Foreign workers in social sector after a year and a half - where do we stand now?
A year and a half has passed since the official launch of the Foreign workers in social sector project in February 2022. The main objective of the project is to support the integration of foreign workers in the social services sector who have difficulties in entering the labour market due to language and cultural barriers, but also due to mistrust of employers and prejudice from other employees.
In the first year of the project, together with the project partners, we carried out an extensive analysis of the employment of foreign workers in the Czech Republic, France, Belgium, Austria and Greece. A questionnaire survey of employers and foreign workers in social services was carried out, ten interviews with employers and foreign workers were conducted in each partner country, reports on the employment of foreign workers in each country were produced and two extensive analyses summarising the results for all partner countries were produced. These analyses are available on the project website www.foreignworkers.eu.
In the following six months, the Belgian partner, the Federation of European Social Employers, in cooperation with other partners, prepared Guidelines and Recommendations for HR managers and managers in social services. In June 2023, a project partners' meeting was held in Brussels to discuss these guidelines and subsequently prepare the final version of the document, which will be available for download. The purpose of this document is to set out guidelines and recommendations on the recruitment and employment process of foreign social workers, to help remove barriers and create equal opportunities for foreign workers and thus promote their integration into the social services labour market.
In the remaining 12 months of the project, a training programme for managers and HR managers in social services on the employment of foreign workers will be developed, both in face-to-face and online formats. In early 2024, this training programme will be pilot tested in several partner countries. If you want to learn more, keep an eye on the Foreign Workers website!
