The doctoral thesis deals with the concept of work as a traditional value in our culture and a basic human right on one hand, and the concept of unemployment, which has been increasing in the recent years as one of the consequences of the functioning of the labour market, due to the economic recession, changes in industry and changes on the labour market. To understand the issue of unemployment more profoundly, the importance of the social capital, social network and the concept of self-efficiency are introduced in this thesis. Within these concepts, the psycho-social consequences unemployed persons deal with and some government measures to reduce unemployment are presented. Some of these measures are active employment policy and career guidance for the unemployed.
The empirical part of the thesis presents the evaluation of the project »The Promotion of the Employment of the Long-term Unemployed Persons 2009–2010«, which was taking place within the Operational Programme for Human Resources Development for the period 2007–2013. The partners of the project were the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Employment Service of Slovenia. The aim of the project was to increase the employment of long-term unemployed persons with the help of full-time employment subsidy for the period of 18 months, and thus promote the outflow from the target group back into employment. The goal of the project was to include the long-term unemployed into the active employment policy measures with the aim to improve their communication and social skills, increase employment opportunities, eliminate obstacles when searching for work, acquire additional knowledge, skills and working experience, and also those skills which might prove to be helpful at lifelong career guidance and ensuring professional help in this field.
The sample in our research encompassed 113 long-term unemployed persons, of which 35 were men and 78 were women. In the research the majority of the interviewees were 31 years old, while half of them were aged 34 or less. The average age of interviewees was a bit above 37. As regards the educational structure, 44.2 % held a university degree, however, least of them, namely 0.9 %, had specialisation, the first Bologne level and lower vocational education. On the level of tertiary education, predominate social sciences, followed by business science, law and administration science, and within them the field »economy« stands out, followed by »political science and law«. In this context, the duration of unemployment is not connected to the level of education, meaning that the lower educational level does not consequently lead to longer unemployment period. The research also establishes that female interviewees put more emphasis on the importance of gender itself than male interviewees do. The results of the research show that, in regards with the time of registration at the Employment Service of Slovenia, long-term unemployed population mainly struggles with low self-esteem and determination of their position in the social hierarchy. The assistance required by the long-term unemployed persons mainly consists in providing the information on the education for another profession. It is further established that all persons in our sample who were included in the on-the-job training within the project »The Promotion of the Employment of Long-term Unemployed Persons 2009–2010, obtained the employment subsidy for the period of 18 months and thus had more possibilities to get a job in the future, as compared to those who were not included in the project. The spread of social network and new competencies are also stressed out.
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