Researchers have been encouraged to produce and offer an elevator pitch of their research. The premise being that if you were in an elevator with someone for 45-60 seconds and had to explain your research to them in that time, what would you say? Today we will offer such a pitch.
HECAT is a H2020 funded research project dedicated to studying Probability of Exit (PEX) algorithms. Such algorithms are used by governments to predict the likelihood of an unemployed person getting a job. The problem? Many of them have accuracy ratings between 30-60%.
HECAT’s aim is to develop a user-friendly interface where citizens (not just the unemployed) can input their data and receive a snapshot of their place in the labour market. Our interface will allow individuals to input their age, gender, location, skills, education (etc.) and observe how likely they are to be employed. They can then ‘play’ with these settings, altering any of them to see how their position on the labour market is changed, e.g. changing their setting from rural to urban to see how this affects the market of their chosen profession.
HECAT will pilot this interface in Slovenia, with cooperation from the Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS). But we hope to demonstrate the viability of our platform across a range of countries. HECAT is committed to a strong ethical vision of studying unemployment, and we affirm that we wish to work with the unemployed rather than on them.
That’s our pitch folks – 192 words. If you would like to know more about the project please see our project’s Work Packages here, and read about the origins of the HECAT project in our series, part one is available here.