LABOUR INTEGRATION AND PROMOTION OF EMPLOYABILITY IN VULNERABLE GROUPS: WHAT EMPLOYABILITY IS FOR AGENTS OF WORK INTEGRATION SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

The work integration social enterprises (WISE) are one of the major initiatives to get the labour integration and to combat social exclusion by building employees' integration pathways as a support structure for their employability. Employability is a key concept in the current social context of work and education. The changes that have characterized capitalism since the end of the last century and the current crisis have involved a change in the conception of temporary employment and career. This implies, on the one hand, the need for coordination of various social contexts (education/training, industry and economy) (LCEur 2006\3393) and generating new quality indicators to minimize exclusion (LCEur 1996\2361 and LCEur 2005\1178). In this context, employability plays a key role: Research about employability and the social discourse indicate that employability is capital for a successful transition to the labour market. However, there is a lack of consensus about the conceptualization of employability and, therefore, about how it could be assessed. In addition, not all studies analysing or assessing employability of certain groups identify the perspective and concept of employability they adopt. In this presentation we aim at analyzing the concept of employability in a sample of 55 WISE based on two relevant sources of information: i) responses of integration agents to a semi-structured survey about employability (explicit dimension), and ii) analysis of employability dimensions included in their instruments to measure it following three phases, i.e., period of adaptation, update of the professional project and the transition to the ordinary labour market (implicit dimension). Results show that employability is usually considered from a possibilistic perspective, according to which individuals are responsible for their competences and work trajectory. With regard to employability dimensions, there is a great ambiguity and heterogeneity in the measurement of employability. Finally, we discuss the analysis and assessment of employability in vulnerable groups in order to strengthen the bond between training and labour integration.