Welcome to the official website of the project “Promoting Active Inclusion of Disadvantaged Persons Excluded from the Labour Market”.

The project is implemented in the Republic of Macedonia within the frame of the Operational Programme for Human Resource Development 2007-2013 under the Instrument of Pre-Accession assistance.

The project’s overall objective is to increase the activation of persons at risk of social exclusion in the labour market by improving their skills, education, qualification and facilitating their full integration into the society and the labour market.

This overarching objective is broken down into specific purposes involving concrete interventions on three fronts:

• Purpose 1: Improve the efficiency of employment and social services as a way of promoting the social inclusion of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups by assisting professionals from the Employment Centres and the Centres for Social Work in developing new skills as 'Mentors for Social Inclusion';
• Purpose 2: Empower vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and give them the skills and experience required to break down the hurdles they encounter on their journeys into long-term work and independence through a pre-employment training programme and work placements or internships in local businesses and social enterprises;
• Purpose 3: Foster improvements in service delivery by designing new family support services and referral mechanisms, raising public awareness, and developing effective partnerships among key stakeholders (local self-government units, governmental institutions, non-governmental organizations involved in service delivery, social partners, education and training providers) to produce results on the ground.

The project’s duration is 20 months, from 14^th December 2015, untill 14^th August 2017.

The expected results from the implementation of the project include:

• RESULT 1: The competences and skills of professionals working closely with the target group will be greatly strengthened through an innovative training programme and piloting of the Social Mentoring Model, thereby promoting efficiency in the provision of tailor made services to the target group.
• RESULT 2: The employment potential of people at risk of social exclusion will be enhanced by promoting individual pathways towards employment and by developing new services, training programmes and work placements/internships tailored to the needs of the target group.
• RESULT 3: Institutional set up and cooperation among local Employment Centres, Centres for Social Work, Local Authorities and NGOs will be strengthened through targeted networking and partnership-building activities that will clearly aim at leading the target groups to sustainable employment.
• RESULT 4: Local authorities and key stakeholders will benefit as the project will provide recommendations and help improve the policy and service frameworks that are needed for the replication of best practices.
• RESULT 5: Stakeholder and public awareness will be raised through volunteer promotion to advocate the rights of vulnerable groups in the corporate world and in society and awareness-raising events with the aim to dismantle prejudice and attitudinal barriers preventing the Action’s target groups from accessing the labour market.