Our engagement to Public Employment Services
For the past three years, FGB has been providing expertise and technical support to one of the EU’s busiest and most productive networks. The European Network of Public Employment Services - also known as the PES Network - brings together public employment services (PES) from all EU countries, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, helping them to modernise and strengthen their services and supporting their role as key labour market actors.
The network’s main activities take place through an innovative process called bench learning, a combination of benchmarking and mutual learning. This involves carrying out a rigorous assessment of each public employment services’ activities in order to identify precisely what needs improving. The results of this assessment then feed into the network’s mutual learning activities.
This is where we at FGB provide our main added value. Every year, we design, organise and implement a series of webinars and mutual assistance projects, as well as the network’s annual stakeholder conference. These kinds of challenges, combining high-level expertise, creativity, and thorough project management skills, are where our consultants and experts truly come to shine.
The network’s webinars are open to the public, inviting experts and members of the network to share their knowledge on the latest developments regarding key labour market issues. We use an interactive methodology to ensure that all participants stay engaged at all times.
Mutual assistance projects (MAPs) on the other hand are private events involving two – or more – PES who come together over an extended period of time, meeting several times per year in order to develop a personalised roadmap towards improvement. We assist the PES by organising their meetings and providing them with technical support during their exchanges. Recent events have been dedicated to human resource management and digital service delivery.
The stakeholder conference brings together all the Heads of PES, along with a series of other labour market stakeholders and experts – trade unions, business representatives, private public employment services, civil society organisations – to hear from key labour market experts and peers on topics such as unemployment prevention, PES partnerships, or labour and skills shortages.
We take care of the entire event here, from defining the topic to drafting the post-event reports, designing the methodology, engaging dozens of high-level speakers from all over Europe, and generally making sure that every step goes to plan along the way. The 2019 conference took place in Brussels, while the 2021 edition was held entirely online, and both editions have been extremely well received.
Our communication team is also responsible for leading and managing the network’s online presence. This involves drafting a communication strategy, writing news articles on each of the network’s many events and publications, sending out regular newsletters, managing the website, providing graphic design for publications, and shooting two videos per year.
Finally, every year, we produce a practitioners’ toolkit providing detailed insight into a particular topic – such as knowledge management or services for people with disabilities – along with a series of good practices and recommendations from renowned experts. The final product is presented in a compact, easy-to-read format.
Our main counterpart in this project is the European Commission’s DG EMPL, who are responsible for managing the network. We also collaborate with a series of partners, including ICON-Institut, ISG, and ÖSB.
Find out more by visiting the network’s webpages or by contacting us at pesnetwork@fondazionebrodolini.eu
