call for applications published in the Official Bulletin of the Region of Puglia in March 19, 2013, a new opportunity to specialize and re-enter the labor market has been offered
With the authorization of the General Direction of INPS, on February 13, 2014the Agreement between the President of the Puglia Region and the Regional Director of INPS Puglia for the implementation of the Special Plan for the recipients of income support was signed.
The Pact of Service is a scheme used by Employment centersto formalize the agreement with the unemployed and employed on the chosen project, whether it is a job placement support or a participation in a training program. It refers to workers laid off for business or employment crisis, and unemployed who want to attend training courses. When signing the service agreement, the worker defines an individual action plan in which all actions for entering or re-entering the world of work are contained.
The Skills Assessment is a process of evaluation of the current situation and potential of the employee, which ends with the completion of a project for the professional development of the person; it involves a thorough evaluation to define a real and concrete job goal. It is built using all that has to do with work in a person's life and in particular motivation, skills, interests, values, personal qualities.
The courses' subjects are computer skills, foreign languages, commerce and sale of food and beverages, personal and family care, communication, and so on.
Each enrolled in the course gets on its completion a certification from the Job Centre, which is a necessary condition for the payment of the second installment from INPS, i.e. the last three months of benefits.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The Central Direction of INPS authorized the Director of the Regional INPS the signing of the agreement and provided the technical specifications to grant the payments.
The Centers for Employment in Italy are the public offices that manage the labor market locally. They are structures of the Regions and work at the provincial level, with expertise in the placement of workers at private employers, pre-selection and matching of demand and supply of labor; initiatives to increase women's work; programming in the area of the labor market, disadvantaged, training, and so on. The employment centers of Puglia have taken care of the signing of the Pacts of service, and then supported the beneficiaries in the process of retraining, and certified the end of its successful completion.
Tax Assistance Centers (better known as CAF), in Italy, are organizations established by law, that employers and employees turn to for tax assistance, usually for the tax return.
The Patronage is an institution that exercises functions of assistance and protection in favor of workers, pensioners and generally all Italian citizens. It is a direct offshoot of a trade union, whether of employees, self-employed, or both.
The CAF and the Unions have provided assistance free of charge to employees for submitting electronic applications.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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€ 10,889,935.71 were transferred from the State to the INPS, for the disadvantaged workers and their families. As a result, a total of n. 4,110 requests were received, of which 4,086 passed through CAF / Unions through the online platform; 24 were transmitted in a manner different from the online platform and therefore not eligible.
Following investigation on the 4,086 instances, the regional administration has proceeded with the publication of the beneficiaries list, with 3,033 employees included on the list and then the beneficiaries; n. 450 were excluded due to the absence of the subjective requirements, or lack of documentation; n. 244, were excluded as pertaining to recipients of special mobility benefits until June 2013; n. 352 were excluded due to the total absence of the documentation provided in the public notice, as well as the signing of the instance of the worker (for a total of n. 1046 rejections); n. 7 instances are suspended, as it is a pending dispute with INPS for the recognition of the status of the recipient of special mobility benefits.
Of the 3,033 persons included in the scheme, 2918 showed up and were received and interviewed by the employment centers in the region. For each of them a skills assessment was prepared in order to effectively calibrate the new curriculum. From January 20, 2014 onwards, workers recipients of income support had to report, within 15 days, to the competent Employment Centre for the signing of the Pact of Service.
The first two installments of the grant of 500 Euros were paid in a lump sum to all beneficiaries. The worker, as engaged in a course of training and retraining for those expelled from work and not receiving the exceptional social safety nets, receives the final payment of the last three months by the INP at the certified end of the course.
With the managerial determination no. 2 of 9 January 2014 the Department of Labor Policies has approved the list on the public notice "Income support in favor of parties excluded from receiving special social security benefits." The grant is awarded in order of ranking and within the funds' availability.
The program has involved 361 employees of the employment centers, enrolled 3,748 students, with 3,520 skills' assessment provided, enabled 3,228 students to start their retraining, 323 students have already completed their courses and received their payments by INPS and a further 172 students have been certified the course's completion.
The ranking and all subsequent updates will be available on this page, http://www.sistema.puglia.it/SistemaPuglia/sostegnoalreddito.
With 111 courses in the catalog, 276 professionals were involved as teachers.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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There was a broad participation: as well as the presence of the INPS to support the income support scheme, over 220 organizations were accredited for training, 111 courses were available in the catalog, 276 professionals for lectures; 189 organizations offered courses in the catalog. These courses, on 12 thematic areas, enrolled 1485 students.
128 between CAF and Unions are credited to the portal for the electronic transmission of applications and are enabled to certify the will to retrain of the participants.
The INPS centralized at the regional level all activities concerning the payments of the monthly installments, while ensuring transparency and speed in the process of disbursement of subsidies. The accuracy and precision of management is demonstrated by the total absence of complaints from interested parties, in a region where it is much more frequent to turn to administrative and judicial litigation in order to obtain the recognition of the rights claimed by the citizens.
Implementation of the initiative increased efficiency and reduced red tape: in fact, the C.A.F. and the Unions have provided assistance free of charge to employees for submitting electronic applications. INPS has paid first installmentswithin 15 days after receiving the lists of 2.898 beneficiaries.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The Employment Centers have been operating with 361 civil servants at provincial and sub provincial level: with care and attention they fully defined training programs based on the needs expressed by ex-workers, their previous experience at work, their potential to express new skills and to enrich the curriculum with new experiences.
Participants were led by tutors who accompanied them along the way, guiding and directing choices, supporting them in moments of discouragement and despair.
The best evaluation of the results will come when, at the completion of training it will be possible to see how such retraining affects new employment. We currently have 323 completed courses and the fees have been paid in total in favor of 172 beneficiaries.They were paid within seven days of the submission of lists
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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In no more than 300 words describe the main problems that were encountered during the implementation and how these were addressed and overcome.
The main obstacles were sometimes difficulties for the applicants to produce comprehensive documentation for the success of applications. It is for this reason that the program will be renewed in case of remaining available budget.
In addition, the training provided and the possibility of re-employment often did not correspond to the profile of the experiences and expectations of potential beneficiaries, and sometimes this has delayed the start of training courses, which were adapted from time to time to make more appropriate and responsive to the internal and external reference context.
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