Talk to COST research meeting in Darmstadt about the policy rational for work on ICTs and employment and the JRC-IPTS work on crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, online volunteering and timebanks and their implcations for employment and employability policy
OpenShift Commons Paris - Choose Your Own Observability Adventure
EC policy actions and priorities in employment, and the potential of online exchanges to support employability and employment
1. EC policy actions priorities in
employment,
and the potential of online exchanges
to support employability and
employment
James Stewart
JRC-IPTS
Sevilla
James.stewart@ec.europa.eu
2. 2
IPTS: Part of Joint Research
Centre of the EC: 7 Research
Institutes across Europe
Mission: “to provide customer-
driven support to the EU
policy-making process by
developing science-based
responses to policy challenges
that have both a socio-
economic as well as a
scientific/technological
dimension”
Joint Research Centre - Institute for
Prospective Technological Studies
IPTS tools for research:
Participation in FP projects, Research
procurement, Experts workshops,
networking…
3. EU policy developments: employment,
social inclusion and digital inclusion
Policy background
European employment strategy (since 1997)
• Open Method of Coordination
• Advise, monitor and coordinate
Europe 2020 Strategy (since 2009)
• European institutions, the member states and the social
partners
• Smar,t sustainable, inclusive
4. Europe 2020 Strategy
targets on Inclusive Growth
Increase employment from 69 to 75% of population:
Focus on youth, older workers and low skilled workers, and the
better integration of migrants
Improve educational levels through:
Reducing school drop-out rates below 10%
Increasing the share of the population having completed
tertiary education, at least 40% of 30-34 years old
Promote social inclusion through:
Reducing poverty levels: at least 20 million fewer people in or at
risk of poverty and social exclusion
5. Europe 2020
Strategy
7 Flagship
initiatives
Digital Agenda for Europe
An Agenda for New skills and Jobs
Youth on the Move
European Platform against Poverty
Innovation Union
Resource efficient Europe
An industrial policy for
The globalisation era
6. The big problem: Unemployment
• Rising unemployment (euro area 12%; EU27 10.7% 26,3m
04-2013) and long term unemployment (4.1% 2011)
• Rising NEETs (14 mio in 2012, 48.1% unemployed rate)
(Eurofound)
• 23,4% or 116 mio of EU population is at risk of poverty or
exclusion in 2010, up 2 mio from 2009, worsening in 2011
• Women, children, youth and migrants are key vulnerable
groups
• In-work poverty increasing: 1/3 of working age adults at risk
of poverty are working in 2010
NEED NEW IDEAS
;
7. EU Policy responses
• Employment Pack, Towards a Job rich
recovery (18.4.2012)
• Social Investment Pack (20/2/2013)
• Digital Agenda, planned next steps
7April 15, 2013
8. 1. Employment Pack: “Towards a job-
rich recovery”
1. Support Job creation and reallocation of labour
(improve labour market situation of more vulnerable groups)
• Encouraging labour demand
• Modernisation of EURES and public PES
• Microfinance and social entrepreneurs
• Exploit the job creation potential of key sectors (green economy,
health and social care, and ICT professional jobs)
2. Restore the dynamics of the labour markets
• Reform labour markets (Flexicurity)
3. Investing in skills
4. Towards a European labour market
5. Enhance EU governance
9. 2. Social Investment Package
Published 20/2/2013
5 “Integrated Pillars”
Members State will (with EC support):
• 1. Increase the sustainability and adequacy of budgets for
social policies
• 2. Pursue activating and enabling policies and provide
adequate livelihoods
• 3. Invest across the life course, starting with children and
youth
• 4. Innovate and reform social policy based on evidence
• 5. Streamline monitoring, governance and information
10. Including (cfr 2.2, P11, MS to)
Close the gender pay gap and address other barriers to women’s
and other underrepresented workers’ participation in the
labour market, including by encouraging employers to address
workplace discrimination and offer reconciliation measures (such
as childcare services), adapted workplaces, including ICT-based
solutions, eAccessibility, diversity management, programmes for
up-skilling and training, for the recognition of skills and
qualification as well as mobility
11. 3. Digital Agenda for Europe
Mid Term review (went through CIS, still under discussion)
Digital Inclusion -> Jobs and Skills
http://daa.ec.europa.eu/group/12/content
On addressing the skills gap:
• Accelerate massive and constant up- and re-skilling
• Mapping of skills needs for training design
• EC: Grand Coalition on ICT and jobs to address the ICT
skills gap (Kroes slide)
On Social Media usage:
• Stimulating innovative start-ups and SMEs that use social
media
• Promote more collaborative public services
12. IPTS research on ICTs, Social Inclusion
and Employability
In support of the Digital Agenda, 5 year programme of research on
• ICTs and migrants
• ICTs and informal care for the elderly
• ICT and youth
• eInclusion Intermediaries
• Digital Games and social inclusion
Shifting from work for DG CNECT to DG EMPL: mainstreaming
2012 ICTs and Employability (2 reports, IER, Warwick)
What is employability, and how are ICTs implicated in development
and undermining employability?
Pathways to and transitions in employment, specifically for groups
at risk groups?
Role of social services, families, PES, local intermedairies,
employers, central gov. policy?
12
13. ICTs and Future Work in the Network
Economy: the role of Internet-based
work exchanges
April 15, 2013 13
European Commission Employment Package 2012 Key Action 8
"Map new forms of employment…. Which make organisations more
agile and responsive to changes while boosting durable
employment retention and job creation".
What does ‘Crowdsourcing’ mean for
the future of Employment and
Employability, and policy in these
areas?
14. Follow the hype….
“Information Society”
“Network Economy”
“Web2.0”
“Social Media”
“ Wisdom of the Crowd”
“Sharing economy”
15. Follow the hype….
Crowdsourcing (Howe,2006)
Software ->opensource projects
Texts and knowledge -> wikipedia, citizen journalism
Ideas/knowledge - > ‘(open) innovation’ ‘crowd creativity’,
Politics-> online campaigns, government, law
Money - > Crowdfunding, peer to peer leaning
Making -> manufacturing markets
Sharing’ ->peer2peer economy/ social solidarity
‘Work’ -> microwork, elancing….., ‘distributed human
intelligence tasking’
‘
16. Crowdsourcing
An on-demand, online, distributed problem-solving,
financing
and production model
combining top-down (control)
and bottom-up elements (voluntarism, ‘social’),
with a software-based intermediary
coordinating tasks and facilitating a market
Crowd-sourcing <- Out-sourcing
17. 1. Crowdsourced labour
New ways of finding work, finding workers,
being employed and getting work done
MTurk, Microtask, People per hour, Top
Coder, elance, innocentiv
Millions of workers, micro, mini-contracts
‘Free’, ‘Cheap’, ‘Flexible’
2. Crowdfunding
Access to Capital and market
for personal and community projects
leading to employment and/or
increasing employability
Equity, donation, loans, rewards
Indiegogo Kickstarter, Mi Grano de Arena
Money Economy
18. Non-monetarised work
Increasing interest in how unpaid work is a crucial element
in building and demonstrating employability
3. ‘Virtual’ Volunteering
Find opportunities
Doing voluntary work online
Organising voluntary work
Microvoluntarios, Help from home, Frivilligjob
4. Reciprocal exchange: Timebanks and
complementary currencies
In Europe since the 1990s
High growth in last 5 years
Facilitated by the internet and computers.
Timebanking UK, Fureai Kippu,LETS, timebanks.org
19. Research Questions
Little documented evidence to answer these, from
current range of services and practices, and
from a user perspective. We need more data
1.How do new Internet-based systems based on
exchange or donation of labour, or capital
provision operate from both the user and
operator perspectives?
2.What are the opportunities and challenges that
each of these types of service and practice
present to policy?
20. Objectives
1.Database of Practices (Short and long cases)
2.State of the Art of practice
3.Analyse impact on working lives
4.Conclusions for future of employment, for policy
and research
Unpack ‘ the crowd’
21. Research Partners
Project ‘Crowdemploy’
Institute for employment
research, University of
Warwick
David Boyle – timebanks, LETS
and complementary
currencies
Jayne Cravens – virtual
volunteering
Javier Ramos - Crowdfnding
2104/15/13
22. Research design
and outputs
Literature Review
State of Art Reports written by
experts
Short Case studies from interviews
and literature
Long Cases – In-depth qualitative
research on users and intermediaries
Outputs:
•Expert Reports
•Workshop in Brussels in June
•Special edition or Book
•Policy Report Nov 2013
23. • Models of social innovation in employment markets
• Access to work : match demand and supply – lessons for PES?
• New jobs: On-demand and flexible offer and demand for
independent workers and SMES.
• European/Global labour market: new network, flexible
economy organisation.
• New ways of working/work: new skills requirements
• New ways of learning skills and demonstrating them
• Development and demonstration of skills through non-monetised
work (voluntary and reciprocal)
• Services that have most use in Transitions in working life.
• Microfinance and mentoring
• Support for Entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship
• Work to suit vulnerable citizens? Support reconciliation?
• Social inclusion through unpaid work
• Promotes social solidarity
Relevance to policy :
24. Some Issues for research and policy
• Organisation of users/workers – representation?
• Standardisation of work processes and quality control.
• Presentation of self
• Trust and reputation
• Exploitation and commodification of workers
• Undermining existing employment
• Low quality work
• More exclusionary for vulnerable people:
• New barriers to work
• Outsourcing to non-EC countries v. development potential
• Abuse and gaming of systems
• Arbitrary and uncontrolled lock out of workers and requesters
• Regulatory difficulties and challenges : finance, labour law.
• Political discourses and acceptability of these types of work
24April 15, 2013