Professorship Labour Market Transitions

The Professorship Labour Market Transitions focuses primarily on the interaction between the functioning of the labour market and the regulations governing work, education and training, and the economy. The professorship has three chairs: Human Capital, Regional Labour Market, and Labour Participation.

The Professorship Labour Market Transitions conducts applied research into labour market transitions in order to contribute to a sustainable and agile regional economy. This includes, for example, the alignment between education and training and employment, transitions from unemployment to work, and shifts from one job to another.

Legislation and regulations, covenants, policy agreements, organisational practices and personal preferences all influence these transitions. To understand this complexity, the professorship adopts a multi-level perspective, examining, for instance, the interaction between individuals, organisations, and (sub)regions and sectors.

In addition, the professorship works from a multi-actor approach, recognising that multiple stakeholders, employers, employees, government, education and others, jointly enable labour market transitions.

Human Capital research area

The Human Capital research area is always connected to other knowledge domains, institutes, professorships, governments and economic sectors. This applies both internally within Hanze University of Applied Sciences and externally, with partners at national and international level, as well as within our region.

We examine how Human Capital plays a role in strengthening SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). In addition, we explore whether and how innovation ecosystems can contribute to the development of Human Capital and the growth of SMEs.

Regional Labour Market research area

Successful economic activity in a region starts with well-educated people. Talent within the region forms the foundation for economic growth and broad prosperity. At the same time, demographic and technological developments are driving rapid changes in both available and required skills, as well as in jobs and professions. Within this research area, we focus on the regional labour market of the future and on what is needed today to ensure a sufficient supply of qualified people in the years ahead.

Our research focuses on career paths, examining where people have grown up, live and work. For example, practically educated individuals are more likely to work in the municipality where they grew up than higher-educated individuals. We also study the changing expectations that both employers and younger generations of job seekers have regarding meaningful work. This provides insights that can support recruitment and employee retention.

In addition, we focus on the learning and development culture within organisations, as lifelong learning is central to the future regional labour market.

Labour Participation research area

The mission of the Labour Participation research area is straightforward: to increase employment and reduce unemployment in the Northern Netherlands through research and innovation. The focus is primarily on groups that face difficulties in the labour market.

Work is of crucial importance for several reasons. For individuals, it not only provides a higher income, but also social contacts, a sense of belonging and structure in daily life. In short, work contributes to overall well-being. It also has a positive impact on the liveability of neighbourhoods and communities, while enabling businesses to thrive.

Despite labour market shortages, more than 54,500 people in the Northern Netherlands are unemployed and around 80,000 people receive disability benefits (Statistics Netherlands, reference date March 2023). For a long time, efforts have focused on preparing unemployed individuals for available jobs, for example through coaching, training or work experience placements. Given current labour market conditions, this is no longer sufficient. In addition to these measures, attention must also be given to adapting jobs to better suit unemployed individuals. How this works in practice is not yet fully understood.

Even then, a group will remain for whom obtaining and retaining paid employment is not feasible. However, this does not mean they cannot contribute through work. It is increasingly recognised that society relies on volunteers and informal carers. The question is how to encourage unemployed individuals to engage in and continue such forms of work, thereby contributing to the regional economy in their own way.

The professorship aims to develop a labour market monitor to provide insight into the impact of labour market reintegration measures. For example: does training lead to sustainable employment in the long term? What is needed to enable part-time unemployed individuals to work more hours and become financially independent? How many unemployed people can be motivated to engage in structural volunteer work?

Through the Basic Jobs project, experiments are being conducted to better align jobs with the needs and capabilities of the long-term unemployed.