Realization process assessment of the program «Employment Roadmap – 2020»: the negative factors and the possibility of neutralization

The article presents results of analysis and assessment of the expert poll on the issues of implementation of «Employment Roadmap-2020»program: the project «Youth practical training», the project «Social workplaces», the project «Professional training and re-training». As experts participationhave taking: specialists of Employment Centers of all cities and districts of Karaganda region; employers (participants of three projects); Heads of Training Centers (places of professional training and retraining); participants of the program. Factors, existing in the process of implementation of the program and limiting its performance were identified and systematized. To neutralize and reduce the negative influence of these factors on the effectiveness of the projects we have developed a number of recommendations for improving its regulatory and legal framework and program management. 

Social modernization of Kazakhstan in conditions of its economic development rate decreasingputs forward specific requirements to regulate the labor market and facilitate the productive employment of the population [1,2]. Institutional response to these requirements is implemented in Kazakhstan since 2009 year State industry program «Employment Roadmap-2020» (hereinafter ERM-2020 program). The program is a system of measures to promote productive employment through professional, subsidized jobs for target groups (graduates of colleges and universities, people with disabilities, etc.), the provision of temporary jobs on infrastructure facilities, microcredit of entrepreneurial venture [3].

Evaluation of the government programs performance is a necessary element of the modern public management paradigm, known as results based management and budgeting [4, 5]. At the same time, according to numerous studies, evaluation is the weakest element of the control cycle. In many countries there are problems with the methods, procedures, costs of evaluation that requires further improvement [6–8].

This article provides an assessmentof and approaches to the solution of problems arising from implementation of the third direction of the ERM-2020 program «Employment assistance» and identified on the basis of a survey of all categories of stakeholders (employees, employers, supervisors of training centers) and program administrators.

The aim of the study presented in this article is the systematization of factors negatively affect the process of implementing the third direction of the Employment Roadmap-2020 program for the development of recommendations to neutralize or reduce the limitation character of these factors.

To identify these problems, a survey was undertaken in the form of interviews the following stakeholders:

• -specialists of Employment Centers of all cities and districts Karaganda Oblast (32 persons);
• -employers (project participants of «Youth practical training», «Social workplaces», «Professional training and retraining» (24 persons);
• -heads of training center -places of professional training and retraining (8 people);
• -participantsof the program on the projects «Youth practical training», «Social workplaces», «Professional training and retraining», including potential participants among people with disabilities addressed to the Employment Centerswith the purpose to participate in the ERM program and subsequent job placement (387).

Classification of the problems identified by cities and regions are presented in Table.

Systematization of the results obtained made it possible to identify as well as common problems and typical for a particular type of population cluster (rural townships, small towns, medium-sized and large cities).

In the project «Youth practical training» experts pointed out the following problems of services provision process:

• -Imbalance of vocational qualification profile of supply and demand in the labor market. This problem is common to all rural settlements and small towns of Karaganda region (for example, in the Osakarovsk area surplus of teachers and programmers, in Shakhtinskprogrammers excess and shortage of lawyers). The existence of imbalance leads to that a practices place might not match the diploma specialty of the program participant. Since participation in the project «Youth practical training» is connected with the place of residence of the young person, then the problem is defined by the existing regulatory and legal framework. As a result, this leads to a lack of satisfaction on the part of some participants of the program, to the performance decrease of the programimplementation. It is these participants suggest that the program is useless and does not develop practical skills.
• -Program participants have high demands to the conditions and remuneration of labor. Specialists of  the cities in the area and heads of companies have pointed out thiscircumstance. Young people are not satisfied with the conditions and remuneration of labor. High requests tend to reduce the performance of the program implementation, when young people voluntarily refuses to take part in the project «Youth practical training», without completing it, or fails to sign a labor contract with an employer. This and the following problem related to the motivation of the participants.
• Low activity of some participants, which experts of Employment Centers note in the metropolitan area and heads of companies. Young people are passive, shows no interest in work, not trying to prove themself. As a result, the employer is not interested to conclude employment contract with such probationer.
• -Unreasonable decreasedage of a young person to 24 years, because according to the life circumstances, especially for women, this age is young. With regard to family responsibilities (the birth and upbringing of children), they often become economically active 24 years later and are willing to participate in the project«Youth practical training».
• -Part-time internship because of fixed calendar dates from July to December has been noted by participants in many territorial units of the area, mainly in large and medium-sized cities of the region. This leads to a lack of satisfaction among young people, to the degradation of the program’sfinal results. It is these participants say that the program does not provide the opportunity to acquire the necessary practical skills. In small towns and some parts of the region the problem being solved through case-by-case approach to the participant, whose practice is broken by December 31, but when open the spigot for next year it continues in full volume.
• -Lack of ability to change the place of practices because of objective and subjective reasons has been noted by participants (youth) almost everywhere, except 3 territorial units. This fact contributes to the reduction of a positive outcome of participation in the program, i.e. employment. The problem lies in the style of administrators that are not too delve into the circumstances and causes of the change of place of practice and did not want to give further attention to the participant.

T a b l e

The problem of the process of implementation the Program projects and Employment Centers operation in population clusters of Karaganda Oblast (based on sociological research)

Note: Compiled by the authors.

• -Low rate of involvement of youth into the program with disabilities (especially «persons with classicaldisabilities»vision, hearing orSMA). Advances in the employment of persons with disabilities are minor,except for Temirtau, where close cooperation with local public association Social Association «Temirtau Youth Club»is established.
• -When assessing the implementation of the project «Social workplaces» respondents ofall groups identified the following problems:
• -Specialists of the Employment Centers of rural settlements of the area are note problems when creating SWP due to the dominance of businesses with seasonal work (temporary employment). Hence we have the low probability of concluding a labor contract for a period of 1 year and more, while the final result of  the program is to find a job for permanent workplace.
• -The specialists of the Employment Centers of industrial cities have noted difficulties in establishing SWP due to dominance of enterprises of heavy and hazardous kinds of work. According to the current basic regulatory and legal Act, SWP are not created in heavy work, work in harmful and/or dangerous conditions. According to the Labor Codeof the Republic of Kazakhstan, heavy work is the kinds of employee activities associated with permanent movements, moving and carrying by hand (ten kilograms or more) weights and requiring greater physical effort (energy consumption, more than 250 kcal/h) [9]. These conditions limit the possibilities for Employment Centers of industrial cities to create and offer SWP to the program participants.
• -For large industrial enterprises the project is not attractive because wages have a small ratio in the production cost, benefits of subsidizing feels mainly sphere of services and small/medium business.
• -Difficulty of participants’ employment aged 50 years and higher (pre-retirement age) are fixed everywhere. People of pre-retirement nearing retirement age are considered by employers as an inefficient work force.
• -The difficulties of preparing documents for participation in the program include getting of medical certificate, which is issued only for a fee. Challengers have problems with preparing medical certificate on health status on form № 086/u, approved by order of the Acting Minister of health of the Republic of Kazakhstan from November 23, 2010 year,№907 «about the approval of forms of primary health care documentation of medical organizations» (registered in the State Register of Regulatory and legal Acts № 6697) [10] (Medical certificate is submitted by the participant before issuing a direction to the social working place).
• -Unattractiveness of SWP for farm households (hereinafter FHH) due to the presence of additional monitoring, requirements for preparing and submitting reports. According to the normative-legal base FHHmust submit reports each month if they receive subsidies to their employees' wages. During active season of agricultural works FHHmay miss time of reports, they get penalties and as a result, they refuse to participate in the program. This fact greatly reduces the possibilities of the program, as FHHare the main partners in the countryside.
• -Low rate of involvement into the program of people with the most massive typesof disability (vision, hearing, supporting-motor apparatus). It was noted by the specialists of the Employment Centers of all cities and districts of Karaganda region that people with disabilities are rare addresses to the Employment Centers for participation in the program. With those who have addressed, work is also hampered because there are a few opportunities are offered for employment people with disabilities and performance of this work is low. Only in certain cities, for example in Temirtau, if Employment Centers work closely with organizations of non-profit sector, the final results from the participation of disabled persons in the program improved.

While realization the project «Professional training and retraining» experts pointed out the following problems:

-Regional colleges have a contract with their employers (dual system), but they don’t enter the program according to the decision of the Regional Department of Education.As a result, the project participants are forced to go to Karaganda to get profession, in spite of the fact that in the locality there are corresponding schools that can prepare the project participants on a wide range of professions in accordance with the requirements of the employers (Osakarovka district, Nura district, Saran city, Balkhash city). Such a model does not suit the project participants, and they refuse to be trained for the following reasons:

1. Amount of fellowships and grants are insufficient for normal living in the city. Financial assistance for accommodation 21210 KZT,fellowship16000 KZT per month [11].
2. People cannot afford to leave the household for 3-6 months, especially in rural

• -In addition, for the staff of Employment Center the ability to monitor the process of participants being in the program is reducing.
• -The variant of the project «Professional training» is unattractive of for the participants and employers which took 10 months. Employers are not satisfied with the timing of professional training of specialists, since the employer is forced to wait a specialist nearly a year. Therefore, most often chosen form of «retraining» for a period of from 3 to 6 months.
• -Low rate of persons with disabilities involvement (especially on vision, hearing, SMA)in to the program because employment perspectives are oftennot clear for them.

In addition to the above problems,specialists of Employment Centers are highlighting program’s drawbacks:

• difficulties of implementing program for people with disabilities (especially on vision, hearing, SMA):
  1. Within the framework of «Social workplaces» project realization there is not indicative list of occupations for each category of disability, which is developed and approved by official bodies, such as the Ministry of health and social development, on which the staff of the Centers could draw upon when looking for a workplace.
  2. Within the framework of «Social workplaces» project realization, employers are not interested in receivinggrant only for a one year, referring to the fact that people with disabilities often have lower productivity than an ordinary
  3. Difficulties of communication with persons with disabilities, for example, specialist of the Centers do not speak sign language to work with hearing disability

As a result, Employment Centers are not interested when people with disabilities will be participants of the program. In practice, therefore, information about the program among people with disabilities is not spread out, in some cases was covered up (for example, in Karaganda, information about opportunities to participate in the project «Professional training and retraining» has been suppressed from the person with vision disabilities).

• Inefficient use of budgetary

1. It’s about payment of the scholarship to the working participant of the program, who is passing professional training. According to the expert’s opinion of Employment Centers, this category of program participants doesn't need scholarship because they continue to work and receive
2. Double subsidies for some employers. When implementing the program, in practice has formed a pattern according to which the company is subsidized twice, when it receives subsidies for a young man within the framework of the project «Youth practical training» (employer within 6 months of the practice pays nothing to practicing person) and then, when practicing personstays at the same enterprise in the framework of the project «Social workplaces» the employer saves 35% of the salary of the employee, which is compensated by the State. About 40% ofemployers-programparticipantsareimplementingthismodel.

Thus, factors that influence negatively on the implementation of the program and its outcomes have been identified by us as the objective and subjective.

The following objective factors were identified:

• -Regulatory and legal support of the ERM-2020 program and its coordination with the Labor Code on specific issues.
• -The volume and diversification of demand and supply on the local labor market resources that is predetermined by the geo-economic situation and the economic specialization of the region as a whole.
• -Macro and meso-economic conditions, i.e. the dynamics of economic development of the country and the region.

Subjective factors influencing the implementation of the program are: motivation of participants, motivation of employers, working style of program administrators.

From combination of objective factors the direct influence can be made on to the legal regulation of the program, which will in some cases neutralizing adverse geo-economic and meso-economic factors limiting  its effectiveness.

Proposals for lifting or weakening of the factors involved in the implementation of the program on the basis of improving the policy environment for it are presented in Figure.     

• Employment opportunities within 1,5 hour of accessibility from the place of residence of the participant
• Extension of participant age until 28 years
• Opportunity to decline the services of a participant in case of misconduct and poor performance; to bind the worker in this case to reimburse the State payroll costs
• Opportunity of breaking contract with FHH after 6 months and its renewal during the next 6 months, determine FHH duty to report once every six months
• Introduce amendment into the Labour legislative permitting to create SWP in places with harmful and dangerous conditions of work for persons wothout disabilities
• Adopting a rule on subsidizing labor of disabled persons of group 1 and 2 on a permanent base
• The introduction of the advance payment to receive medical sertificate for the program participant, which is issued after signing the contract
• Cancellation of scholarships for participants in the program who is taking retraining, because they are working and get wages
• Exclusion of the Department of Education out of dual system, employer Training Center. It will resulted in reducing costs for scholarships and financial aid, and will increase satisfaction of participants of the program, who in some cases will have training on the place of residence 

Figure. Proposals for improving regulatory and legal framework for providing implementation process of ERM-2020 program (compiled by the authors) 

So, in the project «Youth practical training» a step-back from the principle of tight fixing the place of practice according to the place of registration and specifying it as 1,5 hour of accessibility will allow the employee to get practical training within a metropolitan area or in the nearby area, which in many cases will resolve the question of structural labor market imbalances.

Meeting the interests of the employer, it is appropriate to prescribe for him an opportunity to decline the services of a young man in case of misconduct and poor performance, binding the worker in this case to reimburse the State payroll costs.

For the project «Social workplaces» it is appropriate to introduce the following amendments to the rules and regulations for participation in the program.

In rural areas where farm householdsis the main partners of the Employment Centers, it is advisable to determine the opportunity of braking yearly contract after 6 months of its implementation with the possibility of its renewal during the next 6 months. Given the nature of the economic activity in agriculture, determine their duty to report once every six months.

To resolve conflicts between the Labor Code prohibiting creating social working places in harmful and dangerous work, and by the ERM-2020 program can be introduced amendment into the Labor Code, according to which this provision applies only to workers with disabilities. This will allow cities, with a deficit of jobs, to employ ordinary unemployed at factories producing building materials, which for many small and medium-sized cities are the main subjects of the industry.

In the project « Professional training and retraining» an exclusion of the Department of Education out  of the number of decision makers subjects about the place of training, will in many cases allow implementationof dual system (agreement between the Employment Center, Training Center and the employer) without excessive bureaucracy. Since there is a lobbying of collegesinterests take place, which are located in the regional center, at the expense of Training Centers interests. 

It will also support the subjective interests of parties not willing to leave their places of permanent residence, and increase the economic efficiency of the project, because it will reduce unnecessary expenditures.

For all projects of the third direction of the program the relevant question is integration of citizens with disabilities, and the least involved are the most massive groups with vision, hearing, and movement disabilities. The best working schemes in this issue are cooperation with organizations of the non-profit sector. In our view, it is necessary to enter the remuneration of those organizations for each employed on permanent work.

Separate block of proposals for improving program implementation process is associated with changing program administrators’style of work:

• -It’s necessary to pass on an individual approach to the participant while observing period of practice within 6 months (despite the end of the calendar year) and the possibility of a one-time change of place of practice for the project participant.
• -There is a need to improve information transparency of the Employment Centre activity, providing publication on the official website of up-to-date information on professional training, time of admission those who have desire, etc.
• -It is necessary to strengthen cooperation with NGOs, because they can approach the matter informally and implement an individual approach in the employment of an employee with disabilities.
• -To maintain constant communication with participants and employers (monitoring) and subsequent to the results to avoid prolonged subsidization, especially double (project «Youth practical training» and SWP) by those employers whose work has been criticized by the participants of the program and performance on the issue of employment for a permanent of work is low.

Summing up the results of the study, we can draw conclusions that all of participants have problems during implementation of the ERM-2020 program. Systematization of the results of the expert survey allowed us to identify the factors that influence the implementation process and limiting the effectiveness of  the program. They are separated by us on objective (regulatory legal and economic) and subjective (motivation of participants, interests of employers, program administrators’style of working). To neutralize and reduce the negative impact of these factors on the effectiveness of the projects we have developed a number of recommendations for improving its regulatory legalframework and program management.

References

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