In the beginning, all 494 immigrant workers registered at the Employment Centre of Venice - Mestre from 03/01/2001 to 22/11/2001 have been contacted by phone or mail. By carrying on semi-structured interviews, unemployed immigrants' professional skills have been evaluated in order to prepare vocational training and/or accompanying activities. Thanks to custom-tailored educational programs, the goal of finding new human resources to meet the needs of local enterprises has been achieved.

What's more, the interview had also the purpose of getting information about the reasons behind workers mobility, in order to prepare strategies to fidelise employees and fill the lack of workforce in critical sectors.

The CVs of unemployed people meeting the needs of the labour market of the Province of Venice have been sent to all the companies registered at the Employers Union of Venice (thirty-eight). According to results, everybody was offered a job, even old people or people partially unable to work.
Something interesting occurred: immigrants other than the contacted ones asked for an interview with the 'immigrants desk'. They got the address from their friends, thus indirectly confirming that they had found a job thanks to this service.

Twenty-three people have been sent to professional training centres in order to train and insert them into the labour market. All of them have been 'booked' by the employers. For instance, an immigrant holding a degree in architecture became an architect. All 112 unemployed people ready to work have been recorded into the NETLABOR programme, by filling a job demand/offer form. That software is a powerful tool used by the Employment Centre of Venice - Mestre and is quite useful to make job offers and demands meet each other. At the same time, the Province of Venice - Labour & Professional Training Dept. has planned four courses to train 60 people in the most frequently asked fields of the industry.

From all the immigrants contacted by the programme, 38 got a job directly and 23 after a training course. Other 112 people have been recorded in a very efficient data base to get a job. About 60 people are being trained in four courses.

The jobs are mainly in the manufacturing industry. Home care and nursery come second. Even a handful of professionals have found a job.

One of the main aspects of the program is to secure reasonable jobs with good perspectives for the future. Special emphasis has been put on the study of factors that could increase workers' loyalty to the company and reduce general turnover in sectors looking for long-term skilled workers.

The project has been very successful due specially to these key elements:
The cooperation between the public sector and private companies and associations.
The custom tailored education programs.
The semi-structured interviews to evaluate the professional skills to prepare vocational training and/ or accompanying activities.
The NETLABOR job demand / offer software.

The financial resources needed for the implementation of the programme are around 200.000 euros for two years. The sources of funding are the European Social Fund, the Province of Venice and the Employers' Union of Venice.

The staff that manage the project are: 2 advisors, 1 coordinator, 1 tutor and external trainers.

IF YOU WISH ANY FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT TO:

Provincia di Venezia.
Settore Lavoro e Formazione Professionale.
Mr. Ludlim Adjaz.