Promoting Jobs Growth to Benefit Disadvantaged People and Communities – An International Review of Best Practice

This report sets out the findings from a study into strategies that link the
promotion of investment and the employment of economically inactive groups.
The aim is to ascertain current practice in 10 relevant countries (Australia;
Belgium; Denmark; Finland; Germany; the Netherlands; New Zealand;
Slovenia; Spain; USA plus Great Britain) and their transferability to the
Northern Ireland (NI) policy and labour market context. The study was carried
out by the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University on
behalf of the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Investment in NI (DETI).

The study describes cases of good practice in securing investment in areas,
sectors and occupations that provide accessible entry-level positions for
economically inactive groups. It seeks to identify the ‘critical success factors’
common to effective strategies, drawing out lessons for future Northern
Ireland policy.

In this study ‘Investment’ includes foreign direct investment (FDI) and private
investment that expands the ‘export’ capacity of the NI economy (i.e.
excluding investment aimed at the NI market). ‘Economically inactive’ people
are those excluded or seriously at risk of exclusion from the labour market.