Employers' participation and engagement in active labour market programmes in the UK and Denmark, mixed methods study 2014-2015

Data collection consists of (1) a survey of 1,003 employers in the UK and 500 in Denmark in order to measure their participation, engagement and experiences of active labour market programmes and (2) qualitative in-depth interviews with 37 UK employers, 20 Danish employers, 29 UK providers and 12 Danish providers.<p>Helping unemployed people to obtain work is of critical concern for both public policy and society. ‘Welfare to work’, or 'active labour market' programmes have a key role to play in addressing this, yet we know little about how the organisations which deliver such programmes interact with employers. This research will address that gap by exploring these ‘inter-organisational relations’ in the UK and Denmark.
The study involved two main phases of data collection in both countries. Phase 1 comprised quantitative surveys of employers. Stage 2 involved in-depth local area qualitative case studies of the interactions between employers and employment service providers.

The project aims to: (1) Contribute new data and insights about how the configurations of organisations and contracting modes in the UK and Denmark affect employer engagement; (2)Bring an inter-organisational perspective into policy analysis to theorise the nature, outcomes and effectiveness of the relations between employers and welfare to work organisations. (3) Produce a conceptual tool for studying welfare to work policies by developing a comparative typology of employer engagement. (4) Inform the design and delivery of welfare to work programmes, in order to improve their effectiveness and encourage the best use of public money.
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