International Conference "Decent work, Equity and Inclusion", 5th-7th October 2017, Padova

From 5th-7th of October 2017 the International Conference "Decent work, Equity and Inclusion. Password for the present and the future" will take place at the University of Padova.

The aim of the conference is to create a stimulating international, multi- and interdisciplinary debate and discussion on the theoretical and methodological approaches, resources, instruments, applications and professional communities that must be considered when designing strategies to improve access to decent work for all. This conversation must identify the constraining conditions and propose solutions to serious inequities and barriers to full inclusion that continue to affect whole communities as well as key demographic groups within our communities.

In particular, the attention will be focus on three interdependent pathways:

• Examine changes currently underway in the world of employment and their consequences for the inclusion of everyone in the educational, labor and social systems and for the vision of an ethical and social economy;
• Propose ...the ‘ethical and social’ economy, the supports to give access a decent job to all and the experiences many social enterprises daily strive to include the most vulnerable in the world of employment; gift economy; informal economy;
• Identify innovative evidence-based and interdisciplinary strategies for designing, implementing, and evaluating individual and large-scale solutions that build capacity among professionals and organizations to provide quality career and workforce development services.

If no effective countermeasures are taken to generously and decisively invest in the decency and inclusiveness of work and the quality of relevant education and support systems, we risk growing social exclusion and division.  The concern is that such exclusion and division will most certainly have a negative impact on the wellbeing of individuals and communities alike. 

This collective action must be grounded in genuinely social and inclusive values while proposing bold strategies for increasing access to lifelong education, training and employment that complement and are responsive to the European Union 2020 strategy, the United Nations’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development, and recommendations from the International Labor Organization (ILO). Unless we renew, redesign, and innovate our education, labor and social support systems, we risk creating a world in which only a privileged few will benefit from the well-being and self-determination that result from gaining access to decent work.

Scholars and professionals working in the contexts of counseling, career guidance and counseling, economics, vocational education and training, and those who are interested in cooperation and solidarity, are invited to pool their efforts for a Manifesto on Inclusion which will be shared during the International Conference.