Matching jobseekers with interventions to improve employment outcomes in Portugal

Fellows: Nathan Coulson, Rosa Lavelle-Hill, Tobias Richter

Technical Mentor: Liliana Millán 

Project Manager: Sara Sousa

Project Partner: Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP)

Unemployment is a big challenge, globally. For unemployed, there are consequences related to their physical and psychological well-being, especially when job searching is demanding. 

One of the barriers that hinders job candidates’ ability to find a job is a mismatch between the individual’s skills and the skills required by the available jobs. Currently, Job counsellors who work at the Public employment services provide service users with recommendations for an intervention. This is typically done by selecting an intervention from a large list of potential interventions, in a limited amount of time based on counselors’ past experience. Overall, there is little, if any, understanding on how different interventions impact the probability of finding a job, and how different individuals may benefit from them.

We are partnering with the public employment service in Portugal to augment the work of IEFP job counsellors by providing personalised and relevant intervention and job recommendations, taking into account contextual information about the individuals’ desires and restrictions and their socio-economic context. These recommendations will assist with the collaborative process of building an action plan and ultimately help job seekers find suitable employment.