Vocational education and training (VET) can play a crucial role in tackling many of the most pressing challenges that Europe is faced with today, such as competitiveness, youth unemployment and social inclusion. To put the VET-sector in the best possible position to do so, it is crucial to...

Poverty and social exclusion are often associated with long-term unemployment and household worklessness. Yet in today's European labour market, a job is not always sufficient to provide a decent livelihood for workers and their families. In many Member States, in-work poverty is on the rise,...

The OECD and the European Union have been advising governments to reform income support systems to facilitate greater activation of out-of-work claimants alongside enabling job-seekers to find work through activation programmes. Income support provided to unemployed people can be linked with...

Income inequality has increased within many EU countries over the past 40 years and a lot of research has been conducted trying to understand the causes behind this increase. Many of the causes are thought to be global in nature (a demand shift favouring highly skilled workers in advanced...

The objective of this preparatory study is to make recommendations on how the ex post evaluation of the European Social Fund (ESF) for the 2007-2013 programming period should be carried out. The study explored different ways of assessing the effectiveness, efficiency and socio economic impact of...