Tailor pilots for refugee and host community jobseekers and strengthen employers’ engagement (downstream)

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Activities, stakeholders and guidelines

Tailor pilots for refugee and host community jobseekers and strengthen employers’ engagement (downstream)

Practical tips and guidelines on key activities and stakeholders involved

Click on one activity below to see detailed guidelines

Stakeholders involved
Government representatives (local), public employment service providers, and other employment service providers
Guidelines
Civil servants in local PES typically carry out tasks including job matching and job placement, providing labour market information and referring job-seekers to active labour market programmes (ALMPs). Ideally, there would be a nationwide network of PES offices; in reality, countries limit them to areas with viable economic activities, while using other outreach channels for more remote areas, where refugees are often settled. Even where refugees are concentrated in urban areas, a lack of adequate capacity within the PES can be an obstacle to delivering effective employment services.
Tailor training to the distinct roles of PES staff, including managers and senior officers, operational staff and employment officers.
Make sure the guidance and training are aligned with and directly support contributions to existing the national strategies and frameworks.
Consider the incentives for PES staff to take on extra training to develop and adapt their service to refugee jobseekers’ specific needs and limitations with regards to job counselling, job matching and labour market information. Do they align with the objective and mandate of their current job?
Adopt ILO career guidance manuals, such as, ‘How to Choose My Future Profession?’ and ‘How to Organize My Job Search?’, as sources of training material.
Reinforce employment services’ role in the provision of labour market information, including up-to-date information on work permits and business registration processes, job vacancies and training opportunities.
Beyond referrals of job-seekers to skills training, establish clear links between skills profiling and developing the capacities of employment officers, whether through training career counsellors and employment officers in the use of profiling tools such as SkillLab, or introducing European Classification of Skills, Competencies, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) to help determine the skills needs of employers. The latter requires being able to clearly identify the level and types of skills in supply, and articulate the corresponding skills needs. Understanding these is a fundamental part of effective employment service delivery.

Stakeholders involved
Government representatives (local), refugee- and youth-led organizations, (I)NGOs, cooperatives, humanitarian partners, including UNHCR, social partners
Guidelines
Deploy outreach methods to access rural and refugee hosting areas that can make use of community centres, mobile caravans and UNHCR service points.
Where infrastructure is lacking, it may be necessary to renovate existing community centres or build new job centres to serve these areas. In Ethiopia, an Employment Service Facilitation Centre (ESFC) was built in a refugee-hosting area where in collaboration with the country's Ministry of Labour and Skills (MoLS), using the EIIP methodology.
Partner with community-based organizations, refugee-led organizations, UNHCR or other trusted groups, in order to build trust between service providers and refugees.
It is advantageous to have employment officers in the field to build trust and encourage buy-in within local communities.
Using existing networks of employers through local associations, chambers, and cooperative groups can also be helpful in building trust and disseminating information about job opportunities.

Stakeholders involved
Cooperative representatives, government representatives (national), government representatives (local), social partners
Guidelines
Work with cooperative representatives to introduce career guidance and job matching services that are closely tied to labour market demands. For example, PROSPECTS Jordan trained cooperative representatives to collect jobseekers’ details, connect them to farmers with daily, seasonal and fixed-term jobs, and refer them to training on harvesting and post-harvesting techniques.
Train local community groups to register and profile jobseekers, provide labour market information and refer them to local employment and training opportunities.
Local partners can also provide information on labour rights and collect information on working conditions.

Stakeholders involved
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, academic institutions government representatives (national)
Guidelines
Academic and training institutions played an important partnering role. For example, in Jordan, the Ministry of Education career guidance offices were spaces that both refugee and host community students could access.
In Iraq, partnerships with the University of Mosul and University of Dohuk helped strengthen career guidance functions and reach a diverse segment of the student population, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugee and host community students. The ILO training manuals, ‘How to Choose My Future Profession?’ and ‘How to Organize My Job Search?’ were particularly suitable for students and recent graduates.

Stakeholders involved
Private sector, social partners, chambers of commerce, chambers of industry, cooperatives
Guidelines
Appeal to employers’ interests to use employment services for recruitment and (re)skilling of their workforce.
Invest time in outreach to local employers as a measure to build trust. It is advantageous to have employment officers in the field to build trust and buy-in through repeat interactions.
Working with employers’ organizations can be an effective means of engaging local employers. For example, in Egypt, by partnering with an association of employers, the Alexandria Business Association (ABA), PROSPECTS was able to make the most of its members as potential employers of Syrian refugees and Egyptian host community members and strengthen its employment service function by building capacity and incorporating a digital tool, SkilLab, into its operations.
Further investment may be needed to raise employers’ awareness around hiring refugees, including understanding applicable work permits and related procedures.

Stakeholders involved
Private sector, social partners, cooperatives
Guidelines
Sector-specific employment services can serve as proof of concept for working in areas where refugees are concentrated, such as in rural areas, or in the agriculture sector.
Sector-specific approaches can also tailor outreach and delivery methods for daily, seasonal or fixed-term works.
These approaches fill gaps in services in rural settings and sectors where PES are absent or lack capacity.

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