On 16 December 2025, a venue kindly made available by an NGO partner of APSES in Bucharest hosted a key moment of dialogue and reflection: a focus group dedicated to the European project EmplArt, bringing together diverse stakeholders to share perspectives on the integration of people from vulnerable groups into the labour market.
Coordinated by Vertigo APS in collaboration with partners in Romania (APSES) and France (Esprit Éducatif), the EmplArt project aims to use art-based non-formal education to develop essential transversal competencies, such as communication, creativity, self-confidence and problem-solving. The ultimate goal is to enhance the employability of 120 vulnerable adults by February 2027.
A Dialogue Between Diverse Perspectives
The meeting brought together key actors from across sectors, generating a rich exchange between institutions with complementary roles. Participants included representatives of the Romanian Parliament, the Ministry of European Funds and Public Investments, the Local Council of Râmnicu Vâlcea, an international NGO with extensive experience in social inclusion, a technical and vocational college, a job matching platform, and a company that actively employs people from vulnerable groups, including Ukrainian refugees.
The Central Themes of the Discussion
Throughout the open conversation, participants addressed several key themes, bringing to light essential insights:
- Benefits and challenges: It emerged clearly that hiring people from vulnerable groups is not merely an act of social responsibility, but brings concrete benefits in terms of diversity and organisational enrichment. At the same time, significant challenges remain – particularly language and bureaucratic barriers for Ukrainian refugees, as well as the difficulty of recognising foreign qualifications within the Romanian legal framework.
- Support and competencies: Employers highlighted the need for financial incentives, mentoring programmes and targeted training to make integration sustainable over the long term. Among the competencies most consistently requested for successful labour market integration were adaptability, teamwork and digital literacy – precisely the skills that art- and theatre-based non-formal education is well positioned to develop in an experiential and engaging way.
- Examples of success: The sharing of concrete stories of successful integration – from industry, vocational education and the NGO sector – demonstrated that, with the right support, barriers can be turned into opportunities for growth, both for individuals and for organisations.
Looking Ahead: The Value of Listening
This focus group represents the “heart” of the EmplArt research phase in Romania. The contributions gathered in Bucharest will not remain isolated – they will directly shape the development of two fundamental tools: the Competency Framework (defining the priority skills for the labour market) and the EmplArt Handbook, a training kit for educators working with vulnerable adults.
As underlined throughout the meeting, EmplArt does not aspire to be a project “imposed from above”, but a journey built with the community and for the community – one in which art becomes the universal language for breaking down the barriers of the labour market.