Bridging Young Roma and Business: Intervention for inclusion of Roma youth through employment in the private sector in Bulgaria and Hungary (Bridge to Business)

The Bridge to Business project (HRom in Hungarian) relies on a new approach for Roma inclusion through promoting employment on the primary labour market, more specifically in the private sector, and through advancing responsible employment practices. The main objective of the project is to facilitate the access of secondary and university level educated Roma to quality white-collar jobs at private companies. The long-term aim of the project is to contribute to the formation of a Roma middle-class and to develop an inclusive society of decreasing prejudices and anti-Roma attitudes. The project also aims at raising awareness in the Roma communities of the added value of education. It is envisioned that examples and experiences of improved employment chances and successful carrier building among the young Roma will be widely known.

The core concept of the project steps beyond the most common Roma employment programmes targeting low educated, long-term unemployed people and proposes alternative measures to boost Roma employment. The activities support the potential Roma employees, on the one hand, through preparing them for a successful entry to corporate employment. On the other hand, the project also supports the employer companies in adapting their internal procedures in order to support the recruitment and integration of less competitive Roma candidates and to create a more inclusive environment. The elements of the intervention will offer knowledge for designing wider social policy tools to bridge the gap between the relatively educated Roma minority and the corporate sector.

The interventions will develop, test, and rigorously evaluate various services to individuals and business organizations. CEU CPS is responsible for the impact assessment of the project. Project monitoring and evaluation will focus both on the personal development of the project participants as well as potential changes that the project facilitates concerning the corporate ethos and diversity policies of partner companies, which partake in the program and employ young Roma.

This project has received funding from the European Union under the Grant Agreement no. VS/2016/0236.

This communication reflects the views only of the CPS and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.