Some Experience of the Complex, National Human Resource Development Programmes in the Hungarian Rural Regions

The key objective of this paper is the structural-regional examination of disadvantaged job seekers’ employability in the convergence regions of Hungary. One element of the comparative evaluation of the EU-supported, complex, national employability-enhancing programmes is the exploration of successful and unsuccessful factors and the formulation of recommendations for future projects of this kind. While the evaluation of the previous programme beginning nearly a decade ago was based on document analysis (technical procedures, budget summaries, communications plans, action and progress schedules and reports), in-depth interviews with the employment departments staff provided assistance in the evaluation accomplished five years later. The assessment of interviews was completed by the public, follow-up data about people successfully passing the programme and still being employed half a year after the closing of the programme. This data was the basis for the measurement of regional impact, which necessitated the development of two regional reintegration indicators. The group-specific evaluation pointed to the fact that low-skilled people can be involved with much less efficiency into employability-enhancing programmes. The present study also shows that the expected marginal utility of an employability programme is greater, which is realised in an economic environment driven by labour market demand.