Active Labour Market Strategy Project

Active Labour Market Strategy Project

New Opportunities Programme

The Active Labour Market Strategy Project has been developed by the Turkish Employment Organisation (ISKUR) to design, develop and implement effective employment policy measures and services aligned with the European Employment Policy, and funded by the European Union. The New Opportunities Programme is one of the three main components of this Project.

The overall objective of the Programme is to enhance the employability of both unemployed and currently employed people through the delivery of vocational training and other active employment measures based on locally determined needs, opportunities and solutions.

• To develop labour force skills to become more adaptable to structural changes according to identified labour market skill shortages, with special focus on business management abilities and entrepreneurship development in order to encourage future economic growth.
• To facilitate access to employment for job seekers by enhancement of active employment measures and by providing them with the means to develop new skills according to evolving needs of the labour market; to provide equal employment opportunities for vulnerable groups, such as women, young unemployed, disabled, former convicts, etc.

• Unemployed youths, women, disabled people, former convicts and long term unemployed people registered with ISKUR; disadvantaged groups of the population such as migrants from rural areas, and all other unemployed persons or groups.
• People employed in the labour market yet facing the unemployment risk or aiming to re-skill themselves.

Grants will be made available, but not exclusively, for:

1. Projects that support the design and delivery of various types of training/retraining, both on and off the job;;

Initiatives that will help workers to develop new skills and make a transition from their current job to one that is more relevant to the type of available jobs in the current labour market. The main type of activities may focus upon training/retraining of unemployed people and/or the provision of assistance to people to be more effective in job search activities. The following is an indicative list of activities that may receive funding:

• Job and career counselling services and training programmes; adding capacity or extending the scope of Job Club activities.
• Induction courses that aim to provide basic skills and knowledge;
• Courses designed to assist participants to improve their qualifications in sectors such as agriculture, service, construction, information technologies, industry and tourism;

1. Projects that promote the creation and development of self employed and small and medium sized companies creating new jobs for unemployed (for example, through the provision of counselling and work spaces to existing or would be entrepreneurs;

This area of activity covers actions that promote the development of enterprises, with an emphasis upon local businesses or small and medium-sized enterprises. Actions may offer business management services with an emphasis upon financial planning to these enterprises, and they may focus upon a range of activities including investment incentives, export incentives, innovative technologies, marketing or technology transfer. Indicative actions might include the following:

• Providing financial planning and counselling services to enterprises;
• The provision and management of business incubator units that provide support services to small and/or new enterprises;
• The development of business advisory agencies/organisations that provide support services to small and/or new enterprises;
• The provision of work trailing, placement, provision of mentoring support etc.
• Training courses on starting your own business and self-employment;
• Providing similar supports;

1. Innovative projects capable of creating employment/training opportunities

These actions may be designated to strengthen the experience sharing and sponsoring practices among the organizations and institutions in the public sector and the private sector.

Grant applications within this framework shall promise to encourage investments that will reasonably increase employment opportunities at a given enterprise. Indicative actions might include the following:

• Actions aiming at increasing the employment opportunities and productivity through implementation of on job vocational training and enhancing skills of the unemployed people and by so doing encouraging the enterprises to employ the unemployed people; or actions that encourage starting new businesses;
• Actions that involve rapid training and certificate courses for certain professions;
• Actions that provide cooperated marketing and advertisement services for businesses that are out of the competitive market;

All projects must be completed by 30 September 2005 irrespective of their starting date and all reports and claims for final payments must be submitted by 31 October 2005.

The grant scheme of the New Opportunities Programme will be available throughout the whole territory of Turkey