Short description: Overall objective: to contribute to unemployment reduction and support social cohesion in Serbia Specific objectives: 1. to develop and implement active labour market measures and employment programmes focused on the long-term unemployed, unemployed youth and disabled persons; 2. to strengthen the capacities of NES and other relevant actors at national and local level to create and implement adequate and cost-efficient programmes of active labour market measures; 3. to considerably increase the chances of 1,500 unemployed persons to find job - through high-quality training based on the identification of employers’ needs and relevant analysis of labour market demands and trends. Components: Labour market analysis in pilot regions Belgrade and Banat Selection Motivation/activation Training for min 1,500 unemployed persons Monitoring and evaluation Dissemination Expected results: - thorough labour market analysis carried out in pilot regions Belgrade and Banat; - min 1,500 unemployed persons selected for motivation and activation seminars, in-class instructions and on-job training; individual employment plans developed and concluded with selected individuals; - NES support to the development of individual employment plans provided - on the basis of labour market analysis and review of conducted trainings, in-class consultations and on-job training will be provided for min 1,500 persons; training programmes will include the development of key skills and special skills, in order to increase employability of unemployed persons; - min 30 % of training participants will be employed or self-employed by the end of the Project; - system for monitoring and evaluation of counselling and training established; systems will include a data base on all activities and payments to training providers and training participants; this system will be used for monitoring of final results; - building upon its existing activities, NES will provide support to the further development of the data base (info network on service providers); - implementation of adequate Strategy of Programme Communication and development and implementation of action plan, in order to disseminate information on Project activities and results throughout the country.

  Achieved results: This project was designed and implemented as six separate but interrelated components, and will be summarised as such: 1. Labour Market Analysis: NES and the project have carried out two comprehensive labour market analyses that identified labour market needs where those needs could be met through short-term vocational training courses. In this process, more than one hundred staff members have been trained in survey design, statistical analysis and in carrying out field work, within an action-learning framework. While NES staff may not carry out similar large scale analyses in the future, NES has gained a first-hand experience and is thus likely to be a more competent and critical dialogue partner vis-à-vis third-party contractors which may be engaged to carry out this type of analysis in the future. In addition, NES has also assessed its support to job-seekers as seen through the prism of unemployed themselves by way of survey and focus groups. 2. Recruitment: This Component can be understood properly as the initial step of a training cycle which comprises also Components 3, 4, and 5 as those are described ahead. Almost four thousand individuals have participated in an information meeting by invitation about one course offer organised by the project. More than one-thousand and five hundred unemployed individuals have participated in one of 95 training courses that have been completed. 3. Motivation/Activation: Motivation seminars have been incorporated into training when necessary to strengthen commitment to course participation. Activation seminars were organised on demand in order to give course graduates practical advice on targeted job search within the particular vocation of the respective course. 4. Training: 95 training courses have enrolled more than 1500 participants. Training has combine theory and practical on-the-job training. Training was organised by individual enterprises, or were delivered by a vocational training institute in collaboration with one or several enterprises that offered opportunities for on-the-job training and for possible employment after graduation. More than forty new shortterm vocational training programmes have been developed to complement the existing inventory of programmes by NES. As regards course graduates becoming employed, the project has not escaped entirely the effects of the worldwide financial crisis as this affected the willingness of employers to hire. During 2008, more than 35% of course graduates got a job after successful completion of training. Because in 2009, employers got cautious, end-of-July NES records indicate that 10.1% of training graduates got employed among graduates from the January- April 2009 period. Results from a Training Impact Analysis are encouraging; this analysis is a ‘matched comparison’ between graduates of training and individuals who did not participate in training but who are otherwise similar with respect to background factors; the analysis isolates the effect of training because by design other factors are made equal.1 Review of employment records includes all course participants graduating before end-of-March (2009) to allow graduates a two month job search period. For this period, 20.4% of graduates found employment; for similar individuals who did not participate in training, the corresponding employment figure is 3.7%. Training led to significant increase in employment in project target groups compared to non-graduates with similar backgrounds. 5. Monitoring and Evaluation: A comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation system has been developed in collaboration with NES. NES and project staff have held joint monitoring visits that permitted corrective action and advice when called for occasionally; moreover, monitoring and evaluation data now at hand (and monitoring manuals and guidelines) provide NES with a rich source of “lessons learned” that will benefit future programming and delivery of training. 6. Dissemination: Training under this project has been covered well by national, regional and local media. A project web-site has been maintained throughout the project providing information for job-seekers, enterprises, training institutions and the general public, and will remain open until May 2010.

Comment: The continuation of the CARDS 2004 Component – Fund for Active Measures (see Employment Support Programme)