As objectives we posed 5 questions important for our learning in areas that we wish to develop at the department. 1) The Working LIfe Dept has a close cooperation with the Unemployment Agency in Borås. Which methods are needed for strengthening such cooperation surrounging clients and their individual needs? 2) Sweden does not have a very long tradition of apprenticeship eduaction whereas Germany does. How is the system in Germany structured and what could be useful to do in Sweden? 3) What sort of system is there for companies to be motivated to employ persons with disabilities? 4) How is cooperation between unemployment agencies and civil society formed and how does it function? 5) What sort of research and evidence-based methods are there that allow for continous development with prioritzed target groups?
Arbetslivsförvaltningen (The Working Life Dept) of the City of Borås is responsible for the welfare and capacity building for our city's most disadvantaged citizens. We work with municipal resources for the labour market with finding work-based training opportunites , we provde rehabilitation, guidance, life skills training as well as financial assistance for those without other sources of income. Our clients represent many different social needs where we have many different program areas to adress these needs both with preventive aims as well as recovery (mental health issues, former substance abuse, integration and segregation, NEETS, former convicts. This project was aimed at gaining perspective and knowledge from our hosting organisation on how they deal with similar issues to learn of where they may have better success than in our system. The overarching goal was to be able to learn and compare in order to further develop ourselves and our work for the betterment of the lives of our citizens. This project also marks an important starting point for developing our department though a new internationalisation strategy, as well as for the city wide organisational initiative to work with social sustainability as a process.