While the Czech Mutual Assistance Project is in its first steps, PES representatives in Spain have been discussing the impact of their own mutual assistance project through a follow-up visit in Madrid on 16 July.

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This workshop was the chance to acknowledge the progress made by the project since its inception in 2018, and to set up the next steps for the 2019 programme.

One major challenge for public employment services in Spain is to create a real atmosphere of collaboration between the many actors, as the competence is split between the central PES –SEPE – on one side, and the PES of autonomous regions on another.

According to the participants in the workshop, the mutual assistance project in Spain – supported by the German, French, Swedish and Latvian PES – has been a catalyst for cooperation between regional PES, leading to a real exchange of ideas and several common initiatives.

Changes are currently ongoing in important fields such as training, profiling jobseekers, customer satisfaction, and partnerships. An agreement has been signed with the Federation of Municipalities and Provinces in this regard.

This truly shows the impact which mutual assistance projects can have on a country, and is a welcome confirmation that all the hard work pays off in the end.

We look forward to seeing how this new collaboration will evolve along the next steps of the Spanish project, with a next workshop in Sevilla on 14 and 15 November.