Context
In recent years, the labour market in the Valencian Community (Spain) has improved overall; however, unemployment remained at 12.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024, and structural imbalances continued to limit equal access to employment. Women, young people, individuals over 45, long-term unemployed people, and migrants face persistent barriers including demotivation, insufficient transversal competences, digital gaps, and limited exposure to real recruitment processes. As a result, traditional guidance services have struggled to sustain long-term activation and employability outcomes.
In response, LABORA (the Valencian Employment and Training Service) developed the LABORA Employment Club, a structured group-based guidance model combining intensive activation, competence development, and systematic follow-up. The programme consists of 14 face-to-face sessions over six weeks, delivered in stable heterogeneous groups and supported by individual diagnosis and post-programme monitoring.
Since 2016, several LABORA offices have piloted participatory group guidance initiatives with positive activation and employment results, although without a common methodology. From July 2024, these experiences were consolidated into a standardised, assessable, and replicable organisational model.
The Employment Club has demonstrated significant impact among vulnerable groups and represents an evidence-based organisational innovation within public employment services, designed for scalability and transferability.
Objectives
The overall objective of the project has been to design and consolidate the LABORA Employment Club model, ensuring its methodological consistency, effectiveness, and adaptability to different territorial contexts and jobseeker profiles.
Specifically, the project aimed to:
- improve employability and support the integration of participants into the labour market through an active, participatory, and data-driven approach;
- adapt and update content, materials, and dynamics based on previous experiences and labour market developments;
- define and standardise a group-guidance methodology, ensuring common quality standards in its application;
- strengthen key personal, professional, and digital skills for active job search;
- establish a monitoring and evaluation system to support continuous improvement based on measurable outcomes;
- continuously train and train guidance staff, ensuring rigorous implementation that is adaptable to the needs of each group;
- create the basis for replication and scaling up of the Employment Club model to other LABORA offices.
Implementation
The project was implemented over an 18-month period (1 July 2024–31 December 2025) and structured into two phases. In the first phase, previous group guidance experiences were systematically reviewed and transformed into a common, standardised model. Content, materials, and methodologies were refined, and specific training was delivered to guide staff to ensure consistent and high-quality implementation.
In the second phase, the LABORA Employment Club model was progressively implemented in two reference employment offices. Successive editions allowed real-context testing, data collection, and iterative adjustments. The programme evolved from 7 to 14 face-to-face sessions delivered over six weeks, with two weekly sessions in closed, stable groups of 15–20 participants, fostering trust, peer learning, and cohesion.
The intervention combined initial diagnostic interviews, structured group sessions focused on employability competences, and individual follow-up at two months. It was delivered exclusively with LABORA’s own resources.
Across editions with full monitoring, the labour market integration rate reached 30.2% at two months and 52% at six months; as contextual reference, the 12-month regional rate for vulnerable groups is 26.4%. These results confirm the model’s effectiveness, scalability, and transferability within public employment services.