Public Private Partnerships in skills development and value for Youth Guarantee implementation

The role of public private partnerships (PPPs) in skills development for the youth was the subject of a webinar on Tuesday 1 March. Hosted by the ETF, the two and a half hour webinar featured multiple speakers and attracted over 90 participants.

With 2022 being the European Year of Youth, the EU and its organisations, including the ETF, are placing particular emphasis on skills training for young people. Part of this effort includes the reinforced Youth Guarantee, adopted in late 2020, which is aimed at bolstering youth in education or training, and reducing unemployment.

The new YG replaces the 2013 policy, which saw more than 5 million young people register in schemes each year since 2014, while over 24 million young people registered in YG schemes have started employment, or continued in education, traineeships or apprenticeships. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, in early 2020, there were approximately 1.7 million fewer young people neither in employment nor in education or training (NEETs) across the EU.

The Youth Guarantee requires collaboration between the public and private sectors. The ETF is supporting the YG process through a series of knowledge and practice sharing that support the YG design, implementation and monitoring in the respective economies, as part of the Technical Assistance Facility, operationalised by the EU and International Labour Organization. The YG is also one of the 10 flagships of the economic and political plan for the Western Balkan region, involving over 80 participants.

Siria Taurelli, a governance expert at the ETF, explained the concept and idea of PPPs, drawing on a 2020 ETF study to “better draw from reality and practice.”

While PPPs are often heard of in relation to privatisation, in relation to skills training PPPs are “of a substantially different nature,” she said.

PPPs are mechanisms that enable the coordination of actions and the definition of responsibilities between private and public stakeholders. In the vocational skills sector, PPPs are more flexible “as compared to more general definition at the international level, and are often embedded in national legislation, so there’s an open definition.”

Common elements are skills development, co-financing and the engagement of private or economic cooperators in the various stages of common activity, which includes implementation.

“The public partner sets the objective of what is in the public interest, so in a way a guarantor of the public interest and the quality of the services deployed through the PPP,” said Taurelli.

There are three dimensions to PPPs - knowledge-orientated, VET provisions-orientated and resource orientated. “Knowledge based is around creating or sustaining new knowledge, as skills needs requires forecasting. Another example is PPPs participating in policy evaluation – what are the results of the policies in place, or creating criteria for qualifications for instance,” she said.

VET orientated focuses on the actual delivery of education, training and engaging with students and adult learners. “PPPs provide guidance and counselling for learners, but also PPPs manage training centres, such as in Morocco, Kazakhstan, and the Netherlands.”

Provisions include supplying specialised equipment to refurbishing student dormitories. “There are many categories found in VET provision, which is not a surprise, as the demand is around skills and the construction of PPP alliances,” said Taurelli.

PPPs have been implemented in countries at different levels, ranging from a national coordinated policy to the more regional and local level. The Netherlands’ model for example is based on a national VET system, whereas in Germany there is a dual system for education and training.

“In France, schemes are managed and founded at a regional level, so there’s a strong ownership at the sub-national level. It is similar in Sweden, with technical colleges the direct responsibility of municipalities to build on local needs for skills. We found also found examples of this in Morocco and Ukraine,” said Taurelli.

There are also experimental, or ad hoc PPPs, which are dependent on the initiating partner and the local context. The majority of PPPs are of an open nature, meaning once a partnership is created new members can join. There are also closed PPPs – not open to new members – and semi-open, with new members typically allowed to join if they are from the same sector. “You do not find this openness in a classic PPP, between a public authority and private contractor to for instance construct new infrastructure,” she said.

Depending on the PPP, legislation is not always required, as partnerships can build on memorandum of understanding (MoU). “The financing mechanism can be mixed – but not always – in how to diversify the incentives and innovative instruments. And why not consider experimental ways for PPPs?” said Taurelli.

“We have found motivation for skills is the number one reason partners are together. It could be due to an immediate shortage of skills but also due to motivation for more innovation,” she added.

To provide practical examples of how PPPs work in action, Marija Stojadinovic, Director of the Business Development Centre Kragujevac, talked about “Education To Employment (E2E) in Serbia”.

A non-profit, non-governmental centre founded in 2010, its activities are mainly focused on projects to empower local socio-economic development. Since 2017, the centre has been involved in over 50 projects with the support of over 100 entrepreneurs, SMEs and companies. Over 1,500 youth and other vulnerable groups have been supported, said Stojadinovic.

“Our role is to connect young people and young unemployed people with schools, companies with training providers, and companies seeking skills. The mission is to improve opportunities of youth in the labour market through development of competences demanded by employers and through improvement of employment policies and regulations,” she said.

Indicative of its PPP nature, projects are being financed by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). Phase 1, which ran from 2016-2019, had a grant of Euro 5.5 million, and phase 2, which is running from 2020-2023, has a grant of Euro 6.5 million.

Services for the youth include providing individual career guidance and counselling, workshops, information sessions, and meetings with employers and professionals in different careers. There are also work-based learning programmes and internships. “We are matching them with employers and providing them with different soft skills training,” explained Stojadinovic.

The centre in Kragujevac, Serbia’s fourth largest city, provides a spectrum of services to companies, ranging from developing occupational profiles to developing curricula for on-the-job training and work-based learning programmes.

“We noticed from the field that companies are struggling to develop formal curriciulum and programmes, so it is important they receive this kind of support in the market from providers like us,” she said.

The centre also assists companies involved in the partnership in finding potential job candidates, getting qualified assessment of candidates, and helping in the selection of candidates for particular positions.

For work-based learning the centre assists companies through the joint organisation and management of job training. “This is an important service because companies are involved in their daily jobs, and not often very experienced in managing these kind of activities. If organised by a local partner they find it very useful,” she said.

The centre has influenced Kragujevac’s local employment policy, and has also cooperated with the national employment service, the chamber of commerce, and civil society organisations. “This is a good example of a PPP,” she said.

Stojadinovic explained how the partnership mechanisms work. There is a contractual arrangement for roles and responsibilities, while co-financing by a company has to be a minimum of 30% of a project, with remaining funds for work-based learning from E2E and local government.

The centre has had notable success. As of autumn 2021, it has been involved in 66 work-based learning courses involving 640 trainees and 55 companies. “The most important figure is the employment rate of 72.3%,” said Stojadinovic. “From 2016 until now, this methodology of work-based learning and PPP has really proven successful and we can really now scale up and try to involve this experience in local and national policies.”

At the other end of Europe, Anna Kahlson, Unit for Skill Supply and Lifelong Learning at the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education, talked about how the higher educational system collaborates with labour providers and market actors in Sweden.

The Agency is under the Ministry of Education, working on higher vocational education, post secondary arts and culture courses, and interpretation courses and programmes. It is also responsible for the Swedish National Qualifications Framework, and is the contact point for the European Qualification network.

Kahlson described Sweden’s system as not being a “PPP per se” but its “distinguishing feature is there is heavy industry and labour market involvement in the creation of the programme, in provision and steering. All are designed to meet labour market demands,” she said.

The programmes have extensive periods of work based learning, and the qualification leads to European Qualification Framework (EQF) levels 5 and 6.

Each programme is managed by a board made up of three main stakeholders: education providers, students and companies. The representatives from the labour market are the majority of the board, while there is one student member to help develop curricula.

The Swedish system has proven successful in generating employment. In 2015, there was 89% employment, and 91% in 2016. Between 2017 and 2019, employment was 93%, but dropped to 87% in 2020. “We had a dip in 2020, which we believe is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This system is quite successful and we do believe one of the main success factors is strong collaboration with labour market actors and providers,” said Kahlson.

Such collaboration is not always easy however, as it has become “more difficult to make sure there are enough work-based learning systems, as the system has grown in the last few years, almost doubling, so we need to double the number of work based places,” she added.

Alma Shkreli of Albania Skills highlighted the significant role that cooperation between VET and private sector actors has had in the country. The agency covers 35 trades and industries, and has carried out 50 competitions, exhibitions and forums. “There are 105 different companies and institutions as partners that have supported us, and over 20 have been permanent partners since we started in 2015,” she said.

Nikola Vulic, Adolescent Development Officer at UNICEF Montenegro, described the UN agency’s work. One project is a skills building programme, focusing on reskilling and upskilling, and the school-to-work transition.

“Our social-emotional skills programme gives young people 21st century skills which are not taught in schools. It is developed according to similar programmes across the world, but developed for Montengero specifically,” he said.

The multi sector, multi stakeholder approach to the programme is supported through UNICEF’s Youth Innovation Lab. “Today we are in a situation where more than 60% of schools have been integrated into the formal curricula for the social-emotional skills programme. We expect adoption of this programme to reach 100% in the next few years,” said Vulic.

Building up skills as well as awareness about labour market needs is crucial in Montenegro, where young graduates can typically wait 16 to 24 months for their first job. “A major issue is they know very little about what to expect in the labour market, being ill prepared when finishing high school for the next move. There is not that much career guidance opportunitiess at schools,” he said.

Indicative of the issues at play is students rely on their peers for guidance. “We did some surveys, and if you ask young people what do they want to do and who they will discuss this with, they don’t say teachers, or very rarely turn to parents, as fear they will project their own ideas and dreams and force them into a profession, so they turn to friends, who are as ill informed as they are,” said Vulic.

UNICEF’s Opportunities programmes, which fits into the Youth Guarantee programme, offers practical experience to all high school sudents. The UNICEF Business Council is also involved.

“We have gathered together private companies that are ready to support the programme. We are building it up to show as proof of concept to the Education Ministry for the programme to be integrated into formal education,” he said.

Over the next five years, the plan is for every high school students to have a practical job internship or job shadowing before they graduate. “All our research shows this really improves their level of knowledge of the labour market, but also improves their chances to succeed in the 21st century,” said Vulic.