Three decades of interventions for the unemployed - review of practices between 1990 and 2020 and their effects on (re) employment competencies

Purpose This paper provides evidence of the outcomes proposed by the reviewed programmes and their level of effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Articles were screened by title and abstract to ensure correspondence with exclusion/inclusion criteria. Themes were analysed through collective coding and scoring. Size effects were calculated. Findings Three expected outcomes: psychological, technical and (re) employment. The most frequent and significant results are found in psychological. The review could not find consistent results in effectiveness of the type of training, because of the diversity of propositions and socio-cultural origins of interventions. Research limitations/implications Socio-cultural context acts as variable; thus, deep interdisciplinary analysis on context where trainings were developed is suggested in order to understand the impact of trainings according to their population defining effectiveness. Originality/value There is no previous review of type of interventions for the unemployed focusing on last 30 years.

Automated summary

This study examined the outcomes of training programs for the unemployed, focusing on psychological, technical, and employment aspects. The most significant results were found in the psychological domain, while consistent results in the effectiveness of training types were lacking due to the diverse socio-cultural backgrounds of interventions. Deep interdisciplinary analysis of the socio-cultural context where the trainings were conducted is recommended to better understand their impact on the target populations.