• Provision of hands-on policy and legal advice to Ministers on the reform of SED including a detailed action plan for the New State Employment Department addressing key issues such as its optimal structure, its legal structure, the required nature, level and quality of service delivery at central and regional level, the roles and responsibilities of the central and regional departments and its relationship with the Training Fund, Social Fund and Employment Fund;
• Development of new policies and instruments to define training needs in line with actual business requirements, to assess local skill shortages, to identify the demand for training among the unemployed and how to promote the development of potential entrepreneurs;
• Development and implementation of a reform plan for the optimal organisation and management of training delivery services for the unemployed at central and local level, including criteria for selection, tendering and contracting procedures and evaluation and monitoring systems to measure the effectiveness of training;
• Development of a national communication programme to promote the “New Employment Service” to the unemployed.

Following a structural and functional review of the SED, the structure and operation of the new Training Fund made it directly responsive to employers’ needs and ensured that competition was introduced into the employment-training field through normal market mechanisms. Other work included a review of legislation pertaining to employment promotion and training. In addition study visits and placement programmes were organised for high ministry officials and senior representatives from SED and the Tripartite Advisory Board, to countries including Poland and Ireland. Access to counterpart organisations and senior government officials in Poland was organised through IMC Polska, a subsidiary company of WYG International Limited.