The “Localities Promoting Employment, Education and Community” Program addresses the integration into employment of people not participating in the labor market, through building community infrastructure in urban localities. In 2007-10, the program was conducted under the professional leadership of TEVET and financed by it. In 2011, it became part of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. In all this time, it was implemented by the Israel Association of Community Centers (IACC). The program includes: creating organizational and physical infrastructure – an employment center; creating information infrastructure on employment topics; creating employment-supportive community infrastructure.
The study examined the implementation and outcomes of the program in its first three years (2007-09) at five localities in northern Israel: Acre, Karmiel, Tamra-Kabul, Kiryat Shmona and Bet She’an. It attempted to identify the key components contributing to the success of program implementation. It also examined the process of transferring the program from TEVET to the ministry. The examination of implementation related to the following components:
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The organizational, physical and information infrastructure
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The consolidation of work processes, with reference also to the implementation of the education and community components
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Employment-promoting services supplied to participants
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Outcomes of program participation in terms of job placement and retention
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Extent of potential clients among community residents
The data were collected in August 2009 using a number of tools: face-to-face interviews with program directors and staff of the employment centers; observation of working meetings of program directors; telephone interviews with key figures connected with the program; data on the participants from the administrative databases of the program and TEVET’s database, as well as data on patterns of employment in the community from Labor Force Surveys of the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Study findings were presented to the ministry director-general, the director of Regional Development and his staff, and to program directors of TEVET and IACC. The findings were used both to compose a program manual and as important input in the process of transferring responsibility from TEVET to the ministry.
The study was initiated by JDC-TEVET and funded by it.