Legitimacy of Activation Work in Active Labour Market Policy in Slovakia

The text summarises the findings of field research carried out in Slovakia aimed at understanding the reasons for the low impact of activation work on increasing the employment of programme participants.The research was conducted in the context of a legislative change that significantly limited the opportunities for participation in activation work, with the expectation of the legislators being that activation work participants would seamlessly move into the labour market, which suffers from a significant shortage of labour force.The findings note the weak link between the activation programme and other active labour market policy measures, the absence of support programmes aimed at increasing the human and social capital of programme participants necessary for their successful entry and retention in the labour market.There is also the problem of incorrectly formulated expectations from the activation programme and failure to take into account the specific needs of programme participants, who often face variety of structural barriers and statistical discrimination in achieving their goals.The findings also argue in favour of an activation programme, as it often represents the only opportunity for participation in active labour market policies for a large group of people who are distant from the labour market, including a large group of young people.However, in order to achieve better results, the implementation of the programme needs to be substantially reviewed and implemented in conjunction with other support measures.