The Finnish Living Lab in the city of Kokkola will include several actions for job seekers, employees, and employers. The actions will be developed and implemented in a collaboration with the regional coalition consisting e.g. of municipal employment services, training institutions, employers, and third sector organizations and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
The main target groups will be long-term unemployed job seekers, employees working in subsidized jobs, young employees (under 29 years old) who have received their first employment, and employees who want to progress occupationally.
For increasing employment of job seekers, a peer group-based Taite-coaching and an individual-based IPS-couching will be implemented. These coaching methods, for instance, increase job seekers’ confidence in their abilities, skills, and possibilities to gain employment. The employees who have enhanced their employability in subsidized jobs or received their first employment after education but whose labour market position is still vulnerable will be helped to find more sustainable employment. Accordingly, interventions will be needed for employees and their supervisors at workplaces as well as work communities. Furthermore, possibilities to support skill development of employees collectively across sector(s) and to enhance mobility across workplaces will be investigated further.
Since most workplaces (83 %) in the Kokkola region are micro-organizations having less than six employees, the implementation of the interventions will be started in the Kokkola municipal itself which employes ca. 2.300 persons. It is hoped that this pilot phase encourages other employers to participate.