Research edited by F. Giubileo, with the collaboration of S. Duranti and statistical processing by V. Patacchini
The study is part of the joint IRPET-Tuscany Region activities for 2024, conducted on behalf of the ESF Management Authority (Activity No. 2.A/2024). The research was led by Francesco Giubileo with the collaboration of Silvia Duranti in the IRPET Public Economics Research Area, coordinated by Patrizia Lattarulo. Valentina Patacchini handled the statistical analyses. Editing by Elena Zangheri (IRPET).
This work reconstructs the framework of active policies in Tuscany, placing it within a national and international comparison. The aim is to bring out the specificities of the Tuscan model and the policy choices implemented in this region.
Recently, a general reform of the active labour and vocational training policy system, the Guaranteed Employability Programme (GOL), was introduced. Since this important reform is going to represent the framework of the active labour policies financed by the ESF+, and at now GOL programme are also financed by the ESF+, the Tuscan policy makers are looking forward to knowing the first stages of its implementation, through data and stakeholder opinions. A public governance model is confirmed in the implementation of the GOL programme in the Region of Tuscany, with the central role of the regional network of Employment Centres in taking on the beneficiaries and defining and managing their professional development paths.
A first positive element of the Programme is a “structured” mechanism of complementarities and constant interaction between training and labour policies and management in order to make consistent the measures under the different Funds and to avoid the risk of overlapping.
A second positive element of the Tuscan model concerns the capacity of the regional system of employment services to make the taking in charge effective, arriving at the delivery of concrete active labour policy actions in almost 90 per cent of the cases, a figure much higher – as certified by official sources – than the national average and also than the northern regions analysed in the report.
Finally, the programme has strengthened the relationship between the public and private sectors, enhancing cooperation between the two entities, which are pushed to collaborate effectively to better deal with the paths of the unemployed, even the most difficult ones, at risk of dropping out.
The work is complemented by a Focus that explores, in a short note, the growing skills shortage in the public employment and the mismatch between supply and demand; aspects that – well known in the world of labour market in general – increasingly penalise this context as well, to the detriment of the economic system’s growth potential.
