The structure of Russia’s public care systems leave many young adults with no skills and socially isolated. Many tend to have very low motivation for finding a job, and ends up living on social welfare. Every year in Russia, some 10,000 to 15,000 young people leave state-run social care institutions (between 300 and 400 in St. Petersburg), with only seven to 10 percent finding employment and actively contributing to society. The majority of young graduates lives on social welfare and socialises in closed groups. Some of them even engage in criminal activities and suffer from alcohol or drug abuse.
Mikhail left his job at an international consulting company six years ago. He set up a social enterprise “Rabota-i” to help match companies with young people who have low employment prospects. The social recruitment agency was created following the model of similar large-scale Scandinavian organizations, such as Samhall from Sweden, Vates from Finland or Klapjob from Denmark.
“Rabota-i” invests in training and coaching potential employable candidates. It also assists companies with adapting to their new employees – providing consultancy and coaching at workplaces for the first six to nine months.
The second target group of “Rabota-i” is young people with disabilities, who have stayed in care institutions or at home all their life. Hence, most of them also find it extremely difficult to enter job market.
With a certain degree of success, last year “Rabota-i” has provided employment training for about 700 young people in St. Petersburg.
So far “Rabota-i” has only been active in the St. Petersburg area, but it plans to expand to other regions of Russia by creating a network through the organisation, which in turn creates a sustainable model that can be easily reproduced.
The company also has been actively cooperating with other social enterprises and NGOs that provide social adaptation programs. “Rabota-i” has attracted more than 600 NGO social worker, who are engaged in working for social care institutions or with disabled youth to spread the word about employment opportunities for young people.
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Source: The Straits Times, 24 June 2017