The Austro-Hungarian Expert Academy

The Austro-Hungarian Expert Academy has become an established project for the promotion of cross-border cooperation. It is a forum for regional actors in labour market policy that supports the exchange of information, the design and implementation of common projects and measures, economic cooperation across borders and the organisation of conferences on current to-pics related to employment policy.

The Vienna L&R Social Research Institute is the lead partner of EXPAK AT.HU. In Austria, L&R Social Research partners with the Vocational Training Institute (BFI) Burgenland and the AMS (Public Employment Service Austria) regional branch offices of Lower Austria, Vienna, and Burgenland. In Hungary, the partners of the Expert Academy are the Regional Employment Office Western Transdanubia, the Roma (minority) Self Administration of Nagykanizsa, City of County Rank, and the Association for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge of Vas County. The Austrian Federal Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection supports the EXPAK AT.HU in strategic and content-related issues.

The EXPAK AT.HU is funded by the Programme for Cross-Border Cooperation AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 2007-2012, the Federal Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection of the Republic of Austria and the Republic of Hungary.

Some of the main aims of the Expert Academy are:

• Building sustainable networks between the institutions and actors concerned with employment policy in the Austrian-Hungarian border region for the development and implementation of solutions for the challenges common to both sides of the border,
• Intensification of the subregional cooperation between the labour market institutions (public employment service, NGOs, social partners, institutions of further education etc.),
• Cross-border cooperation in the development of measures for groups who are disadvantaged on the labour market,
• Support of the region as a whole in the development of common positions concerning employment policy for representation in national and European committees.

The activities of EXPAK AT.HU focus on the following fields of action:

• Integration monitor = Preparation of the latest study results, data analyses and a business survey in the framework of an annual report on the development of the common labour market and economic region,
• Common development and implementation of needs-oriented cross-border programmes and measures,
• Subregional networking = Systematic networking of the regional branch office of the Burgenland Public Employment Service with the neighbouring employment services in Hungary for the purpose of a continuous working context,
• Mutual support between Austria and Hungary regarding the development and the implementation of employment policy measures for Roma together with the Equality Centre of the Roma Self-Administration in Nagykanizsa,
• Counselling regarding current topics and scientific support of actors in employment policy,
• Systematic mutual information on and discussion of developments on the labour markets and in labour market policy in the framework of seminars, excursions, internships, etc.
• Annual labour market conferences on current challenges on the common labour market.