Youth employment: make it happen!

PES Group

Committee of the Regions

Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 101

1040 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

http://www.pes.cor.europa.eu

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013

ISBN 978-92-895-0670-0

doi:10.2863/69912

© European Union, 2013

Printed in Luxembourg

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT: MAKING IT HAPPEN!

EUROPEAN UNION


II

CONTENTS

FOREWORD ��4

PART I �� 10Putting youth unemployment in context��10

Youth unemployment ≠ unemployment ��11Facts and figures ��14Obstacles to youth employment ��18Progressive responses to youth unemployment ��23

PART II �� 32Progressive local and regional authorities have their say ��32

Austria ��34The national context ��34Going Local ��36

› Burgenland ��36

Belgium ��38The national context ��38Going local ��40

› Flanders��40 › German-speaking Community of Belgium ��42

Croatia ��44The national context ��44Going local ��46

› Rijeka ��46

III

Finland ��48The national context ��48Going local ��50

› Kerava��50

France ��52The national context ��52Going local ��54

› Eure ��54

Germany��56The national context ��56Going local ��58

› Baden-Württemberg ��58 › Thuringia ��60 › Saarpfalz District ��63

Greece ��66The national context ��66Going local ��68

› Attica ��68 › Crete��70 › Kavala ��72

Ireland ��75The national context ��75Going local ��77

› The South-East Region of Ireland ��77


IV

Italy ��79The national context ��79Going local ��81

› Tuscany ��81 › Umbria ��84 › Turin ��86

The Netherlands ��88The national context ��88Going local ��90

› The Hague and the Haaglanden region ��90

Poland ��93The national context ��93Going local ��95

› Słupsk ��95

Portugal ��98The national context ��98Going local ��100

› Lisbon��100

Spain ��103The national context ��103Going local ��105

› Asturias ��105

CONTENTS

V

Sweden ��107The national context ��107Going local ��109

› Region Gävleborg ��109

United Kingdom ��111The national context ��111Going local ��113

› Birmingham ��113 › Wales ��115

CONCLUSION �� 117

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS �� 118


4

FOREWORD

Dear Friends,

The unprecedented rates of youth unemployment observed in many parts of the EU, particularly in Member States facing severe budgetary constraints, threaten the very fabric of our societies� Fragmented political responses, lack of solidarity and reluctance to address at the appropri-ate political level one of the ugliest consequences of the crisis have seriously undermined the job prospects of an entire generation of young Europeans�

We need a Europe that people can again associate with a social model guaranteeing the prospects for a better life� For many generations, including mine, Europe has been an inspiring source of ideals and values, such as solidar-ity and cooperation� If we are to return to this, we need to rediscover our political courage! The European Social-ist family has firmly anchored youth employment into its political priorities because we are convinced that we need a Europe that not only rescues banks and puts budgets in order, but a Europe that delivers sustainable growth and social justice� We fight for a Europe in which people are convinced of the added value it has for themselves, for their friends and for their families�

Particularly important in this is the challenge of ensuring that Europe’s young people have a future in the world of work� Youth unemployment no longer afflicts only those who, for one reason or another, are underqualified� Many who have been brilliantly successful in vocational educa-tion or at university are now unable to find work or are offered precarious forms of employment�

FOREWORD

5

Clearly, if young people are to find a job or set up a busi-ness, the opportunities have to be there� This is also the task for Europe, just as much as for Member States and regions� Local and regional authorities play a pivotal role in accurately identifying challenges and opportunities, and effectively implementing measures that foster youth employment� Learning from one another and comparing notes on the situation in particular regions and what their experience — good and bad — has been are part and par-cel of the exercise� However, we also need European initia-tives to help us create jobs to tackle youth unemployment� Ultimately, this is about how Europe can safeguard and develop its social model for the future� Young people are indeed our future, or as the relevant campaign of the Party of European Socialists has rightly put it, ‘Your future is my future!’ That means we have to find answers now that give them the opportunity to shape that future for themselves�

This publication brings together facts, figures and best practices from across the EU, mainly from members of the PES Group in the CoR, as well as the policy proposals of the European Socialist family for boosting youth employment� It does not pretend to be exhaustive but aims at raising awareness about an issue that requires immediate and resolute action by all levels of government�

I hope you enjoy the reading�

With social democratic greetings,

Karl‑Heinz LambertzPresident of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions


6

One year ago, the PES flagship campaign ‘Your future is my future — a European Youth Guarantee now!’ was offi-cially launched� We were joined by a hundred supporters in a modest event in Square de Meeus, a small park in the heart of Brussels� We shared an ambitious vision: to ensure that every young person in Europe was offered a job, fur-ther education or work-focused training at the latest four months after leaving education or becoming unemployed�

One year later, our vision has gone Europe-wide� The PES Group in the Committee of the Regions has played a big role in that� The network of progressive representatives at local and regional level has proved invaluable� Thousands of people across the continent have given their precious time to support this campaign�

Our proposal has already been tabled by the European Commission and backed by the European Parliament� Furthermore, the scheme is being introduced in countries such as Finland and Luxembourg, and other governments and parties are taking inspiration from it�

FOREWORD

7

The reason for our success is clear: the issue of youth unemployment touches all of us� From the enthusiasm and action that we have seen, it is clear that people are convinced that Europe needs a Youth Guarantee� Today, over five and a half million young people are unemployed and at risk of social exclusion� This inactivity costs Europe over EUR 150 billion every year� And the problem is more than just numbers: it is about the impact on the life pros-pects of young people; it is about the risk of losing the best qualified generation in the history of the European Union�

For only EUR 10 billion, a fraction of what youth inactiv-ity costs, we can help shift 2 million young people out of unemployment� The funding of this scheme must be shared at national and European level — especially through the European Social Fund�

After one year, we are heading the right way but the jour-ney is not over yet� We need to build upon our success and define specific sources of funding� We need to build the pillars of the scheme at the European level and success-fully implement it at the national level�

The PES family across Europe will continue to make this a campaigning priority� For all our activists and supporters across Europe, our future starts now�

Sergei Stanishev President of the Party of European Socialists

and Kaisa Penny President of YES — Young European Socialists


8

The effect of youth unemployment on young women is profound� The European Commission has already shown how the economic crisis has had a dramatic effect on women’s lives in general� Youth unemployment is one of the most visible examples of this�

One of the biggest challenges to overcoming un -employment among young women is tackling the ‘gen-der-segregation’ of national education systems across the EU� Through tradition and structure, women are steered towards jobs which are less well paid, require fewer quali-fications, are more precarious and provide lower chances of advancement� This gender gap in youth unemployment is most prevalent in countries where the economic crisis has hit hardest�

This is why a Europe-wide Youth Guarantee scheme is essential� Women need access to training for skills in growth sectors such as green economy and technology, and information and communications technologies� A strong European Youth Guarantee will help us reach this goal�

Zita Gurmai Member of the European Parliament

President of PES Women

PART IPutting youth unemployment in context

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT ≠ UNEMPLOYMENT

11

Youth unemployment ≠ unemployment

The inequation of the title aims at illustrating the qualitative inequality between the two values, that is, youth unemployment versus unemployment of people in older age brackets� While the quantitative difference between the two notions is self-evident, there is insufficient awareness of the particular features of youth unemployment, both in terms of its long-term effects and the heterogeneity of the groups concerned (see Figure 1)�

Figure 1: Youth unemployment rate vs adult unemployment rate

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

25

20

15

10

5

0

Youth (1524) Adult (2574)

Source: NEETs — Young people not in employment, education or training: Characteristics, costs and policy responses in Europe, © European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2012�

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_equals_sign


12

The scarring effect of being unemployed at a young age has been well documented� If, on top of this, we examine the repercussions for those young people ‘Not in Education, Employment, or Training’ (NEETs), it becomes clear that for remedies to be effective, they need to be tailored to young people’s needs�

Being a NEET for a longer period of time seriously jeopardises a young person’s employment prospects, their future earnings and subsequent occupational pension rights, as well as their physical and mental well-being� What is more, the lower-skilled the individuals, the more likely they are to have future poor employment outcomes� A successful transition to adulthood requires building one’s educational, social and psychological capital, with employment being considered a gauge of such a success� Youth unemployment can therefore permanently dam-age one’s self-esteem� Furthermore, since experience in the workforce is a decisive factor for finding a job, young people who fail to even enter the labour market are trapped in a vicious circle� It is worth noting that both the psychological and wage penalties resulting from youth unemployment affect not only the young individuals but also their families and the society as a whole� Figure 2 illustrates that the risk of losing one generation is far from an over-dramati-sation of the phenomenon�

Youth unemploYment ≠ unemploYment

13

Figure 2: Youth employment rate in the EU (2011)

Youth unemployment rate, 2011% of active population aged 15–24

< 9.8

500 km0

9.8–17.8

17.8–22.4

22.4–31.0

>= 31.0

EU-27 = 21.4Source: Eurostat

© EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundaries


14

Facts and figures

According to the latest findings by Eurostat (December 2012), 5�7 million young people (under 25) were unemployed in the EU-27, of whom 3�6 million were in the euro area� Com-pared with December 2011, youth unemployment increased by 237 000 in the EU-27 and by 303 000 in the euro area, reaching 23�4 % and 24 % respectively� In December 2012, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (8 %), Austria (8�5 %) and the Netherlands (10 %), and the highest in Greece (57�6 % in October 2012) and Spain (55�6 %)� It is worth noting that in 2012, the youth unemployment rate in the EU-27 was more than double the overall unemployment rate (10�7 %)� The same also applies to the euro area, where overall unemployment reached 11�7 %� This means that more than one out of every five young persons in the labour force was not employed, and the figures have since risen even further� Admittedly, this is a very bleak picture�

Apart from being socially and economically unsustainable, these youth unemployment figures do not even reflect the full extent of the problem� The number of young NEETs aged 15–24 is even higher than the number of unemployed (see Figure 3)� Basing its information on Euro-stat findings, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condi-tions (Eurofound) reports that in 2011, 7�5 million young people aged 15–24 and an additional 6�5 million young people aged 25–29 were excluded from the labour market and education in Europe�

FACTS AND FIGURES

15

Figure 3: NEET rate in Europe among those aged 15–24


Very low NEEt rate (<7 %)

Low NEET rate (7 %–10 %)

Average NEET rate (10 %–14 %)

High NEET rate (14 %–17 %)

Very high NEET rate (>17 %)


16

This is indicative of not only the extent, but also the complexity of a problem affecting a sub-stantial number of the 94 million Europeans aged between 15 and 29, who need to overcome barriers to education, training and the labour market, while living in a fully globalised world and having to face the challenge of an ageing population�

It is estimated that the cost to the EU of inaction on the problem of young people with no employment, education or training (NEETs) is about EUR 153 billion, corresponding to 1�2 % of the EU’s GDP� This is of course an average figure and for some Member States (such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Poland), the cost of NEETs represents 2 % or more of their GDP (see Figure 4)�

FACTS AND FIGURES

17

Figure 4: Cost of NEETs as share of GDP (2011)


Beyond the very significant economic costs of NEETs, it is the societal repercussions that are inestimable: young people are completely disaffected and renounce their civic rights, with political apathy dangerously gaining ground� Meanwhile, the EU’s social and territorial cohe-sion is seriously undermined� This is why urgent responses at the European level are more necessary than ever before�

% GDP <0.4

0.4 < % GDP < 0.8

0.8 < % GDP < 1.2

1.2 < % GDP < 1.6

1.6 < % GDP < 2

2 < % GDP < 2.4

2.4 < % GDP < 3

% GDP > 3


18

Obstacles to youth employment

The global financial and economic crisis of 2007–10 and its impact upon the ongoing cri-sis, which is gripping the European economic and monetary union, as well as the prolonged conservative austerity-only policies are to be blamed to a great extent for the shameful fig-ures regarding youth unemployment� In times of economic recession, the business cycle has a much greater negative impact upon young people’s jobs as these are very often linked to cyclically sensitive industries� To make matters worse, since the crisis, young people have been over-represented amongst part-time and temporary contract holders, increasing the precari-ousness of those fortunate ones who do have a job� In spite of the above, youth unemployment rates vary considerably amongst EU Member States and they are often not only crisis-related but also caused by structural problems of national labour markets� Lack of proper school-to-work transition and mismatches between the skills on offer and labour market demands are amongst the main culprits�

Low educational attainment is traditionally a factor that increases young people’s risk of becoming NEETs (see Figure 5)� Before the crisis, only 16�7 % of young people having complet-ed tertiary education were unemployed compared to 28�2 % for those with a low educational level� However, the current crisis seems to prove wrong, at least in some EU Member States, the generally accepted premise that better educated young people have better chances in the labour market� Young unemployed graduates reach nearly 50 % in Greece, over 35 % in Spain (having doubled since 2007), above 29 % in Romania and Portugal, and just below 28 % in Italy� Luckily, there are still countries such as France, Belgium, the Czech Republic and the UK, where the crisis has not diminished the role of education on youth employment�

OBSTACLES TO YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

19

Figure 5: NEETs by educational level (2010)


50 %

60 %

70 %

80 %

90 %

100 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %ES PT NL DK DE BG AT RO IT LU UK HU BE FR EE LV SE FI IE LT GR CZ SI SK PL CY

Tertiary Upper secondary Primary or lower secondary


20

Converging male and female unemployment rates in recent years are hardly a cause of joy since they are due to an aggravation of the employment situation of young men rather than the amelioration of that of the opposite sex (see Figure 6)� Since the beginning of the crisis, men have been more affected by the collapse of the construction and the manufacturing sectors� While the UK, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries have higher male youth un -employment, southern European countries (apart from Spain, which has suffered the effects of the housing construction bubble), have higher female rates� On the other hand, there are no noticeable differences in Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta and Romania (see Figure 7)�

Figure 6: Youth unemployment rate by gender

10

15

20

25

Females Males

20112010200920082007200620052004200320022001200019991998


OBSTACLES TO YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

21

Figure 7: Youth unemployment by gender (EU Member States)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

FemalesMales

ATBEBUCYCZDKETEU27

FIFRDE GRHUIEITLVLTLUMTNLPLPTROSKSIES SEUK



22

Geographical accessibility has always been a key factor for mobility while there is a correlation between the size of cities and their job offer potential� In those EU Member States hardest hit by the crisis (such as Greece), differences between urban and remote rural areas become less noticeable simply because of massive job losses also in big cities� This has a direct impact upon employment in general, and youth employment in particular�

Moreover, when it comes to youth employment, certain groups of young people suffer from discrimination, such as those with an immigration background, having ill-health or being dis-abled� According to Eurofound, young immigrants are 70 % more likely to become NEETs than nationals, while the likelihood of young people with some kind of disability or health issues is 40 % higher than of those in good health�

Finally, the influence of family background — social, economic and educational — upon young people’s development, and consequently upon their education and employment opportunities, is well known� Therefore, those young people coming from households severely hit by the crisis tend to experience much greater difficulties in accessing education and the labour market�

The big challenge for policymakers is to propose measures that can effectively address this multi-faceted challenge, which has been greatly aggravated by the crisis and the lack of politi-cal will to provide responses at the European level�

PROGRESSIvE RESPONSES TO YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

23

Progressive responses to youth unemployment

The Party of European Socialists

The Party of European Socialists (PES) has been fighting since 2011 for a Europe-wide Youth Guarantee, which would ensure that every young person in Europe must be offered a job, further education or work-focused training at the latest four months after leaving education or after becoming unemployed� A special task force was created, and under the direction of Nicolas Schmit, Minister of Labour, Employment and Immigration of Luxembourg, and Kaisa Penny, President of YES — Young European Socialists, it elaborated the progressive policy responses to youth unemployment�

The work of the task force translated into the very effective political campaign ‘Your future is my future — A European Youth Guarantee now!’, which has been gaining momentum since its launch in May 2012� The PES Group in the CoR has been fully associated to the elaboration of the policy responses as well as the campaign, bringing the debate at the local and regional level, where skills and employment needs can be accurately identified�

The PES calls for EUR 10 billion of EU funds to be made available from the 2014–20 Multi annual Financial Framework for the introduction of Youth Guarantees throughout Europe� A large share of these funds should be allocated to specific measures for the creation of new decent jobs for young women and men in the countries with the highest youth unemployment rates� The money must be available as soon as possible and the administrative procedures governing its disbursement should remain simple� The PES also urges for the introduction of a European framework for dual education systems� Last but not least, the European Socialists and Social Democrats advocate that 6 % of the EU budget needs to be spent on education and that national expenditure on education should reach at least 6 % of the respective national GDP�

The PES firmly anchors the fight against youth unemployment in a broader social-democratic project for relaunching growth in the EU� To this effect, it calls for a Social Progress Pact in order to build a fully fledged Social Union to complement the Economic Union, the Banking Union, the Monetary Union and the Political Union�

The first victory for the PES was the European Commission’s proposal for a Council Recom-mendation for a Youth Guarantee, adopted in December 2012, which takes up the PES policy proposal� The efforts of EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, were instrumental in such rapid progress being made�

The Recommendation is part of the so-called ‘Youth Employment Package’, which also includes a proposal for a quality framework for traineeships� PES Group member Enrico Rossi, President of the Tuscany Region (Italy), has drafted the CoR response to the Commission proposal about traineeships�


24

‘One of the most fatal consequences of the economic crisis remains unresolved: skyrocketing youth unemploy-ment� 5�8 million young Europeans are excluded from the labour market� 23�7 % of Europe’s youth are currently unemployed� In Greece, Spain and southern Italy, more than one in every two young people are jobless� Failing to reduce youth unemployment would not only have seri-ous social consequences, but would also further weaken Europe’s economy� With every month of unemployment, the chance for young people to receive a good job, decent wages and a decent pension is reduced� Youth unemploy-ment results in lower tax payments, less economic activity and higher social security expenditure, costing European states more than EUR 150 billion every year�

A year ago, building on the preparatory work of a high-level working group, chaired by Kaisa Penny, President of YES — Young European Socialists, and myself, the Party of European Socialists (PES) launched a campaign to fight youth unemployment� Taking inspiration from Austria’s example, the PES has been calling for the Europe-wide introduction of a Youth Guarantee� Thanks to untiring PES pressure, the European institutions are now in the process of introducing and implementing such a Youth Guaran-tee� To support especially those Member States hit hard-est by the crisis, the PES demands that we spend at least EUR 10 billion from the European budget on overcoming youth unemployment�

Despite big differences in Europe’s education and social security systems, a Youth Guarantee can be introduced in every Member State� In Luxembourg, we will start this year with implementing a Youth Guarantee� I am convinced that a Youth Guarantee will give new hopes and better chances to young people and will prevent the loss of an entire generation to youth unemployment�’

Nicolas SchmitMinister for Labour, Employment and Immigration of Luxembourg

Co-Chair of the PES Working Group on Youth Unemployment

Chair of the Network of PES Social and Employment Ministers


25

‘The Commission is fully aware of the constraints that austerity measures are creating, in particular in Member States with acute youth unemployment levels� However, there will be positive returns on the investment in a Youth Guarantee� There cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach when establishing a Youth Guarantee� Indeed, we need to take into account the diversity and different starting points of the Member States as regards the respective levels of youth unemployment and capacities of the various labour market players� However, there is necessarily a strong Euro-pean dimension as we share the common goal of sup-porting our youth� We need to demonstrate our solidarity, particularly in a time of tight budgetary constraints, and make sure that we do not compromise our future when consolidating our finances�

Funding is indeed key but the resources are there, in the European Social Fund (ESF)� They need to be prioritised now and also for the long-term future� We definitely need to mobilise the remaining ESF resources in the current financial period� We also need to ensure a strong ESF for the long term in the next Multiannual Financial Frame-work, because that is going to be the key resource for sup-porting Youth Guarantee schemes� The European Council of 7–8 February 2013 has decided to go a step further in the fight against youth unemployment by proposing the Youth Employment Initiative with a budget of EUR 6 billion for the period 2014–20� Since then the Commission has delivered the concrete proposal to allow Member States to start using the resources immediately once the new 2014–20 budget framework comes into force�’

László Andor Member of the European

Commission responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and

Inclusion


26

‘The time has come to consider the cost to society of the social exclusion of young people� Europe cannot bear the cost of an entire generation being denied productive activ-ity, training and social cohesion� This generation without prospects can become easy prey for the kinds of populism and nationalism which are raising their heads throughout the continent as a result of the crisis� The issue of young people must therefore be at the centre of Europe’s politi-cal agenda: together with policies of rigour and austerity� Great investment and action plans must also be launched which are clearer and bolder�

In our regions, we must make the best possible use of all available instruments, starting with those of the EU� We must never forget that young people were at the origin of this European integration project, and they knew how to look beyond their present� If we want to continue along this path, we must help a new generation to play a key role in European construction�’

Enrico RossiPresident of the Tuscany Region (Italy)


27

The European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions

The response of the two institutions to the Youth Guarantee proposal was immediate�

On 16 January 2013, the European Parliament adopted a Motion for a Resolution on a Youth Guarantee, led by Pervenche Berès MEP, Chair of the EP’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee�

A few days later, on 31 January 2013, the Committee of the Regions adopted its own Reso-lution on the same subject, the drafting of which was led by the PES Group� The resolution bears the social-democratic footprint as it calls for the extension of the scheme to cover recent graduates under 30, an appropriate legal framework to ensure minimum standards for the Youth Guarantees, including the quality of apprenticeship places and job offers, decent wages for young people and access to information about Youth Guarantees�

Both resolutions remind that a Youth Guarantee would contribute to three of the Europe 2020 strategy targets, namely that 75 % of the age range 20–64 should be employed, that early school-leaving rates should be below 10 %, and that at least 20 million people should be lifted out of poverty and social exclusion�


28

‘We refuse to accept a situation in which young people can find themselves out of work or leave the education system without being offered a training course, tuition, an apprenticeship, a placement or a job within four months� This generation must not be a lost generation� Given this danger, the European Council’s adoption, on 7 and 8 Feb-ruary, of a youth initiative with a EUR 6 billion budget, is a real step forward and those who — like the PES — are working for youth employment have every right to con-gratulate themselves on it� We now need to go further, making the Youth Guarantee a truly European mecha-nism to even out the macroeconomic imbalances within the European Union and enhance solidarity between the generations�’

Pervenche BerèsMember of the European Parliament

Chair of the EP Employment and Social Affairs Committee


29

The Irish Presidency of the Council

Thanks to the Irish Labour Party, tackling the issue of youth unemployment has been one of the top priorities of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU� Ruairi Quinn, Ireland’s Minister for Education and Skills and member of the PES Executive, has been actively campaigning for a European-wide Youth Guarantee�

The decision to introduce Youth Guarantee schemes, taken by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) Council on 28 February 2013, was the second major vic-tory for the European Socialist family� Although not all expectations were met (such as for Youth Guarantees to apply to all young EU citizens and legal residents up to the age of 25 years, and recent graduates under 30), the decision constituted a very significant step in the right direction� The European Council of 7–8 February had already agreed to earmark EUR 6 bil-lion of EU funds (EUR 3 billion from the European Social Fund and EUR 3 billion from a new budget line) for the initiative, which will enable countries worst hit by the crisis to finance Youth Guarantees� It is now up to the Member States to swiftly put in place the necessary measures for the implementation of this much-needed scheme�


30

‘Fighting youth unemployment is a major challenge for Europe’s leaders� Failing to integrate an entire generation of young people in the labour market would destroy Europe’s social fabric and further weaken our economies� Sup-porting Member States in their efforts to lower youth un -employment is a central aim of the Irish Presidency of the EU� This is why we have made ensuring progress towards a Europe-wide Youth Guarantee a priority of our Presidency�

We believe that strengthening and modernising educa-tion systems in all Member States is a key to success for fighting youth unemployment� The education level of a young person will increasingly determine the chance of finding a decent job and conversely the risk of living in poverty� As new jobs for medium and highly skilled work-ers are created, we must make efforts to avoid a mismatch between the skill level of those looking for a job and the skills required by an employer� Europe’s education systems need to be modernised and must be better financed: cur-ricula must be adapted to the challenges of the 21st cen-tury, school infrastructure improved and pre-school edu-cation available for all children� Reducing the rate of those dropping out of school is a precondition of overcoming youth unemployment�

The transition between the education system and the first job is the phase in which we lose many young people to unemployment� The long-term repercussions of this are serious� To integrate young people into the labour mar-ket requires more specific support to young people in this phase, for example by providing tailor-made active labour market policies and increasing the number of good apprenticeship places� As Irish government and current EU Presidency, we believe that such measures should be embedded in a Europe-wide Youth Guarantee� Thanks to the campaign of the Party of European Socialists and the engagement of social democratic prime ministers, minis-ters and MPs, such a Youth Guarantee could be introduced during the Irish Presidency�’

Ruairi Quinn Minister for Education and Skills, Ireland

PART IIProgressive local and regional authorities have their say

The PES Group in the CoR has been urging regional and local authorities to act swiftly and provide the support they can to prevent and fight youth unemployment� In many countries, local or regional levels of governance are responsible for education and vocational training� In many cases, they support local businesses and are in close contact with them�

Together with these and other stakeholders, local or regional actors can develop new ideas, implement new projects, help to bring in financing from the national or European level, provide guidance or make contacts� Locally and regionally elected Socialists and Social Democrats can make a difference� The examples that follow eloquently illustrate this!


34

The national context

In comparison to most other EU countries, Austria is in a relatively good position as regards youth unemployment, and has undergone only a small increase in the course of the crisis, standing at 8�5 % in December 2012� Policy action on youth employment is the subject of negotiations at the national level between the Minister for Labour and the social partners, and implemented at the regional level through territorial employment pacts, with the cooperation of the provincial governments, Public Employment Service, Federal Social Office and the social partners�

The country’s youth employment model, which is considered throughout the EU as best practice for the sound labour market integration of young people, is based on a broad-based vocational Education and Training system (vET) linking the acquisition of practical skills and knowledge� Thanks to training at the company and supra-company level — involving small and medium-sized enterprises in particular — and a system of intermediate and higher tech-nical and vocational colleges, the model provides different routes for career progression at various levels�

Nevertheless, further improvements to the system are needed as regards social equality and inclusion, since disadvantaged people are all too often concentrated in lower-level education-al pathways, due to pupils being streamed into different school types at an early age� One main challenge for future labour market policies is to better target young people with a migrant background� About a third of the funds under the Employment Operational Programme and about a fifth of the ESF Phasing Out Programme for Burgenland are invested in measures for young people� The focus is, inter alia, on young people with placement difficulties�

AUSTRIA

35

PROGRESSIVE LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES HAVE THEIR SAY

A Training Guarantee for future apprenticeships up to the age of 18, first introduced in 2008, gives young people who cannot find a place with a company the opportunity to take part in a training programme as part of a supra-company training programme, which is then counted as a normal and equally valued component of the dual system� In the 2011/12 school year, 14 814 young people participated in this measure�

Moreover, young people who have dropped out of school or apprenticeships are reintegrated into the education and training system through Production Schools� On average, two thirds of participants have a migration background and one fifth have not completed compulsory education�

Furthermore, alongside basic subsidies, quality-related and labour market-related incentives are offered to encourage employers to create additional apprenticeship places and improve the quality of training for around 130 000 apprentices a year�

Last but not least, the Public Employment Service supports the integration of disadvantaged groups and young women who take up apprenticeships in male-dominated professions, and promotes business start-up programmes and employment in social enterprises�

In order to combat and prevent youth unemployment, the Austrian government has com-mitted itself in 2011 to further implementing Training Guarantees for apprentices� Moreover, the Future for Youth programme provides targeted measures for 19 to 24 year olds, carried out by the Public Employment Service� In 2012, the commitments were extended by several additional measures, including youth and apprenticeship coaching and youth foundations�


36

Going Local

Burgenland

Young people are our future capital: All those who are involved in or bear political responsibility for youth employment in Burgenland take this premise to heart and are aware that investment in jobs for young people has to take priority in social and labour market policy� This is why, for example, a Burgenland Employment Package was con-cluded in 2001 between the province and a large number of social partner and business representatives� Its objec-tives were focused on facilitating access to the labour mar-ket, combating unemployment and exclusion, and raising employability� This process has to take account, above all, of regional issues and opportunities�

Burgenland lies at the interface between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ EU and has always faced particular challenges because of its history and its location as a former border region� It has been receiving EU regional policy aid since Austria’s acces-sion in 1995 to help it catch up with the country’s more prosperous provinces and generally become more com-petitive� As a result, it has been able to gradually progress from an Objective 1 region to a Phasing Out region and in the process thoroughly modernise its economic infrastruc-ture and the province as a whole�

One of the priorities of support activities is investment in human capital, especially in the vocational and further training of Burgenland’s young people� Specifically, this means training measures for young people that have no vocational training, initial and further training measures for jobless young people, advice and support and training measures for unemployed women and women returning to the labour market, as well as assistance for young people with learning difficulties or social/emotional handicaps�

Christian IlleditsMember of the Burgenland Parliament (Austria)

37


The promotion of education as a lifelong process, improved compatibility between initial and further vocational training and appropriate training measures are only part of the array of instruments that is being promoted in Burgenland thanks, in particular, to the European Social Fund� Back in 1998, national training measures were put in place for young people seek-ing apprenticeships to enable those without a suitable place in a firm to receive vocational training�

A variety of non-workplace vocational training courses are offered, ranging from courses to training workshops (Lehrwerkstätten)� These are training centres in which young people can learn a trade after school� Burgenland currently has 12 of them� Burgenland province and the Public Employment Service (AMS) in Burgenland have promoted these measures from the out-set — and it has been a success: 42�8 % of those taking part have completed the course and a quarter found a job or training opening immediately� In the last decade, these two partners have together invested around EUR 40 million in vocational training for young people�

It is a fact: the youth training programme has the biggest budget of all the special pro-grammes� It is estimated that Burgenland and AMS together invested EUR 1�13 million for 130 young people in the school year 2001/02� For the school year 2010/11 EUR 7�62 million was authorised for 537 youngsters� Today, 18 % of the budget is being used for this special programme — around EUR 5�9 million� A recent study from the Austrian Institute for Research on vocational Training confirms the enduring success of the measures implemented under the training guarantee in Burgenland�

Another flagship initiative is the Burgenland job offensive — Work Experience Plus Pro-gramme/Trainee Offensive (Joboffensive Burgenland — Praxis Plus Programm/ Lehrlingsoffen-sive)� This gives teenagers and young adults the chance to spend six months as trainees in the province’s administration and its associated subsidiaries in order to gain experience and knowledge so that they can then work as skilled staff in Burgenland enterprises�

With these measures Burgenland is trying to actively combat youth unemployment and to create career prospects for young people� The youth training programme will continue to remain a focal point in the years to come� This is one reason why Burgenland — in concert with AMS — has placed this particular emphasis on youth employment and also youth train-ing in the phasing-out process�


38


In 2012, the youth unemployment rate in Belgium was 18 %� However, labour market partici-pation varies considerably from one region to the other� Youth unemployment is a more acute problem in Wallonia and Brussels than in Flanders� Although the current economic crisis had a more severe impact on youth unemployment in Flanders, the imbalance remains neverthe-less largely unfavourable to the Walloon and Brussels regions� As Brussels and Wallonia suffer from lower skill levels and a higher early school-leaving rate, the problem of youth unemploy-ment is more structural in nature in these regions than in Flanders�

This particular regional situation also affects the effectiveness of the employment policy: the responsibility lies partially with the regions, and partially with the federal government� How-ever, the federal government has difficulties in reaching a consensus because of the regional differences� Moreover, there are striking differences between the sexes� Young women are con-siderably more disadvantaged in the labour market — their employment rates are lower, and the economic crisis has had a more severe negative impact on their situation� As in several other Member States, the young also often get trapped in temporary jobs, giving them little job security�

The federal government as well as the regional ones have already taken some measures� In 2012, the federal government undertook steps to provide 10 000 subsidised traineeships for youth leaving the educational system without a secondary education degree� These plans are implemented in close cooperation with the different regions� Resources are also used to increase the existing reductions of social security contributions for low-skilled young job seek-ers� In general, the intensity and the type of support vary according to job seekers’ risk pro-file� There is an intense and rapid follow-up of low-skilled job seekers, to avoid long-term un -employment and resolve skill mismatches�

BELGIUM

39


In Flanders, such a follow-up is for example implemented through the Career Agreement 2012–14� In all regions, steps are taken to partially subsidise wages and social contributions for individual vocational traineeships� Efforts are made to stimulate entrepreneurship and self-employment, for example through the Plan Airbag in Wallonia, which offers financial support for self-employment initiatives launched by people below 30 or above 50� In Flanders, the Flemish Agency for Entrepreneurial Training (SYNTRA) offers young people training to support their development as entrepreneurs�

On the federal level, only own funds are used (some EUR 1�3 billion disbursed until the end of 2011 across all the measures currently underway)� At the level of the regions, ESF funding is used to support a variety of measures focusing on the young� In the German-speaking Com-munity alone, around EUR 1 million of its ESF programme has been dedicated to 15 different initiatives focused on young job seekers�

To combat and prevent youth unemployment, Belgium has identified four key priorities: strengthening incentives for the young unemployed to take up work by tightening eligibility conditions for the tide-over allowance; supporting self-entrepreneurship; investing in voca-tional training and in-company traineeships; and ensuring closer follow-up and guidance of young job seekers by regional employment services�


40

Going local

Flanders

The current economic crisis, and its impact on youth employment, demands that we work at every possible level to tackle youth unemployment�

On 16 January 2013, the European Parliament voted in favour of introducing a youth unemployment programme entitling all young people to a good-quality offer of employment or training within four months� In my view, this is an acknowledgement that youth unemployment is not just a young people’s problem, and that opportuni-ties must be made available for them� If those opportuni-ties do not exist, they must be created — that is what this approach boils down to�

At the federal level, the Belgian employment minister has drawn up a plan in consultation with the social partners and the regions to set up 10 000 traineeships, to be avail-able as of 1 January 2013� As part of the federal govern-ment’s recovery plan, the federal employment minister, Monica De Coninck, has launched integration traineeships to enable young people in the ‘vocational development phase’ to get work experience�

Integration traineeships

Flanders has decided to make maximum use of integration traineeships in its own activation policies, in particular for unskilled labour market entrants (targeting people leaving school without qualifications)�

The main features of integration traineeships are as follows:

› there is no obligation for the business to recruit the trainee after the traineeship;

› they are targeted exclusively at low-skilled young people (without a secondary education diploma);

Mia De VitsVice-President of the Flemish Parliament (Belgium)

41


› they are undertaken at some point between the 7th and 12th months of the ‘vocational development phase’;

› they last three months, half- or full-time in the workplace, with a maximum of two trainee-ships per person with different employers;

› trainees are paid a ‘productivity allowance’ of EUR 200 for a full-time traineeship or EUR 100 for half time;

› the trainee is compensated if the traineeship is terminated early for reasons attributable to the business, non-profit association or administrative authority�

Integration traineeships may be followed by individual vocational training, which may be with the same employer�

At the Flemish level, two priorities stand out�

1� Providing a balanced, tailored package for young people, such that each young job seeker is given an appropriate pathway to work that takes account of their individual profile and specific needs� The Flemish Employment and vocational Training Service therefore opti-mises its services�

2� Job immersion schemes, including the implementation of the 4 450 traineeships allocated to Flanders by the federal government�

The general aim is develop young people’s skills and work experience, so as to gradually reduce the number of people with a low level of skills�

The WerkInleving voor Jongeren (Job immersion for youth) programme, ‘WIJ!’ for short, focuses in particular on the major cities and population centres of Flanders� As from 1 February 2013, WIJ! will aim to enable young people to follow intensive schemes to obtain additional qualifi-cations for the job market� These schemes comprise an orientation phase, training and trainee-ships, and will also provide the young people with support in finding a job� These job immer-sion projects have a budget of EUR 11 million, EUR 4 950 000 (45 %) of which comes from the ESF and EUR 6 050 000 (55 %) from the Flemish co-financing fund (vCF)�


42

German-speaking Community of Belgium

The German-speaking Community is the smallest Bel-gian region, with around 76 000 inhabitants in the east of the country� Due to its location at a cultural crossroads between the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgian Wallonia, the German-speaking Community is a border region with a very open economy, with a strong emphasis on mobility� As a result the region’s inhabitants are multilingual and culturally adaptable� The same charac-teristics apply to the regional economy and labour market, and are reflected in the expectations that have to be met by employees and entrepreneurs�

Dual vocational education

For 20 years the German-speaking Community has enjoyed autonomy in developing an education system to meet these specific needs� For example, practice-based French courses are an integral part of the curriculum, including for those going into the traditional trades� In combination with the well-known strengths of dual edu-cation systems in German-speaking partner countries and regions, the German-speaking Community has developed a dual vocational education system reflecting the needs of this border region� In this system, apprentices and future tradesmen are given a general and specialist education in vocational training centres, at the same time as acquiring wide-ranging professional skills through internships with tried and tested work experience providers� Together with intensive career advice for young people, this educational system, which is unique in Belgium, is a decisive factor in the regional employment rate for 15–24 year olds, which is 6�7 % higher than in the rest of the country (2010 statistics)�

Youth unemployment in the German-speaking Community

In the German-speaking Community a sound basic educa-tion is the best means of keeping youth unemployment at a low level� For example, 94 % of those completing such

Karl‑Heinz Lambertz Minister-President of the German-speaking Community of Belgium

43


dual vocational education (average for 2000–11) were able to find employment immediately; on average, these young people were able to find jobs within 45 days�

There are over 800 apprentices (average for 2004-11) placed with some 600 active work experi-ence providers in the German-speaking Community — in per capita terms, 10 times higher than in Wallonia or Flanders� Thanks to large numbers of students in the dual education system and a high percentage of them going on to find work, between 2003 and 2012 the region consistently enjoyed the lowest youth unemployment rate in Belgium� However, at 13�3 % in 2012, more still needs to be done�

Learning and qualifications across borders

The organisations involved in the region’s dual vocational education system, such as IAWM, which acts as a supervisory body, and the ZAWM vocational education centre, use cross-border partner-ships and European projects to exchange experience and knowledge with their partners in the field of vocational education, such as chambers of crafts, industry and commerce, vocational col-leges and sectoral organisations� Together with these partners, they organise European appren-tice exchanges, as well as joint training activities and cross-border (‘binary’) qualifications�

‘Border Competences’ is a Leonardo da vinci pilot project managed by the IAWM� This project covers the main aspects of vocational education enabling school-leavers to acquire the skills they need for a cross-border economy and labour market� The term ‘Euregio skills’ is used here to refer jointly to foreign-language skills, intercultural skills and information skills�

Based on cross-border educational partnerships going back many years, and an education sys-tem which reflects the specific needs of the German-speaking Community as a border region, several exemplary models of European vocational education have been put into practice�

› For example, since 2007 trainee vehicle electro-mechanical technicians have only needed to complete a single course and final exam in order to obtain both German and Belgian journeyman’s certificates� This gives them ideal conditions for finding work on both sides of the border� Since 2010 retailers trained in the German-speaking Community or Aachen can obtain qualifications from the neighbouring region; from 2013 such binary qualifications will also be offered to hairdressing trainees� The plan is to roll this out to other professions�

› At the same time, the ZAWM Centre works together with the Aachen Crafts Chamber to provide joint cross-border training for butchers, bakers and confectioners� Such training takes into account the specific conditions, culinary needs and business environment of each part-ner region, thus offering considerable added value for participants, teaching staff and profes-sional associations�


44


In 2012, the youth unemployment rate of Croatia was at 39�5 %� Despite the current high rate, youth unemployment had been decreasing both in absolute and relative terms during the 1998–2008 period� Between 2008 and 2012, however, youth unemployment had increased by 14�2 percentage points, with the global economic crisis affecting youth employment even more severely than overall employment�

In Croatia, youth unemployment is characterised by severe gender inequalities� The economic crisis has slightly narrowed the gap but for all the wrong reasons: the unemployment rate for young men increased twice as much as that for young women between 2008 and 2010� There are also remarkable differences between the age groups: the unemployment rate is the high-est for 15–19 year olds, while older youth (particularly the ones in the 25–29 age bracket) have considerably higher employment rates� Furthermore, low education levels and lack of work experience seriously affect the employability of young people�

Several measures to improve youth employment have already been taken in Croatia� The Croa-tian Employment Services (CES) make special efforts concerning career guidance for people with disabilities, as well as vocational guidance of students with disabilities� Another example of CES efforts are the ‘early intervention’ activities, which provide information and counselling for students in their final years of education� Particular attention is paid to students whose chances of easily entering the labour market after education are limited, such as youth with health problems� Youth traineeships and apprenticeships are encouraged as well, for example by providing financial support to the employer�

CROATIA

45


Several young Croatians also had the opportunity to undertake a European traineeship, as part of the Leonardo da vinci programme� The programme funds practical projects in the field of vocational education and training, including mobility initiatives that enable people to train in another country� In addition, Croatia also makes concerted efforts to support job creation by financially supporting employers� Subsidised employment entails that employers receive financial support covering up to 50 % of the annual gross wage cost� Employment subsidies can also be allocated to the unemployed who are willing to start their own business under certain conditions� The problem of youth unemployment is also specifically addressed in the implementation of the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA), with a special focus on reducing youth unemployment at the regional level and facilitating labour market entry�

Efforts are made to raise awareness about employment possibilities after secondary school education, as well as to improve the interaction between education and the labour market, for example through traineeships� Moreover, both financial and non-financial incentives are put into place to make hiring youth more attractive, as well as to motivate self-entrepreneurship�

Finally, Croatia is committed to stimulating the decentralised model of housing for youth, to be realised for example by inexpensive rent and subsidised housing construction� These com-mitments were expressed during several pre-accession processes, such as the Joint Inclusion Memorandum (JIM) and the Joint Assessment of Employment Policy Priorities (JAP)� With the country’s accession to the EU, on 1 July 2013, measures to boost youth employment, such as the introduction of a Youth Guarantee (financed mainly by the Structural Funds, and more specifically the European Social Fund) will be immediately applicable�


46

Going local

Rijeka

According to the Croatian Employment Service, in Decem-ber 2012, out of Rijeka’s overall population (128 735 people), there were 4 382 registered young unemployed (below the age of 29)� World experience and initiatives indicate that the solution to this problem lies in the development of a brand new employment approach� In the past 10 years, Rijeka carried out actions in this direction, founding two business incubators, Rujevica and Torpedo� The first ‘Start-up Incubator’ is now run by the City of Rijeka�

The ‘Start-up Incubator’ is a completely new business infra-structure form� The difference with the existing incubators is that the users in Start-ups do not have their own regis-tered company� The Start-up provides support to individu-als in the initial design and implementation of business models� It is quite usual, but not necessary, that Start-ups grow in IT sectors, which are very well connected to the global market� The Start-up helps develop ideas in fields which generate high profits and high employment rates� There are experts who anticipate that the Start-up sector could create 10 000 openings in the next couple of years� And to prove that it is not a fairy tale, there are some young Start-up companies such as WhoAPI from Rijeka or Farmer-on from Osijek which have been a great success on the global market�

Vojko ObersnelMayor of Rijeka (Croatia)

47


The Start-up sector has grown significantly in Croatia over the past year� The project officially started in February 2013� Young people up to 29 years of age can participate in teams or indi-vidually and they can apply with their business ideas� In the application form they are required to describe their idea: how innovative it is, how needed the product is on the market, if that idea is innovative in a manner that would change existing market processes or if it is some-thing completely new, thus bringing an economical advantage or savings�

The ‘Start-up Incubator’ is much more than an equipped office� It is a project that implies work and workshops under the supervision of qualified mentors who will help educated and crea-tive young people to adjust their business ideas to the market� They will work together from the elaboration of the idea to the protection of intellectual property, marketing, business contacts, etc� Moreover, there is a connection between start-ups and potential investors, the so-called ‘business angels’ of the organisation CRANE, which has already invested in high-risk start-up projects�

It is very important to emphasise that the mentors are volunteers� They are enthusiasts who are ready to share their experience and knowledge, and spare time for a good cause, for the society� Therefore, their services are free of charge in this first ‘pre-incubation’ phase�

It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts with its partners has announced that in the second half of next year, they will approve micro-loans of up to HRK 70 000� It is expected that in 2014, up to EUR 50 million will be granted for the same pur-pose from EU funds�


48


In September 2012, youth unemployment in Finland stood at 18�9 %� Youth unemployment is addressed by a combination of training and more traditional labour market policy measures (such as employment grants for private companies and the public sector), while activation, in the form of a Youth Guarantee, plays a key role� It is worth noting that there can be sanctions (interruption of assistance) for those who do not participate actively in the placement process, or in the activities offered�

A revamped Youth Guarantee scheme was introduced on 1 January 2013: all under-25s and recent graduates under 30 are offered a job, a traineeship, a study place, practical experience, or a vocational rehabilitation place within three months of becoming unemployed� The Youth Guarantee is linked to an education guarantee under which every young person who com-pletes basic secondary education has access to further education, whether at a training col-lege or in an apprenticeship� A temporary ‘Skills programme for young adults’ is in place for 2013–16 with a view to offering additional places for those 20–29 year olds who have only attended comprehensive school�

Youth outreach work is used systematically to help as early as possible young people under 29 at risk of exclusion� Youth workshops provide work under guidance and tailor-made coun-selling so that young people complete their education or find a job� There are currently 196 workshops and their activities cover 80 % of the municipalities in Finland, but they are being extended to cover the whole country� In 2011, there were around 3 200 people under 25 in subsidised traineeships�

FINLAND

49


Under the education guarantee, an apprenticeship training pilot project is launched with the view to developing apprenticeship training into a suitable form of training for young basic education graduates� Employers of young trainees are financially assisted with EUR 800 per month�

To support job creation (including entrepreneurship and self-employment schemes), Finland introduced in 2010 the so-called Sanssi (‘Chance’) Card, a wage subsidy measure for lowering employers’ threshold contribution for hiring recently graduated young people under 30� In 2010–12, the Card was granted to around 24 000 young people of whom around 5 300 got a job (some 3 100 men and 2 200 women)� Start-up grants (EUR 670 — 1 080 granted for up to 18 months) are considered by Finland to be one of the most effective ways to get a position in the labour market� Such grants are awarded to around 800 young people per year�

In terms of funding youth unemployment measures, EUR 60 million/year will be given for the Youth Guarantee in 2013–16, while EUR 27 million in 2013 and EUR 52 million/year in 2014–16 will go to the temporary ‘Skills programme for young adults’�

By August 2012, the ESF and national co-funding allocated to priority 2 of the Finnish Opera-tional Programme linked to the ESF (training for young people and school drop-outs, prevent-ing discrimination in education, training and access to jobs) amounted to around EUR 140 mil-lion� The amount of ESF and national co-funding paid by August 2012 was approximately EUR 57 million�


50

Going local

Kerava

A Youth Guarantee scheme was introduced in Finland on 1 January 2013� All under-25s and recent graduates under 30 are offered a job, work experience, a study place, prac-tical experience, or vocational rehabilitation place within three months of becoming unemployed�

The Youth Guarantee is linked to a Training Guarantee under which every young person who completes basic second-ary education has access to further education, whether at a training college or in an apprenticeship� Young people who have completed basic secondary school but have no upper secondary school qualification are at the front of the queue for vocational training, where places are allocated through a new, nationwide electronic application system� Young immigrants are given language training at adult education centres and community colleges to improve their learning skills� A skills programme for young adults offers those under the age of 30 with no qualifications the opportunity to gain a vocational diploma�

Anne KarjalainenMember of Kerava City Council (Finland)

51


Cooperation is being strengthened between government officials at both the local and nation-al levels, while public resources are being allocated in a new way� Although local authorities have no new legal tasks or responsibilities, they do have an important role to play in ensuring the Youth Guarantee’s success� If the best solutions are to be found for young people at the local level, the Youth Guarantee has to be built on genuine cooperation between local authorities, local businesses and the third sector� The main thing, however, is to get young people them-selves to shape their own future� To this end, young people need support from those close to them: parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbours, teachers and other adults in their lives�

In my own town, Kerava, a working group of local representatives was set up to reflect on ser-vices for young people and monitor implementation of the Youth Guarantee� We also set aside project funding in this year’s municipal budget for outreach youth work and summer employ-ment for young people, either in local businesses or in the local authority�

Outreach youth work helps and supports young people to plan the next stages of their life; it encourages them to take advantage of the different services that are available and to find a course, job or traineeship� Working with an outreach youth worker, they can find out more about different fields of study, prepare job applications, or find interesting work experience� If necessary, young people can be accompanied on introductory visits or helped with college entrance exams and with practising how to independently organise their own lives� Young people can also go with a youth worker to find out more about different free-time activities�


52


The youth unemployment rate in France reached 25�7 % in September 2012� Despite a long history of public policy towards young workers, the unemployment rate in the 15–24 age group has always been relatively high: because of labour market segmentation, young people hold less skilled or insecure jobs� The use of young people in high-rotation jobs means that their level of employment is closely linked to the economic situation�

In times of growth, rates of employment for the 15–24 age bracket increase faster than those of the rest of the active population, but in times of economic downturn less experienced workers are the first to be hit by restructuring� Companies are afraid to commit to permanent hiring when economic growth is stagnant and the cost of social benefits is high� In addition, high youth unemployment in France can also be explained by a culture that pushes young people to focus exclusively on studying� Young people in France do not combine work and study, as is the case in other countries� Moreover, their studies, which tend to be lengthy, do not necessar-ily lead to the acquisition of skills matching labour market needs�

For more than three decades, successive French governments have been implementing youth employment policies, mainly consisting of subsidised recruitment, sometimes combining sub-sidies with training financed by employers� These initiatives have complemented apprentice-ship schemes� The side-effect of such policies is that they have contributed to making tempo-rary work and precarious jobs commonplace for young candidates�

The French President, François Hollande, made combating youth unemployment one of the priorities of his electoral campaign� Accordingly, the socialist government has launched an action plan comprising 47 measures, including the establishment of a Youth Guarantee� Under this scheme, young people experiencing difficulties entering the labour market will receive support from a local service that will suggest suitable training or job options, and they will also receive a minimum wage of EUR 483�24, equivalent to the earned income supplement allow-ance (RSA — Revenu de solidarité active)� The government is to launch this Youth Guarantee in 10 pilot regions in September 2013 and aims to reach 100 000 young people per year�

FRANCE

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Other measures in the action plan include:

› Intergeneration Contracts (contrats de génération) under which a young person will be em-ployed on a permanent contract and trained by a senior employee, who will retain his or her post;

› a means-tested study and training allowance;

› incentives for businesses employing young people from underprivileged neighbourhoods to help them to get work (emplois francs);

› the national education system will establish training and employment networks in 2013 aimed at getting 20 000 young people who have dropped out of school back into training;

› the creation of a public training, support and guidance service, managed at the regional level;

› support from mentors from outside the companies concerned for young people close to breaking the terms of their apprenticeship contract and their employers;

› business start-up support for the under-25s;

› stricter frameworks for traineeships, with the introduction of an upper limit on the number of trainees that a company can employ in relation to its total staff and a limitation on the length of traineeships to a maximum of six months;

› provision for traineeships that replace permanent posts to be recognised as work contracts;

› an extension of the protection provided for in the labour code to trainees�

The package will also include other measures on housing and health to improve the overall situation of young people in France� Youth employment measures account for EUR 473 million out of the total ESF amount already spent (EUR 1�5 billion) in the current programming period� It is expected that, once all programmed youth-focused ESF actions are implemented (of an estimated total amount of EUR 1�1 billion), there will be some 3�4 million young beneficiaries�


54

Going local

Eure

In 2011, the Eure Department launched a massive overhaul of its youth policy� The aim was to look more closely at what young people wanted and to involve them in that process, young people rightly being considered one of the Eure’s assets� The new policy, called Construisons ensem-ble (Let’s build together), was therefore put together on the basis of a broad consultation of young people aged between 16 and 25 and the department’s partners in order to get as close as possible to what young people wanted and, above all, reaffirm their right to play an active part in public life� At the many meetings held with young people, it became abundantly clear that their main concern was their personal and professional future and that they want-ed access to help and support with career guidance and in finding traineeships and seasonal work�

The department was therefore able to whittle down its proposals to 14 measures whose implementation would begin in 2013� One of the proposals, approved by 85 % of the young people, was to establish a Fonds Départemental d’Aide aux Jeunes (Departmental Young People’s Support Fund (FDAJ)) to promote social and professional integra-tion� The department intervenes on an ad hoc basis to help young people aged between 18 and 25 find work and stand on their own two feet� It uses the FDAJ to give young people who have contacted social services and/or who are already supported by the local authority the little bit of help they need to carry through their career plans (contributing towards the cost of training, of transport to a training centre, of driving lessons, etc�)� The Eure’s young people were sure that these measures would help them to begin their working lives and gain independence, particu-larly those having most difficulty� They have voiced their appreciation of the way the local authority is standing alongside those whose need is greatest�

Jean‑Louis DestansPresident of Eure General Council (France)

55


There are high expectations regarding the implementation in the Eure of the Emplois d’avenir (Jobs for the future) programme, a large-scale nationwide measure� This new mechanism tar-gets young people aged between 16 and 25, with few or no qualifications, living in run-down urban neighbourhoods� It is also for young people who have studied to achieve an initial quali-fication (CAP, BEP or baccalaureate) in areas suffering very high unemployment� These jobs will be opened up mainly in activities of general interest and social benefit by employers in the non-commercial sector� It will involve the Eure Department taking on 100 young people with no qualifications and aged between 16 and 25 for a three-year fixed-term contract, to be supervised by professionals from the local authority on a voluntary basis� These young people will be trained for a qualification, and those with the greatest difficulties will also be given guid-ance on training choices or help looking for another job afterwards�

The housing kit proposal has a direct connection with the issue of employment and training� In order to live independently, young people need to set up home alone, move nearer to a training centre, or live in an area where there are more jobs available� However, they don’t always have family to act as guarantors� This is the reasoning behind the Eure Department’s new tool to respond to young people’s housing needs� The idea is to enable them to find suit-able, decent accommodation once they have started on the road to employment� The propos-al was approved by 100 % of the young people taking part� This is a key issue for young people, who say they need help with red tape, financial help for essential items (furniture and white goods, payment of the first rent cheque pending the transfer of housing allowances, etc�)� The young people even went further than the proposal on the table: they wanted to set up a spe-cial estate agency for young people and a housing service to help them find accommodation�

Last of all, the establishment of a civic service is another way of promoting citizenship and the shift towards autonomy� Young people see this as an opportunity to gain experience and new skills while playing an active part in the life of the community�

This long preparation phase for the new youth policy, which is now being put into practice, gave young people an opportunity to confirm what they wanted in detail, and they did this in a lively, creative and cooperative way�


56


The youth unemployment rate in Germany was just 8 % at the end of 2012, the lowest of all EU Member States� Unlike most of its European neighbours, Germany’s youth has only suf-fered from relatively limited unemployment during the economic and financial crisis� This can be explained by the stabilising effect of the traditionally well-established ‘dual system’ on the national job market, characterised by a combination of school-based and work experience-based training� Backed by the social partners, this system guarantees a close match between qualifications and labour market needs� Therefore, the key factor deciding on young people’s future labour market prospects is access to proper vocational training, which is at present rather unevenly distributed�

Unskilled male young people from a weaker socioeconomic and/or migrant background are particularly likely to experience difficulties in accessing vocational training, and as a result face potentially permanent exclusion from the job market� In 2011 only half of those who have left school succeeded in getting into dual education and training programmes, while the remain-ing half was left with the option of participating in ‘transition schemes’ intended to prepare young people for regular vocational training� This situation reflects the inequalities resulting from stratification within the German school system� Labour market policies should therefore concentrate on ensuring equal opportunities in the education and training system�

GERMANY

57


Many of the existing measures are co-financed by the ESF� Measures for school students include career coaching (currently 2 000 participating schools), and support from the Public Employment Service in preparing for and acquiring relevant qualifications� Another initiative, involving some 35 municipalities, aims to facilitate labour market integration for disadvan-taged young people�

Through the dual apprenticeship system, 600 000 apprenticeships were offered and 570 000 vocational Education and Training (vET) contracts were concluded in 2011� Moreover, the number of placement officers assigned to the ESF programme for matching traineeships with companies seeking trainees has been doubled� A wage subsidy system compensates employ-ers for lower productivity, thus encouraging them to employ less productive workers�

Last but not least, unemployed young people who wish to start their own business can apply for financial support and investment grants, and self-employed people can access grants, sub-sidies and counselling�

In order to combat and prevent youth unemployment, the German government has com-mitted itself to implementing the National Training Pact, signed with the Länder and employ-ers’ organisations� This Pact aims to enhance young people’s education achievements and to offer training or apprenticeship options to any young person wishing to undertake vocational training and meeting the necessary conditions� Every year, 60 000 additional apprenticeships will be offered, with 30 000 training companies being added every year� In addition, 30 000 additional entry-level qualifications and 10 000 qualifications for less capable young people will be provided�


58

Going local

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg had Germany’s lowest level of un employment among under-25s in February 2012, with the jobless rate in this category standing at 2�8 %, com-pared with 3�4 % in Bavaria� Baden-Württemberg also had the best performance overall in that month, with 4�1 %, likewise ahead of Bavaria with 4�2 %� In Baden-Württem-berg there is close networking and cooperation between all players responsible for the employment and training of young people�

Thus in December 2010, the Alliance to Improve vocation-al Training and Skills Development was concluded (to run from 2010 to 2014)� The partners in the alliance are busi-ness associations, trade unions, the Federal Employment Agency, municipalities and policymakers (prime minister, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ministry of Cul-ture, Ministry of Social Affairs)� The goal of the Alliance is to offer a training place to every young person who is ready and willing to do vocational training� The following are examples of measures taken�

› The business sector has already committed to finding an average of 7 600 new vocational training places per year and to increasing the number of companies offer-ing vocational training by an average of 3 800 annually�

› The Federal Employment Agency is ensuring that all applicants receive an offer of a training position or an alternative�

› Municipalities are endeavouring to continue and where possible expand their training provision�

Peter FriedrichMinister for the Bundesrat, European and International Affairs of the Land of Baden-Württemberg (Germany)

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› Schools and employment agencies are stepping up their cooperation in supporting school-leavers’ transition to study or working life�

› The German Trade Union Federation is holding career counselling events�

› University access for people with vocational qualifications is being improved�

In January 2012 the Ministry of Social Affairs presented a ‘Plan for good and secure employ-ment’� This includes various pilot projects to help particularly disadvantaged groups with find-ing a job� Worth mentioning are:

› training for disadvantaged people: mainly for funding socio-educational support during training, with a particular focus on immigrants;

› best practice in ensuring that successful integration of the long-term unemployed into the open labour market is sustained; the principal aim is to provide social support and care for people who have entered the open labour market with the aim of keeping them there permanently�

The Land government concluded a Skills Alliance on 15 December 2011, for which the Min-istry of Finance and Economic Affairs has overall responsibility� This Alliance comprises all key players who influence the training and employment of skilled workers� These include employ-ers, trade unions, the Federal Employment Office, municipalities and the relevant Land min-istries� The Alliance manages, for instance, the planning of return-to-learn qualifications for people with or without vocational qualifications or encouragement of further training in small companies�

These examples are evidence of previous successful measures and new, future-oriented approaches�


60

Thuringia

Promoting continuing vocational training

Thuringia Needs You — Securing a skilled workforce and integrating young adults into the labour market through training and qualificationsThe aim of the initiative is to get these youths and young adults (up to the age of 35) into regular vocational training, second-chance training leading to a vocational qualifica-tion through external examination, or further vocational training� The associated campaign ‘Thuringia Needs You’ aims to highlight the value of the dual training system and to encourage young people to see themselves as having a future in Thuringia�

Thuringia Second-Chance Training NetworkThis network cooperates with the Thuringia Chambers of Craft Trades, Industry and Commerce as the bodies responsible for the dual vocational training system� It pro-vides a platform for establishing the strategic develop-ment of second-chance throughout Thuringia� As part of the vocational qualifications initiative, common standards and modules for second-chance training are being drawn up in cooperation with the Chambers�

Career opportunities for graduates — promoting in-service post-graduate study As part of the programme to support medium-sized busi-nesses, a scheme was established in September 2011 to promote distance learning for master’s degrees among employees liable for social security payments who already have a bachelor’s degree (or in some cases a diploma)� The financial support covers half the cost of studying (up to EUR 6 000)�

Holger PoppenhägerMinister of Justice of the State of Thuringia (Germany)

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Promoting practical guidance and vocational preparation programmes

Improving trainability through careers guidancePractical career guidance and preparation increases young people’s trainability and improves the transition from school to vocational training in line with the needs of the economy and the administration�

Getting into work via the ‘0th training year’The aim of the ‘0th training year’ as an initial qualification is to help low-achieving young peo-ple who are not yet ready for training to find the right career path� As from the 2012/13 school year, a pilot project will provide individual ‘remedial lessons’ one day a week at selected voca-tional schools for participants in workplace-based initial qualification schemes�

Standing up to extremism — promoting intercultural skills The Ministry for Economics, Labour and Technology of Thuringia agreed in 2011 to expand the vocational preparation guidelines with the aim of helping children and young people to develop intercultural skills� The changing demands of the economy, society and work require social and intercultural skills, which will be boosted among the target group as part of com-prehensive vocational preparation�

Promoting initial vocational training

Combined trainingThere are advantages to the joint — and thus more cost-effective — use of training facilities, which improve the training situation and, in particular, the quality of training�

Promoting mentors — assistance for low-achieving young peopleAs part of the ‘Qualifications and a skilled workforce’ action programme, newly appointed men-tors will support low-achieving young people as they undertake in-house training in small and medium-sized enterprises� The aim is to enable pupils to successfully complete in-house training�

Support for apprentices hit by bankruptcyThe aim of this support is to enable young people in Thuringia to continue their training if the business in which they are training goes bankrupt�


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Individual integration support for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged people in the labour market, as part of the Land labour market programme

Eighty-three integration support workers in 24 regional integration projects work with people who have not, or not adequately, been reached, motivated and enabled by ‘normal’ case man-agement� The integration support workers analyse specific barriers to finding a job, work with their clients to plan steps to break down those barriers, and support them in implementing the plan�

Thuringia Agency for Recruiting Skilled Workers (ThAFF)

One key mechanism for securing a skilled workforce in Thuringia is the Thuringia Agency for Recruiting Skilled Workers (ThAFF)� The ThAFF’s mission is to support Thuringia’s business community in retaining skilled workers in Thuringia or attracting them (back) to the Land’s labour market� Its activities target school pupils, apprentices, students, graduates, cross-border commuters, potential returnees, immigrants and non-career soldiers both within and outside Thuringia�

63


Saarpfalz District

Combating youth unemployment has been a priority in the district of Saarpfalz for many years� Youth unemploy-ment currently stands at 5�1 %� A targeted support net-work has gradually been developed which operates on the following principles:

› prevention rather than cure;

› no overlapping structures;

› cooperation between network partners, based on trust and focused on the needs of young people�

A multiplicity of authorities and bodies support young people on the road to independence� These partners are at federal, Land and municipality levels, and also receive sub-stantial EU co-financing� Thus in 2012 around EUR 700 000 will be provided by the ESF to combat youth unemploy-ment in the Saarpfalz district� Without these resources, it would be impossible to adequately maintain the support structure or implement measures for young people�

One particular measure for disadvantaged young people, which has a positive impact only when all partners cooper-ate to help young people, is STABIL�

Project title:

Stabil (Socialisation through Training, Work, Care and Rais-ing the Performance of Young People in Saarpfalz District)

Clemens LindemannDistrict Executive of the

Saarpfalz District Assembly (Germany)


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Project goals:

The Stabil project offers easy-access support in preparation for training or employment� The aim of the Stabil project is to achieve the vocational and thus social integration of young people� The project is based on general and vocational training combined with individual coaching in social skills and personal performance� The idea is to break down barriers to inte-gration and achieve an improvement in learning, work and social skills� The project aims to lay the foundation for participation in training, work and further education, or initiate further integration measures, by restoring a person’s self-confidence and all-round personal develop-ment, as well as promoting skills and key competences and qualifications�

Target group:

The project is available to 35 young people (under 25 years of age) facing multiple barriers to employment in Saarpfalz District� Barriers to employment faced by young people include: lack of or poor school or vocational qualifications, truancy and dropping out of training and support programmes, migrant background, addiction problems, psychological problems, delinquency, behavioural problems, possible conflict issues, or other barriers to employment� The 35 young people were supervised by social workers (two and a half full-time posts), one teacher and two craft instructors�

65


Admission:

The participants were referred through the Saarpfalz District job centre�

Financing:

The project is funded from job centre resources and funding from the European Social Fund�

Outcome:

The project was considered to have been successful for a young person when they had achieved sufficient stability to be able to enter training or take a job, or were now prepared to accept further support, e�g� in the form of a treatment programme� This objective is achieved for an average 56 % of young people annually� 17 % of participants are found a training place or job�

Networking as the basis for success:The work with young people in the Stabil project can only succeed if all district authorities and advisory services prioritise efforts to support young people and contribute their own specific expertise� Offers from network partners must be known, expertise must be well-defined and contact people appointed� This is the only way to provide support for young people efficiently and in a targeted way�


66


Youth unemployment reached 57�6 % in October 2012� Greece is one of the EU Member States hardest hit by the current economic crisis, and this has particularly affected youth unemploy-ment� Already in 2009, overall labour force participation stood at 66 %, which was lower than the EU-27 average of 73 %� As for youth labour force participation, it has traditionally been one of the lowest in Europe�

Furthermore, Greece has an education system that struggles to address mismatches in supply and demand of skills, and to effectively respond to labour market needs� Despite all this, the most serious threat to youth employment is the continued austerity measures: it is cheaper to fire workers with the least work experience and unemployment benefits are now higher than part-time wages for young people� This is why many Greek young people decide to emigrate, discouraged by low wages and severe competition for fewer jobs�

It is worth noting that within the framework of the Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, minimum wages in the private sector for workers under 25 have been reduced by 32 %� What is more, gender inequality has deepened, with every second young female now being unemployed� Moreover, regional disparities in youth unemployment have been tem-porarily abolished, but for the wrong reasons since all regions now present very high rates of youth unemployment given their uniformly bad economic performance�

GREECE

67


Existing measures are largely co-financed by the ESF� The Greek Manpower Organisation (OAED) plays a key role, offering training programmes for skills acquisition and job search assis-tance� It operates 51 vocational education schools (in-class education combined with remu-nerated apprenticeships) and provides incentives for internships (where the trainee is paid 80 % of the wage of an unskilled worker and OAED reimburses the employer up to 50 % of the wage paid)� There are also ESF co-financed schemes for work-based training for students in upper secondary, post-secondary and tertiary education�

Two schemes co-financed by the ESF, with an overall budget of EUR 95 million, provide sup-port to employers to hire (a) young people aged 15–24 (EUR 27 million), and (b) unemployed university graduates up to the age of 35� Another ESF co-financed scheme with a budget of EUR 52 million seeks to enhance access to employment and business creation for people threatened by unemployment, unemployed/job-seekers and inactive people�

All in all, a substantial part of the Structural Funds is currently allocated to the promotion of entrepreneurship and business creation opportunities for young unemployed and young pro-fessionals up to the age of 35� However, it is not clear how much of the ESF’s financial envelope destined to actions to support job creation and boost employability (EUR 786 million in total) is targeted only at youth�

In order to combat and prevent youth unemployment, the Greek government has committed to expanding and reinforcing existing initiatives co-funded by the EU funds, and to re-allocat-ing resources across operational programmes� Moreover, an action plan is under preparation and it foresees targeted interventions to boost young people’s employment and entrepre-neurship� It will be mainly supported with funds under the Greek National Strategic Reference Framework 2007–13�


68

Going local

Attica

Greece is experiencing its greatest economic crisis since the war: the changes that have affected every sector of society mean that, since 2009, it has gone through a cen-tury’s worth of economics� The changes in standard of living, loss of disposable income and, most importantly, unemployment, are painful problems for Greek citizens that are tearing the social fabric apart day after day�

According to the official Greek statistical body ELSTAT, unemployment across Greece now stands at 26�8 %, com-pared with 19�07 % for the same month in 2011� Over the last two years, youth unemployment has risen by the high-est percentage compared to the previous years in the Atti-ca Region, the country’s largest metropolitan area�

Job losses in both the private and public sectors, com-bined with the low level of business activity, have hit young people under the age of 30 particularly hard� The unemployment rate for people in this age group is at its highest in the Attica Region, with some 296 400 people out of work�

Faced with this bleak situation, the Attica Region is pro-moting a series of innovative social economy initiatives whose main aim is to foster young people’s creativity and entrepreneurship, and to breathe life into the economy by boosting employment� The basic approach to achieving these aims is to promote innovative methods in all sectors of the economy, to encourage the creation of coopera-tive social enterprises, and to strengthen social networks, which can produce spectacular results�

Tangible evidence of the above is the fact that the Attica Region is already playing an active part in the First Work of Community Interest Programme, financed from national and European sources, namely the European Social Fund�

Ioannis Sgouros Head of the Region of Attica (Greece)

69


The purpose of the programme is to create jobs directly at the local level and to strengthen social cohesion through measures of community interest� Under the programme, unemployed people are taken on by non-profit bodies (eligible bodies) and work with them for five months�

The Attica Region has cooperated with 18 eligible non-profit bodies including associations, foundations, civil law companies, trade union organisations and employers’ organisations, providing employment for 2 871 people�

The actions included in the programme produce results in terms of protecting and maintain-ing natural and urban environments, supporting social services, and promoting culture� More specifically, programme beneficiaries have been involved in:

› protecting wooded areas, and cleaning squares and parks;

› creating social groceries and social restaurants;

› extracurricular educational support for school pupils and adults;

› provision of care for elderly and disabled people;

› activities relating to sport education, road safety and preventive health care for pupils and their parents;

› conservation of cultural heritage and promoting tourism, etc�

Continuing with the programme in the future, together with strong mobilisation of the body responsible for implementing youth entrepreneurship programmes and supporting SMEs, are key priorities for the Attica Region�

The social impact of this initiative may still be described as modest, mainly due to the sud-den and drastic expansion of the problem� The Attica Region is however determined to press ahead with this work� Intensive efforts to secure the necessary economic resources and to continue urging participation in similar programmes will continue�


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Crete

The Region of Crete is a new institution of elected regional representatives that has become reality since January 2011� This is the result of the implementation of the so-called ‘Kallikratis Plan’, which has restructured Greek local government by abolishing the country’s 54 prefectures and 22 other broad administrative units, replacing them by 13 regional assemblies�

Our regional government aims at deepening local and regional democracy, while further unleashing and mak-ing appropriate use of our region’s strengths and potential� Our intention is to continuously improve the services pro-vided to our citizens, promote transparency and account-ability and, at the same time, successfully negotiate with the central government for funds for the benefit of our local societies�

During such a period of crisis for Greece, the Region of Crete has chosen to intensify its efforts to support and pro-mote youth entrepreneurship and create sustainable jobs in new sectors such as technology and energy� Our priority is to promote innovation and make Crete an environment where entrepreneurial culture can flourish�

To this end, we have created the Regional Council of Innovation of Crete, which links all governmental and non-governmental operators on the island to help them develop new ideas, and suggests new directions for Crete’s productive sectors�

Stavros ArnaoutakisHead of the Region of Crete (Greece)

71


At the same time, a collaborative workspace is being set up under the Regional Council of Innovation’s direction to provide facilities for young entrepreneurs and young enterprises (co-work spaces, workshops, events, public services to citizens, corporate or freelance space rental, etc�), and to host the Network of Entrepreneurship and Innovation� This network will connect entrepreneurs with academic and research institutions in Crete as well as with local govern-ment organisations� Furthermore, a Centre of Excellence for research and applied policies in public management, education, social and regional policy, economics and sustainability will also be set up within the same facilities�

Another example of our progressive work is a new institutional event called Ideopolis (mean-ing ‘city of ideas’)� Its aim is to foster and facilitate significant entrepreneurial competition for youth� It will work with partners from abroad to promote the international exposure of young entrepreneurs and businesses and will also offer tutorials in business planning and business operations�

It is true that in our country, Greece, the problem of youth unemployment is more severe than in other European countries, since one young Greek in two is currently unemployed� Our objective is to identify what each of us can do as a team and individually, but also as admin-istrative entities� Our ultimate goal is to contribute significantly to a change in the current adverse economic climate by maintaining existing jobs and creating new ones, particularly for young people�


72

Kavala

In order to deal with the unemployment from which the young people of economic crisis-ridden Greece are suf-fering, initiatives are being shaped and put into practice with the direct aim of finding temporary employment for young people amongst others, and getting them back into work�

Approval and implementation of Kavala Municipality’s social support structure (Stirizo) to tackle poverty directly are currently being awaited� The specific aim and effect of the measures is to create jobs for unemployed young people up to the age of 30, taking them on either to set up new social structures, or to support existing ones (social groceries, social pharmacies, employment agencies, ‘time banks’ and municipal allotments)� The purpose of this net-work is to tackle poverty and social exclusion by a raft of cross-cutting measures to provide psychosocial and prac-tical support and reinforcement for people from vulner-able social groups, or people in or at risk of poverty�

The programme is of direct benefit to recipients, who are given help with employment at a time when jobs are becoming scarce, fostering a feeling of safety and secu-rity, and making a significant contribution to household income� It simultaneously enables eligible unemployed people to stay in contact with the labour market� It pro-motes innovative best practices in making employment policies effective, offering a different model that can be made into a cooperative economy� At the same time, it generates benefits for participating bodies through the measures included, which contribute to delivering better quality public services�

Konstantinos SimitsisMayor of Kavala (Greece)

73


The contribution made to the local economy is also considered to be significant, as it boosts the purchasing power of beneficiaries, impacting all aspects of the local economy and beyond� Twenty-nine young people up to the age of 30 are expected to be employed under this initia-tive� The measure will be in force for two years� A budget of EUR 986 000 has been earmarked, funded by the National Strategic Reference Framework�

(a) The ‘Katseli programme’ gave some 980 people in the Kavala Municipality the opportunity to work, boosting their household income for five months� The aim was to get people belonging to vulnerable social groups — including of course young people — back into work�

(b) Under Action 3, ‘Local action on social integration for vulnerable groups’, within Interven-tion Category 1, ‘Preventing and tackling the social exclusion of vulnerable population groups’, from Priority Axis 4, ‘Complete integration of all human resources into a society of equal opportunities’, part of the Operational Programme ‘Local action for the social integra-tion of vulnerable social groups by promoting employment and entrepreneurship in the dynamic ‘green economy’ sector in Kavala Prefecture, Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace’, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF), some 30 young people up to the age of 30 will be given the opportunity to receive training in new farming methods and how to set up social cooperatives and enterprises, something which is emerging in Greece�

(c) The Local Employment Scheme (TOPSA) programme is soon to begin operating� Its aim is to create jobs for unemployed people by activating and mobilising local actors (develop-ment actors)� The schemes generally include measures such as initial and ongoing training, a period of practical training in a private company in Greece or abroad, drawing up of busi-ness plans, specialist assessment and survey services for start-ups, support with legal and tax matters, etc�


74

The aim of the schemes is for beneficiaries, once they have completed their preparation by means of the above measures, to be in a position to:

› set up businesses that harness the specific features of their region,

› be equipped to obtain subsidies/sponsorship from other investment programmes,

› build up skills that match the identified needs of local businesses that may employ them�

The initiatives cover the entire country and are implemented at the local level by the develop-ment actors, which operate as non-profit associations including public and private bodies� The initiatives are local, and focus on supporting certain unemployed people and businesses in each particular region�

Specifically, the development partnerships implement the various measures, such as special-ised training programmes, linking unemployed people up with companies, advice for unem-ployed people and for businesses, drawing up of business plans, etc�, with the ultimate aim of placing beneficiaries in companies and supporting business ventures and thus securing job creation�

In the Kavala Municipality, 51 young people between the ages of 20 and 34 who have com-pleted secondary school education will specialise in the commercial sector, in new sectors, new trades and new ways of organising commercial enterprises� All of the above tie in directly with the policies pursued by the European Union to tackle the poverty and unemployment affecting society as a whole, and young people in particular�

75



With a youth unemployment rate standing at 30�2 % in 2012, Ireland is among the worst-performing countries in Europe� Young people have been badly hit by the recession in the labour market, and youth unemployment has become within only a few years one of the greatest challenges facing Ireland� What is more, the extent of the problem is masked by a sig-nificant increase in the numbers re-entering or remaining in education, as well as a signifi-cant number of young people who, unsatisfied with the job market situation, have decided to emigrate�

Future job prospects are particularly concerning for disadvantaged young people, name-ly youngsters with low skills, early school-leavers and those who have not engaged in any further training following their exit from school� As they are effectively unemployable in the know ledge economy, they are at high risk of falling out of the net and becoming long-term un employed� Likewise, many young jobseekers point to a lack of workplace experience as the most significant barrier to entry for young people into the job market�

Consequently, policy responses should concentrate on developing programmes that com-bine appropriate work experience, study and job placement programmes for young jobseek-ers, as well as on training and mentoring aimed at building the necessary skill sets required for a successful job search�

IRELAND


76

Measures to effectively address youth unemployment are being undertaken as part of Ireland’s overall two-pronged strategy to tackle unemployment: the Action Plan for Jobs, which supports job creation, and the Pathways to Work programme, which is aimed at providing un employed people with appropriate training and skills� For example, the national JobBridge internship programme — set up within this strategy and equipped with a budget of EUR 65�7 million in 2012 — provides work experience placements for 6–9 months; 5 000 people participated in it in the first half of 2012�

Furthermore, there are traineeship programmes which focus on entry-level occupation-specific training, and combine formal training with FÁS — the Irish national training and employment authority — and workplace coaching with a host employer� In 2011, funding for some 5 000 beneficiaries was allocated to these programmes� In addition, over 450 000 education and training places are provided in the higher education, further education and training sectors�

Special attention is paid to early school-leavers, who receive guidance and support from the employment service and may enrol in specifically designed training programmes, such as Community Training Centres or Youthreach�

There are no specific measures to enhance youth entrepreneurship� However, young people can make use of the general support for self-employment and small business start-ups, includ-ing financial support through local County Enterprise Boards�

To further improve the labour market position of young people, the Irish Government has committed to reallocating EUR 25 million under the ESF Operational Programme to the activi-ties of Youthreach, Ireland’s education and training programme for early school-leavers, and to maintaining 3 700 training places for early school-leavers until the end of 2013� The ESF will also co-finance a new labour market education and training fund, aimed at creating up to 6 500 training places, in particular for long-term unemployed people and young people under 25�

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Going local

The South-East Region of Ireland

The prevailing high rate of unemployment, with youth unemployment a significant proportion, is now probably the single greatest challenge facing Ireland and its South-East Region�

Indicator Ireland South-East Region

Unemployment Rate (QNHS)

15 % 19�4 %

Total number of unemployed persons (Live Register)

423 733 56 024

Total number of unemployed persons under 25 (Live Register)

66 944 (Male–Female ratio is approx� 2:1)

9 249 (Male–Female ratio is approx� 5:3)

% of Live Register made up of unemployed persons aged under 25 (Live Register)

15�8 % 16�5 %

Recent research conducted by the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) found that young jobseekers considered the prospect of securing rewarding employment in Ireland as not very good, that they were more likely to have to emigrate to find employment and that being unemployed has a negative effect on the young jobseeker’s sense of well-being� These findings reveal the reasoning for the very large numbers of young people who have emigrated from Ireland over the past few years and who continue to do so in search of employment� This trend in emigration is ‘artificially’ lowering the unemployed rate for those aged under 25�

Des HurleyMember of Carlow Local

Authorities (Ireland)


78

A South-East Employment Action Plan was published in December 2011 at the request of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in response to the ongoing concerns about the persistently above average rates of unemployment in the South-East Region� Implementation of the plan, which incorporated inputs from all the enterprise agencies, other relevant state agencies, local authorities, CEBs and educational institutions from the region, is being moni-tored by a South-East Forum chaired by the Minister�

One area, amongst others, that can play a role in tackling youth unemployment is entrepreneur-ship� The South-East Regional Authority was a partner in the EU Interreg IvC co-funded Youth Entrepreneurship Strategies (YES) project, which was completed in 2012 and which examined the need to integrate entrepreneurship education into mainstream education systems�

In the context of the global economic challenge, which remains particularly acute in many parts of the EU (including South-East Ireland), exposure of school children to entrepreneurship education from an early age can make a significant medium- and long-term contribution to future socioeconomic development� ‘Kidz Buzzness’ was an enterprise education resource for 10–12-year-old primary schoolchildren that was developed directly from the Authority’s par-ticipation in the YES project�

The South-East Regional Authority will very soon commence work on the ‘Youth4JOB’ project, partly funded by the EU Progress Programme� This one-year project involving partners from nine EU Member States will carry out benchmark research and analysis on policies and pro-grammes that promote youth employment, concentrating on the need to facilitate the first transition for young people from education to the labour market�

In parallel to the Joint Research, five sectoral-specific case studies (small-scale in nature) will be carried out, identifying good practices of youth vocational orientation and guidance in four strategic economic sectors (ICT, entrepreneurship, tourism and maritime sectors) and in one target group with particular needs (migrants)� The South-East Regional Authority is responsible for the Entrepreneurship case study� The key output from the project will be a report on good practices and quality services in terms of the available vocational orientation and guidance services (concentrating on employment perspectives)�

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Youth unemployment reached 35�1 % in September 2012� Italy is one of the EU Member States hardest hit by the current economic crisis� This has severely impacted youth employment while deepening the existing economic gap between the northern part of the country and the Mezzogiorno (southern regions)�

Not only has youth unemployment increased since 2009 but the number of young people in short-term unemployment has also decreased by 50 %, which means that it takes increasingly longer to get back into the labour market�

Gender inequality has deepened, as young women in the 20–24 age bracket have been par-ticularly hard hit by the crisis, with an overall deterioration of their conditions of life — espe-cially for young mothers — because of the lack of work–life balance measures, low pay and precarious employment� The rate of young women not employed and not involved in some sort of education or training having to live with their parents is 24�9 %�

The reform of the education system (carried out by Berlusconi’s former government) focused on cuts, ignoring the need to effectively address mismatches in skills supply and demand� In 2011, the rate of early school-leavers revolved around 18�2 %, well above the Europe 2020 target of bringing it below 10 % by 2020� Regional differences are particularly high, with peak levels in the southern regions�

The NEETs level exceeds one million (1 199 000), with practically one young person in five being outside the labour market and the education system� In July 2012, the NEET rate was around 19�8 % for the 15–24 age bracket (EU average 12�9 %) and 22�7 % if extended to the 15–29 bracket (EU average 15�4 %)�

ITALY


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Interestingly enough, the 25–29 age bracket, which is crucial in terms of economic emanci-pation and family creation, has been the most severely hit (27�8 %)� Most NEETs in Italy only have a lower education attainment and around 70 % have no work experience at all� Given the gravity of the problem, all regions have put into place targeted measures to address the situation of NEETs�

Existing measures are mainly co-financed by the ESF� Italy is one of the Member States benefit-ing from extra support through the European Commission Youth SME action teams, aimed at better targeting Structural Funds in favour of employment and job creation� About EUR 6�4 bil-lion of EU financing was reallocated through the work of the action team; 128 300 young peo-ple and around 28 000 SMEs are thus likely to benefit from this reallocation of funds�

Thanks to the use of Structural Funds, a Cohesion Action Plan was adopted in Italy to accelerate the implementation of Structural Funds in the Meridione� EUR 3�7 billion (of which EUR 1�4 bil-lion was in favour of education and employment) was directed in December 2011 to regional operational programmes towards education, employment, railways and the digital agenda�

Therefore, within the current financial framework: (i) Sicily will implement an employability plan from which around 50 000 young people are likely to benefit; (ii) 65 300 students from the southern regions will have access to new education activities, and 13 000 to mobility pro-grammes (Erasmus and Leonardo)� An additional EUR 2�3 billion — of which EUR 600 million targets young people — were reprogrammed to finance measures related to childcare, reduc-tion of the rate of early school-leavers, young entrepreneurship, apprenticeships, NEETs and young researchers�

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Going local

Tuscany

To address the difficult situation in terms of job and train-ing prospects for the younger generations as regards employment, entrepreneurship, education, training and housing independence, the Tuscany Region, launched the Giovanisì (Young people — yes!) project� This draws in particular on support from the EU’s Structural Funds, espe-cially the European Social Fund�

The regional project to make young people independent includes initiatives promoting a genuine right to study, vocational skilling, an experience of citizenship (through civilian service), instruments for facilitating access to work (paid traineeships as a young person’s right and the quality of the traineeship, with efforts to prevent misuse thereof ), forms of business start-ups and enhancement of young people’s talents in existing undertakings (including through facilitated access to credit), international mobil-ity facilitating training and work experience, support for housing and independent living (including through rent subsidies and subsidies for first-time house buyers), and enhancement of occupations and services related to well-being in the community (social and cultural activities)�

Enrico RossiPresident of the Tuscany Region

(Italy)


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To ensure that such youth policies are ongoing, Giovanisì has developed an operational project (including measures, competition notices, etc�), along with a cultural process (the concept of a cohesive community sharing a spirit of cooperation and a priority undertaking promoting independence in young people as a development tool), a vast regional network (a central office at the presidency and many information points dotted across the region) and, lastly, a system of governance (with tools formalised by means of protocols, a coordination body and a platform of young people)�

People’s careers, particularly young people’s careers, are currently progressing in fits and starts� There are difficulties in starting off and sudden halts forcing people to find new ways of accessing jobs; times of forging ahead and periods of less work are forcing people to retrain� These various periods when people are seeking work are the basis for the planning and management of Tus-cany’s youth policies, which focus intensively on the difficult transition from youth to adulthood�

Using in particular resources from the European Structural Funds, Tuscany is therefore promot-ing specific measures:

› traineeships — to give young people the opportunity to prepare for the world of employ-ment with appropriate training, this initiative co-finances traineeships in businesses and public bodies with study grants (reimbursing expenditure) of at least EUR 500 per month, EUR 300 of which is paid by the Tuscany region;

› agricultural entrepreneurship — this initiative enables young people between 18 and 40 wishing to start up an agricultural business in Tuscany to benefit from specific conces-sions intended to facilitate the structural adjustments needed to make their new business competitive on the market;

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› business start-ups — to facilitate the start-up of a business or entrepreneurial activity it is possible to apply for concessions (lower interest rates on loans and leasing agreements and provision of security also for loans and leasing), enabling young entrepreneurs to ob-tain funding;

› mobility — this initiative promotes mobility for apprentices, newly qualified young people and young graduates, first-job seekers, the unemployed, those in employment, entrepre-neurs and researchers so that they can benefit from exchanges, study visits, traineeships and experience on the ground designed to facilitate skilling, work integration and technol-ogy transfer;

› scholarships and training vouchers — this initiative finances Borse di studio Pegaso (Pegasus scholarships), aiming to help young graduates access high-profile international doctorates at Tuscan universities; vouchers for Masters and research doctorates with a view to developing programmes for research, specialisation and upskilling for young graduates and researchers; and international mobility vouchers to support work activities abroad;

› training — this initiative promotes higher technical training and education courses pro-viding technical and vocational training and an appropriate level of cultural, technical and scientific skills and knowledge, designed for young people who have obtained their di-ploma di maturità (Italian equivalent of A-Levels)�

There are already 6 500 young Tuscans involved in the Giovanisì project�


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Umbria

Unemployment in Umbria is a plague affecting the entire working-age population, but the most alarming data are for those aged 15 to 34, for whom there are few stable jobs and insecure employment is high�

The fact that no fewer than 13�5 % of young people with a degree are currently working outside the region and con-stituting a veritable brain drain prompted the creation of the Brain Back project, which is financed under the Umbria Region 2007–13 operational programme and co-funded from the European Social Fund’s Priority v — transnational and interregional cooperation�

The project’s aims are: (i) to examine the phenomenon of emigration; (ii) to encourage émigré researchers and work-ers to return to Umbria; and (iii) to help émigrés to set up new businesses in the region�

Planned measures include gathering official data on Umbrians residing abroad; publishing data on their expe-rience; providing offers of work experience in Umbria businesses; supporting the creation and development of permanent networks linking Umbrian émigrés and local businesses, institutions and cultural communities; helping them to do business, including import–export; specialisa-tion courses; financial incentives for the start-up phase and specialist economic and financial consultancy� The project is publicised via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube, the most popular media with the young�

Catiuscia MariniPresident of the Umbria Region (Italy)

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Another project to promote the creativity and entrepreneurship of the young is Ide-e, aimed at supporting new businesses and funding the mobility of future young entrepreneurs that have innovative ideas� The project comprises two kinds of action: (i) support for Umbrians intending to undertake a work placement (maximum six months) in research centres and companies abroad; and (ii) financial incentives for new businesses set up by beneficiaries of the first type of action who have successfully completed their placement abroad and who intend to use their entrepreneurship in the region�

This funding covers the start-up costs of the business (including the purchase or loan of sup-plies or machinery needed for a new production plant)� At the present time, more than 50 % of the projects submitted have been financed by young entrepreneurs who undertook a place-ment abroad in the second half of 2010� The hallmarks of the funded projects are: high creativ-ity, high level of technological innovation and an environmentally friendly approach� The Euro-pean Commission has recognised the project as an example of best practice in the promotion of entrepreneurship and self-employment�


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Turin

Running a city and planning its future means thinking about the generations to come� Young people are the future� Policies on young people therefore have strategic importance within the municipal administration in terms of ensuring a horizontal approach in all public policies (social, cultural, employment, housing, etc�) and this is a commitment that the mayor has taken on personally�

Turin is a university city with two university centres of excellence and 100 000 students, 15 % of whom are for-eign (the highest number in Italy)� Being a university city, all of the related services need to be provided, including student residences and the main services linked to univer-sity life, and creativity and culture need to be promoted� To all of this we can add our status as European Capital of Sport 2015, which offers an opportunity for economic and cultural growth, particularly for the younger sections of the population�

Particular attention is paid to rights, starting with the right to study and to knowledge, which is even more cru-cial now, with early school-leaving at around 35 % in the case of secondary schools, and 25 % for universities� Then together with the right to study comes the right to culture� Next there is the right to work, in a society in which there is less ‘permanence’ in the labour market, with that labour market becoming more flexible but also more precarious� Hence the need to ensure means for accessing and stabi-lising work, through training and education programmes, and to promote economic activities which provide access for young people�

Piero FassinoMayor of Turin (Italy)

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The City of Turin intervenes actively in the labour market via a range of instruments: promotion of apprenticeship contracts; advances of integration funds; guidance and assistance at work, supported by professional training and retraining programmes; the use of local taxation to encourage work stabilisation and promote employment for women and young people; sup-porting and promoting the various forms of individual and social entrepreneurship; the inte-gration of income support actions with training programmes and/or commitment to social employment; and integration into working life for disadvantaged persons� In accessing these instruments, the principle of merit is applied� Finally, the right to life and to the opportunity to achieve aspirations such as having a family or children is fully supported�

Thanks to the support of the European Union, through the Structural Funds, the Turin Smart City project has been launched to implement the digital agenda and full broadband coverage, benefitting the young population in particular� Other projects are being implemented in the field of technological innovation�

The FaciliTO in Barriera project has been launched to promote employment and entrepre-neurship� Particular attention has been paid to supporting innovation in the energy efficiency sector, through the European project CIE — Cleantech Incubation Europe� It supports entre-preneurship amongst young people and at the same time contributes to the sustainable eco-nomic development of the region� In a similar vein, there are the Appalti Pubblici di Innovazione (public procurement of innovation) projects�

The municipality has also launched Open Mind — with funding from the Ministry of the Inte-rior and the European Integration Fund — aimed at young foreign nationals, who represent a quarter of the young adult population� The project offers 14–30 year olds the opportunity to meet key figures from economics, politics, culture, science and the arts, sports stars, public administrators and entrepreneurs, in order to seek together ideas and proposals for building the society of the present and of the future in a more participatory fashion�


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In 2012, youth unemployment represented 9�7 % in the Netherlands, that is, the second low-est rate in the EU after Germany (8 %)� Although job prospects for young Dutch people are amongst the most encouraging in Europe, some particular observations can be made� First, the level of education is a decisive factor in determining the labour market position� In 2011, the unemployment rate for highly skilled 15–25 year olds was almost half (7�2 %) compared to the rate for low-skilled young people (13�7 %)�

The importance of education becomes even more relevant knowing that early school-leaving is a significant problem in the Netherlands� Not only does dropping out of school hinder the school to work transition, but it also entails a high risk of long-term unemployment� Second, of all groups on the Dutch labour market, young people, many of whom are on fixed-term contracts, are at the highest risk of becoming unemployed when an organisation downsizes�

Several measures have already been taken to effectively address youth unemployment� First, a number of schemes and actions specifically target NEET youth or other risk groups� In many cases, the municipalities play a key role as they are able to adapt to local labour markets and regional conditions� An example is the 2009–11 Action Plan Youth Unemployment, which boosted regional cooperation, and has been successful thus far� An additional effort is made to stress the youth’s own responsibility to actively search for a job�

THE NETHERLANDS

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Second, the Foundation for Cooperation on vocational Education, Training and the Labour Market (SBB), which brings together education and business stakeholders, aims at optimising the connection between education and the labour market by, for example, focusing on the availability of good quality traineeships (proper accreditation of institutions providing appren-ticeships or internships)� It is worth noting that in secondary vocational education, apprentice-ships or internships are mandatory� Although not mandatory in higher education, they are recommended�

Third, efforts are made to support job creation, for example by the Action Programme ‘Educa-tion and Entrepreneurship’, which aims at stimulating entrepreneurship through a variety of actions, including events such as the Global Entrepreneurship Week and the National Student Entrepreneurship Prize, which offer possibilities to promote entrepreneurship in itself as well as good practices� The programme also foresees investments in 78 regional or sector networks to stimulate entrepreneurship�

Municipalities also offer social assistance, coaching or microloans to support start-ups� Such actions aimed at youth are to a great extent financed by the ESF� Furthermore, the funds are used to provide training with vocational focus for the special education sector (EUR 194 mil-lion), as well as for the education of people in youth detention (EUR 63 million)�

To further improve the labour market position of youth, the Dutch authorities have put for-ward several priorities� First, steps will be taken to address the mismatch between skills offer and demand� To prevent early school-leaving, an integrated regional approach will be put in place involving municipalities, educational institutions, companies and youth care institutions in order to help vulnerable youth in their transition from school to work� Improving the quality of education and support for self-entrepreneurship are also key priorities�


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Going local

The Hague and the Haaglanden region

Youth unemployment is a high priority for The Hague� During the youth unemployment action plan (2009–11), the municipality of The Hague launched several activities, which were partly carried out in collaboration with the eight municipalities in the Haaglanden region and aimed to reduce the number of NEETS�

Official figures of unemployed young people

The table below lists the figures and percentages of young people who on 1 January of each relevant year were reg-istered as unemployed jobseekers by the Institute for Employee Benefit Schemes (UWv)�

Year (January)Youth unemployment figures

Youth unemployment percentages

2010 2 650 14�1 %

2011 2 165 11 %

2012 2 240 10�6 %

Both the number of registered jobseekers and the percent-age of young people have dropped in recent years, despite the economic recession and the fact that the labour mar-ket has deteriorated in recent years�

Henk KoolVice-Mayor of the City of Den Haag (Netherlands)

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Activities of the municipality of The Hague

The municipality of The Hague has developed and implemented several activities, partly in collaboration with municipalities in the Haaglanden region�

› The unemployed youth service has gone through some changes and a process of accel-eration in order to improve its effectiveness� The municipality’s objective is to keep young people in education, to bring drop-outs back to school and to guide those who are strand-ed without jobs or qualifications into the labour market�

› Workmate (Werkmaat): young people who are not able to acquire qualifications in second-ary education (level 2 in the UK) within the regular school system are given the opportu-nity to do so in a six-month timeframe� From 2009 to 2011 nearly 400 young people were given this opportunity� Nearly half of them have acquired a certificate; approximately 90 % of these young people have continued their education or have found a job� Of those who have not yet acquired a certificate, three quarters are still in school or have jobs�

› Activation policies by the municipality in collaboration with the department of education and schools provide incentives to young people to pursue a career by continuing their ed-ucation� The department of education has facilitated flexible inflow during the school year�

› A major boost is being given to support employers and businesses to get young people earning and learning and to provide job training opportunities such as apprenticeships or internships�

› The social workers and client managers of the Regional Reporting and Coordination Points (where drop-outs are registered and reported) have been trained to recognise and deal with vulnerable young people�


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In addition to these activities, there are also a number of safeguards targeting vulnerable young people�

› A conference on ‘empowerment’ has been organised with the purpose of supplying young people with skills and tools to regain confidence, improve self-esteem and redirect their own lives�

› Young people who struggle to access the mainstream curriculum and students with spe-cial educational needs are guided into the labour market at the vocational schools�

› There is also an intensive approach to reach young people who do not go to school and do not work; they are called upon at their homes� For vulnerable young people a measure called ‘integrated care 18+’ is provided� This is an approach tailored to individual needs providing them with care, using expertise from all available services�

Legislation

On 1 October 2009, a new law concerning young people aged under 27 years (the Law on Investing in Young People — Wet Investeren in Jongeren — WIJ) came into effect� This law expired on 1 January 2012 and has been replaced by the new Work and Welfare law� In order to become eligible to collect social security benefits, all young people aged under 27 who apply for benefits must comply with a mandatory term of search for employment imposed upon them by the new law�

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Poland has a youth unemployment rate of 26�5 % (September 2012), with 15–24 year olds with only a basic vocational education being most affected� This is due not only to crisis-related problems but also to structural ones� The youth labour market in Poland has some particularities�

First, the employment rate of women is remarkably lower than the EU average� This is due to a higher participation of women in tertiary education, but also to the lack of measures foster-ing the reconciliation of work and family life, such as adequate childcare services�

A second particularity is the significantly high number of young people between 15 and 24 years of age working under fixed-term contracts, which remain precarious, without neces-sarily leading to more stable employment�

Third, territorial differences affect young people’s employment prospects since those living in rural areas are likely to have a lower level of education than dwellers of urban areas� In addi-tion, the education system, and more particularly vocational education and training, are not sufficiently connected to labour market needs�

Difficulties in finding work also lead to increased emigration� Since the EU enlargement of 2004, the number of Polish nationals residing abroad has more than doubled� More than two thirds of migrants remain abroad for more than one year� It is mostly highly qualified individu-als who choose to leave the country, but only one in ten migrants finds a job that matches his/her qualifications and the obtained level of education� Poland clearly faces a brain drain�

POLAND


94

The Public Employment Services (PES) have undertaken several steps to offer various voca-tional activation instruments to unemployed young people (104 800 beneficiaries in 2011)� Within the PES, additional support to youth at risk of social exclusion is offered by the volun-tary Labour Corps� It is worth noting that in 2011, out of almost half a million young people who used the labour market services of the Labour Corps, 180 000 got job placements, which subsequently led to 100 000 proper jobs�

The Ministry of Employment has also developed the Youth on the Labour Market Programme, which specifically focuses on preventing and combating youth unemployment and is addressed to young people up to the age of 30� The programme subsidises six-month appren-ticeships via a voucher� Traineeships and apprenticeships are encouraged through financing from national resources and support from the ESF�

To boost job creation, financial incentives are put into place to support entrepreneurship (up to EUR 5 000 for the unemployed wishing to start a business or the entrepreneur willing to create new jobs)� In 2011, this measure translated into the establishment of over 26 000 busi-nesses and the creation of nearly 11 000 jobs� Under the ESF Operational Programme, about EUR 3�4 billion are allocated to youth policies, with EUR 1�327 billion specifically foreseen to support youth employment measures�

Poland has made several commitments concerning the prevention and combat of youth unemployment� They include the development of several active labour market policy instru-ments and programmes, addressed specifically to young job seekers� Moreover, existing initia-tives will be expanded or reinforced, using co-financing from the ESF Operational Programme�

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Going local

Słupsk

The city of Słupsk has a multilevel coordinated policy in place to combat youth unemployment, encompassing areas such as urban infrastructure, vocational education and helping young people to become economically active�

In our city we feel that broad-ranging educational measures are a fundamental tool for combating youth un employment� Słupsk is investing heavily in the develop-ment of modern vocational education facilities� An exam-ple of best practice here is a logistics and freight labora-tory, set up as a joint initiative by the city and a private partner� As the best-equipped laboratory in the Pomorskie region, this facility helps young logistics specialists, who are in demand in labour markets, to find work�

The city also helps young unemployed people and those who have left school to develop skills to enhance their attractiveness in local labour markets� Among the many support measures here, the Mów jak chcesz (‘Say What You Like’) free language learning project is worthy of special mention� The aim of this project is to teach foreign lan-guages (German and English) to school students and to young unemployed people who would not otherwise be able to afford such courses due to their difficult economic circumstances�

Maciej KobylińskiMayor of Słupsk (Poland)


96

An equally important initiative for young unemployed people in our city was the Podpatrujemy (‘Observing’) project, providing professional photography training� This project included lec-tures and open-air shoots, as well as theory classes on photography, how digital cameras work, processing, printing and framing digital pictures along with information on how to present photographic work and organise professional exhibitions�

One of the city’s many initiatives to support young unemployed people and those who have left school is the Rewitalizacja Traktu Książęcego (‘Revitalising the Prince’s Way’) project� Its pur-pose is to revitalise a run-down area of the city, to revive social and economic activity in the district, and help more people living there to work� These objectives are achieved by:

› providing young unemployed persons and those who have left school and are threatened with social exclusion with advice, assistance, training, support for economic initiatives, psy-chological support and advice; and organising special workshops,

› tidying up the area by improving the appearance of its streets, buildings and courtyards,

› improving the technical state of local infrastructure by renovating streets, squares, sub-ways, footpaths and cycle paths�

The project covers an area of 57�5 ha in the very heart of the city�

Another example of an urban infrastructure initiative is the construction of a Leisure, Sport and Rehabilitation Water Park Centre in Słupsk� Once the site becomes operational, it will cre-ate 40 new jobs, providing employment for young unemployed persons and those who have left school in particular� The Water Park will also organise a wide-ranging work experience and internship programme� At the same time, it will provide swimming lessons for children and young people in general�

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Słupsk is investing in youth entrepreneurship and is creating the conditions needed for young people to start their own businesses, for example through the Słupsk Young Entrepre-neurs’ Incubator project� In partnership with the Pomorskie Regional Development Agency, which manages the city’s Technology Incubator, Słupsk provides offices within the Incubator for graduates who have decided to set up a business in the IT sector as well as the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and shared service centres (SSC) sectors�

Young entrepreneurs will be able to use these offices free of charge for one year, with the city covering rental costs and other possible consultancy fees, while all IT and communications costs are paid by the entrepreneurs� If they decide to continue operating within the incuba-tor after this period, they can do so at preferential rates� The Incubator also offers them other premises such as conference and meeting rooms� In addition, legal advice and accounting services are available on site�

The city of Słupsk also believes that non-profit organisations and social enterprises can help young people to develop their careers� The construction of a Słupsk NGO and Social Economy Centre will boost the voluntary sector� NGOs and social enterprises serving the people of the city will be able to use the Centre’s facilities and infrastructure for free� The Centre will also help informal groups and local residents who have interesting ideas for events and projects to promote integration and employment for young unemployed people�


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Youth unemployment reached 35�1 % in September 2012� Portugal is one of the EU Member States worst hit by the crisis and this has particularly affected youth unemployment� The rate rose by around 5 % in one year (30�1 % in 2011) and, compared to the situation in 2007, by about 10 %� The austerity-only measures have to a large extent contributed to the deteriora-tion of the educational system and the labour market�

Of all educational groups, those most affected were young people with low or medium edu-cational attainment� At the same time, 29 % of young unemployed have completed tertiary education� In fact, Portugal has lately suffered a real brain drain with many young qualified people emigrating, particularly to Brazil, because of the economic growth and the longstand-ing close linguistic and cultural ties with the country�

In 2011, Portugal had the second worst rate of early school-leavers in the EU (23�2 %), but the figure had already been reduced by 12�2 % since 2008� The NEET rate reached 14 % in July 2012 for 15–29 year olds, 66 % of whom were victims of unemployment�

Precariousness characterises the labour market for youth, also as a result of a labour reform in 2012 facilitating collective and individual dismissals in all sectors and applying to permanent and temporary jobs� The rate of young people in temporary employment is over 55 %, with over three quarters of them being unable to find a permanent job�

Portugal gets extra support through the European Commission initiative for Youth/SME action teams, aimed at optimising the use of Structural Funds in favour of employment and job crea-tion� About EUR 344 million of EU funding (including EUR 143 million from the European Social Fund and EUR 200 million from the European Regional Development Fund) have been reallo-cated for the implementation of the Impulso Jovem initiative, benefiting around 90 000 young people and 4 500 SMEs�

PORTUGAL

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Impulso Jovem consists of a series of measures boosting job creation for young people around 3 axes of intervention: (i) professional internships in key economic sectors; (ii) financial support for new contracts, entrepreneurship and business start-ups; and (iii) investments for job crea-tion in SMEs�

Under the first axis of intervention, the passaporte emprego offers 12-month traineeships to the registered unemployed 18–25 year olds� They are provided with professional training focusing on improving their skills and therefore enhancing their employability� The passaporte scheme is meant to meet the needs of the key economic sectors with a differentiated approach in rela-tion to the age group (e�g� the 18–35 age bracket in the agricultural sector), the duration of the traineeship and the level of education�

In early 2012, an additional measure, Estimulo 2012, was implemented to provide financial support to companies employing unemployed people and investing in their employability through professional training� The measure is applicable to those registered as unemployed in the national employment service for at least six months� The measure finances 50 % of the employee’s wage (up to EUR 419�22 per month) for up to six months� This may rise to 60 % for contracts offered to people under 25, to long-term unemployed or with a low educational level, to vulnerable groups, and for open-ended contracts� To combat precariousness, the measure is applicable only if the company: (i) ensures a net employment creation; (ii) provides proper professional training; and (iii) offers a full-time contract for at least six months�

Another measure, Vida Ativa, was launched in March 2012 foreseeing specific training schemes aimed at raising employability, also for 15–24 year olds�


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Going local

Lisbon

Transforming the Portuguese economy in an entrepre-neurial, knowledge- and innovation-based economy is an objective shared by Lisbon City Council� Youth employabil-ity is an imperative need because of the disturbing levels of unemployment currently registered but also because of the relevance for urban economies to count on a human capital of young talents�

City of Lisbon — % of Employed resident population according to age groups

Antonio CostaMayor of Lisbon (Portugal)

> 7570–7465–6960–6455–5950–5445–4940–4435–3930–3425–2920–2415–19

0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %

0 % 2 % 4 % 6 % 8 % 10 % 12 % 14 %

> 7570–7465–6960–6455–5950–5445–4940–4435–3930–3425–2920–2415–19

City of Lisbon — % of Unemployed resident population according to age groups

Data sources: Instituto Nacional Estatística (INE), Censos 2011 Resultados Definitivos — Portugal�

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Youth employability is a condition for the territorial cohesion of Lisbon� Each city area has its own social and economic specific conditions� Consequently, the local employment policies and initiatives addressed to unemployed people in general and young people in particular can be diversified�

Lisbon City Council is supporting a network of business incubators and co-working spaces, allowing young people with good ideas to launch their own businesses and to create self-employment� An example of this effort is the creation of co-working spaces in the city, which facilitate the activity of several independent professionals at a competitive cost� Lisbon City Council is working with strategic partners to continue to support business incubators in many sectors, so we can help our young talents to have successful projects�

City of Lisbon — % of Resident population with graduate and post-graduate qualifications according to age groups

0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 %

> 75

70–74

65–69

60–64

55–59

50–54

45–49

40–44

35–39

30–34

25–29

20–24

Data sources: Instituto Nacional Estatística (INE), Censos 2011 Resultados Definitivos — Portugal�


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The city of Lisbon is fully aware of the difficulties that young graduates are facing� The main goal is to increasingly affirm Lisbon as a student city� The fact that Lisbon has a very broad and diverse set of highly dynamic universities has attracted many foreign university students� The position of Lisbon as an Erasmus City is being strengthened, attracting students from several parts of the world, in close partnership with the city’s universities�

In order to promote investments in knowledge and innovation, Lisbon City Council has been developing projects such as the Lisbon Innovation and Knowledge Map, which is intended to identify and work with the city actors whose areas of activity are research, knowledge and innovation� In order to allow graduates to enter successfully into the labour market it is very important to maintain a dynamic interaction between Universities–Business–Public Sector� It is important to have the feedback of the business sector so that universities can train their students with the knowledge and skills most relevant to the needs of the market� And it is precisely at this point that companies can better plan their investments by having knowledge of what kind of qualified personnel is available�

The role of public organisations in this process is to promote partnerships with all the stake-holders, by acting as facilitating agents of this adjustment process and undertaking initiatives to promote the creation of employment and new opportunities to young people�

Regarding the future, Lisbon is preparing the next financial programming period, in which issues related to youth and employment are the subject of particular attention� Indeed, the attraction and employability of young people are the main challenges faced by the city, which will be covered transversely within the urban policies� The strengthening of the capacity of attraction and retention of young people will include efforts in such diverse areas as the adequacy and accessibility of the housing supply, investment in higher education, research and knowledge, skills, commitment to physical qualification of the city and its cultural and creative life�

In addition, and taking into account that the main factor in attracting and keeping the young population is employment, a strong incentive for investment will be made in youth employ-ability� This will either involve supporting entrepreneurship, SMEs or the social economy, or encouraging the development of certain sectors in which young people are generally quite well represented such as the cultural and creative industries, ICTs and RTD activities�

103



Youth unemployment reached 54�2 % in September 2012, having increased by around 8 % in one year (46�4 % in 2011) and by about 21�8 % between 2008 and 2011� Other relevant alarm-ing facts include: the drastic decrease of young people in short-term employment between 2007 and 2010 (- 26 %); the high share of unemployed people with a low education level (more than 50 %); the doubling of people with tertiary education being unemployed since the beginning of the crisis; and the second highest rate within the EU of early school-leavers (26�5 %), who constitute a large vulnerable group with low education and training�

Moreover, Spain has around 866 000 NEETs, which means that one young person out of five is disengaged from the labour market and education system (NEET rate of 18�5 % in 2011)� Around 70 % of the overall NEET population is characterised by a lower education attainment�

It is mainly the male population which has been hit by higher youth unemployment, and gen-erally this applies to those sectors which have been the most affected by the crisis (construc-tion, manufacturing and financial intermediation)� An aggravating factor is related to the fact that the Spanish Public Employment Service lacks sufficient human resources; the number of cases handled per official is amongst the highest in the EU�

Precariousness is a common feature for the young employed� In order to counteract the high temporary employment rate, temporary employment contracts have been restricted� In 2011, the rate of young people in temporary employment was over 60 %, of which more than 80 % was due to the fact that these people could not find a permanent job�

SPAIN


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In 2012, a number of regulations and decrees were introduced to increase the opportunities for traineeships and apprenticeships (raising as well the eligibility age to 30), while further deregu-lating the market to achieve higher flexibility (but with the consequent risk of increasing pre-cariousness)� They also aim at providing fiscal and financial benefits for SMEs that contribute to youth employment and promote entrepreneurship� To improve vocational education and training and to combat early school-leaving, a new apprenticeship contract was introduced offering a ‘training account’ for each young unemployed person (20 hours/year)�

Spain is one of the EU Member States which benefits from extra support through the Euro-pean Commission proposal for Youth/SME action teams, aimed at optimising the use of the Structural Funds (and the ESF in particular) in favour of employment and job creation� About EUR 100 million of EU funding was re-allocated through the work of the action team, benefit-ing around 7 700 SMEs and an undetermined number of young people�

Several ESF operational programmes were revised in 2012 to address the deterioration of the labour market for young people� Around EUR 135 million was redirected in order to boost active labour market policies through the national operational programme Adaptabilidad y Empleo� To tackle the dramatic rate of early school-leavers and to favour the transition from school to work, some operational programmes were refocused at regional level, increasing synergies between the regional employment office, employers and trade unions�

Around EUR 400 million of the European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF) were re directed towards the reindustrialisation aid scheme, SMEs (in particular those in the agri-food sector because of their job creation potential for young people with low skills), entrepreneur-ship and business start-ups�

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Going local

Asturias

The impetus provided by the Structural Funds since 2004 has helped the Principality of Asturias to make a political priority of forging closer links between businesses and educational and training centres as part of the socio-economic development process� The Principality’s Pro-gramme for the Development of Entrepreneurial Culture and a number of specific initiatives have been chosen by the European Commission as examples of good practice (http://bit�ly/entrepreneur-mindset)� This has led to the launch of two initiatives: Work-linked Training and Path-ways into Employment�

Work-linked Training

An experimental Work-linked vocational Training project was launched during the 2012/13 academic year to adapt training for young people to meet the region’s social and employment profile� It is being implemented under Royal Decree 1529/2012 which establishes an educational and training contract� The project will be carried out, with sup-port from businesses, in six centres which have experience of innovative programmes, from which 100 pupils will be selected to participate�

Javier Fernández FernándezPresident of the Principality of

Asturias (Spain)


106

The project — which will be open to the middle and higher secondary age ranges, thereby including very young pupils, which is a rather rare approach in Spain — will enable pupils to take part in a number of training courses covering a range of vocations (tourism, building and installation services, electricity, the chemical industry, etc�)� Moreover, practical training in a company will allow pupils to build on their knowledge and acquire new skills� The compa-nies involved in this pilot scheme have been chosen by the training centres themselves and range from micro-businesses (pharmacies, hairdressers) to companies in the metal-processing industry, multinationals and hospitals�

Pathways into Employment

This programme is being carried out in secondary education centres as part of the Plan for Academic and vocational Guidance and is intended to bridge the gap between school and the world of work� Students in the final year of compulsory secondary education are able to gain practical experience which allows them to see what companies actually do, and to identify the various types of jobs which clearly require different forms of training� Students in their fourth year thus spend five days at a local company� The programme was launched in Asturias in the 2007/08 academic year and some 120 pupils of both sexes and more than 100 companies take part in the scheme each year�

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In September 2012, youth unemployment in Sweden was 23�4 %, with an increase of 2�7 % between 2008 and 2011� The youth unemployment rate has been relatively high since the beginning of the 1990s, when Sweden faced a severe financial and economic crisis�

In 2011, the youth unemployment ratio (i�e� the share of unemployed in the 15–24 age bracket) was around 12�4 %� This is partly explained by the economic crisis and mostly by the fact that the education system did not favour the school to work transition� The rate of unemployed persons having an academic background has doubled in 20 years and over 45 % of 30–34 year olds have a tertiary degree� In 2011 the rate of early school-leavers was only 6�7 %� In relation to the NEETs, Sweden registers one of the lowest rates in Europe in the 25–29 age bracket: below 10 %, compared to the EU (around 19�8 % in 2011)� However, part-time employment for young people is over 45 % while temporary employment exceeds 55 %�

The Public Employment Service (PES) has more than 300 local employment offices and is financed through general taxation� To reach young people through their privileged communi-cation channels, it launched a Facebook page and set up special teams at local level to reach unemployed youth� EURES advisers provide specific support for job and training opportunities at the EU level and within the European Economic Area (e�g� in Norway, which is a neighbour-ing country)�

In order to tackle the high ratio of youth unemployment versus unemployment, specific youth employment initiatives were activated, such as a reduction of the employer tax for recruiting young people (particularly in the catering and restaurant services), and entrepreneurship and self-employment schemes to support business start-ups� Moreover, two specific instruments were set up in 2007: the job and development guarantee, and the job guarantee for young people�

SWEDEN


108

The job and development guarantee initiative develops in three stages: (i) job-seeking activi-ties (up to 150 days), accompanied by a development allowance; (ii) opportunities for appren-ticeship, work-based training or education (up to 450 days); and (iii) employment offers�

The job guarantee for young people under 24 gives students the possibility to acquire work experience during their studies, find work or start/resume their studies� Participants are first offered job/study/vocation-seeking activities and guidance� These activities are then com-bined with work practice, vocational training, education, or support (for a period of up to 15 months) to start a business� Because of the high number of applications, additional human resources were allocated in 2012 (bringing the average number of young applicants per case handler down to 57)�

To promote young people’s entrepreneurship (which is an integral part of Sweden’s education system) and innovation, a specific programme with a budget of EUR 1�9 million per year has been set up (Youth’s Innovation Power)� In 2011 a new Education Act was adopted, placing greater emphasis on vocational programmes� It should be noted that, since 2006, municipali-ties have been running summer schools for students aged 7–19 on a voluntary basis� In the framework of the education reform, youth traineeship and apprenticeship schemes were also reinforced�

Sweden had allocated 99 % of the available ESF resources by March 2012 with an estimat-ed benefiting population of around 35 000 young unemployed (doubling the set target of 15 000)� Sweden has committed itself to allocate adequate financial resources in 2013, and in the forecasts for 2014–16 to favour the school to work transition in order to address the persis-tent high unemployment rate for young people and vulnerable groups�

109


Going local

Region Gävleborg

The unemployment rate in Sweden broadly reflects the trend in the rest of Europe� However, youth unemploy-ment is higher than the EU average, and unemployment in the Gävleborg region is higher than in the country as a whole� Twenty-nine per cent of young people aged 18–24 are currently seeking a job or in some form of work activity scheme� It is un acceptable that almost one in four young people is without work or has left secondary school without a qualification�

According to the Regional Development Programme, edu-cation is one of the most important factors in getting work� The three years after leaving secondary school are also considered to be a critical period in getting young people to enter some form of higher education� In Sweden about 43 % of young people have a higher education qualifica-tion� In the region of Gävleborg, the figure is 42 % for girls but only 30 % for boys� The proportion of children failing 9th grade is also slightly higher than the national average�

A number of different measures were agreed in the Regional Development Programme, which is a strategy paper� These include:

› investment in the region’s university;

› gender equality strategies to counter gender segrega-tion in the labour market;

› cooperation between academia and industry;

› efforts to enhance democracy so that young people can shape their own lives�

Yoomi RenströmMayor of Ovanåker (Sweden)


110

Noteworthy here are two major collaborative projects to help young people who have poor access to the labour market�

MASS (Leonardo da vinci) Measuring and Assessing Soft Skills, is a method that originated at Angus College, Scotland� The project involved enhancing young people’s social skills by devel-oping methods and tools to teach, measure and assess such skills�

Trainers, coaches and teachers have used the method with various groups, and project man-agers have also worked on trying to improve understanding of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF)� Is it possible to measure and rate the skills and experience acquired through MASS, mapping these skills to EQF levels? This method was trialled with 35 young jobseekers in the region�

Employers reported that MASS helped young people to get work� Sixty-three per cent of employers believe social skills to be more important than technical and practical skills� The partners were the neighbouring municipalities of Ovenåker, Bollnäs and Söderhamn in Swe-den, as well as Scotland, Greece, Romania and the Netherlands�

SIGRID is an ESF project involving the three Swedish regions of värmland, Dalarna and Gävle-borg� This is an ongoing placement project targeted at people who have been out of work for at least one year, or three months in the case of under-25s� The vuXa subproject, which uses methods from the MASS project, is for young people aged 18–25 who do not have a complete secondary school qualification� The course lasts 24 weeks�

Since January 2012, coaches, trainers, recreation leaders, study and careers counsellors, con-sumer counsellors, social workers, employment officers and mentors have been working with a total of 84 young people in five groups� Twelve per cent of young people from the first group went on to further study and 12 % got jobs� In December 2012, 70 % of those in the last group went on to further study and 15 % got jobs� The rest have either re-registered with the Employ-ment Office or have job placements�

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Youth unemployment stood at 20�5 % at the end of 2012, affecting nearly 1 million young people, a quarter of whom have been unemployed for over a year� Youth unemployment therefore continues to be a major policy challenge for the UK labour market�

Although low levels of demand for young people’s labour are partly due to the crisis, the UK’s youth unemployment problem is also structural� The system is traditionally characterised by well-designed academic careers and poorly planned non-academic pathways� As vocation-al training is often perceived as playing a secondary role, many young people (particularly 16–18 year olds) are insufficiently prepared for work and lack essential soft skills, and so strug-gle to fulfil the minimum qualifications required by employers�

At the same time, a growing number of recent graduates are having difficulty finding a good job, and are often forced into low-paying jobs or unpaid traineeships� Labour market policies should therefore offer young people better options for career progression, by encouraging employers to engage with young people during their transition from education into work, and by expanding the number of high-quality apprenticeships and paid traineeship options� More locally tailored programmes also need to be created for those most at risk through partner-ships, involving a wide range of actors on the ground�

UNITED KINGDOM


112

More than EUR 700 million of ESF funding is committed to support existing youth employ-ment measures, targeting mainly 15–25 year olds� Major efforts have been made to facilitate access to apprenticeships, by providing NEETs with support and skills development, and around 10 000 places were expected in the first year of implementation� In addition, sector-based work academies support unemployed people through a package of pre-employment training, work experience and a guaranteed job interview�

Furthermore, Northern Ireland has developed a new strategy towards NEETs, called Training for Success, which addresses personal and development needs and helps young people to get a job or an apprenticeship in a chosen skill area�

Last but not least, within the framework of the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA), young people can apply for financial support to start up their own business and benefit from mentoring�

In terms of funding youth unemployment measures, in April 2012 the UK Government launched the Youth Contract with a total budget of EUR 1�3 billion over three years� It aims to help young people prepare for and find long-term sustainable employment and provides half a million places� It includes: 160 000 wage incentives for private companies to recruit 18–24 year olds, the creation of 250 000 additional work experience or sector-based work academy places and 20 000 apprenticeship grants, as well as adviser support through Jobcentre Plus for all 18–24 year olds� Moreover, the Scottish and Welsh Governments aim to allocate remaining ESF and ERDF funding to traineeship and apprenticeship projects supporting youth employment�

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Going local

Birmingham

Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe, and the city’s younger generation should be seen as a major asset� But recent years have seen disinvestment in that asset, with central government spending on youth employment schemes cut back and local council funding diverted else-where� Birmingham now has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the country and this could cost the city well over GBP 1 billion in the coming decade�

There are about 15 000 declared young unemployed people in Birmingham, and many more who are not ‘on the radar’ of any public sector body� The long-term young unemployed cause much concern since around 3 000 young people have been on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) for over a year� The proportion of 18–24 year olds on JSA in Birmingham is 10�7 % compared to Britain’s overall figure of 7�5 %� The problem is particularly acute in some parts of the city (e�g� Washwood Heath, where 25�8 % of 18–24 year olds are on JSA)� Since the 2008 recession, youth un employment has been much higher and there are now four times more young people on JSA for a year than there were before�

To respond to this major challenge, Birmingham has designed an action plan involving stakeholders from across the city to get young people into work�

Albert BoreLeader of Birmingham City

Council (UK)


114

The first axis of the action plan is to slash long-term youth unemployment, by improving job opportunities available to young people� The aim is to create at least 1 000 jobs for young long-term unemployed� The key instrument is a multi-million-pound Birmingham Jobs Budget, pooling or aligning resources from agencies across the city in order to offer financial support to employers taking young people on, and training and support for young people in such subsidised jobs� The City Council will contribute GBP 2 million to the Birmingham Jobs Budget in 2013/14� A joint, multi-agency campaign with Birmingham’s employers will also be under-taken� Furthermore, better support will be provided to young people who want to set up their own businesses, including through a new investor fund for young entrepreneurs�

The second axis is to make Birmingham’s schools and colleges the best in the country at pre-paring young people for the world of work� A ‘Birmingham Baccalaureate’ will be developed to ensure that young people get an education that equips them for the world of work� A task force will work with schools across the city, mainstreaming best practices on working with employers and identifying and supporting pupils at risk of becoming NEET� These measures will be accompanied by the provision of a more integrated, locally responsive Connexions service and the development of an enhanced universal Careers and Education information and Guidance, offered to secondary school pupils� High-quality volunteering opportunities supported with training will also be promoted� Data will be published on how well schools and colleges prepare young people for work, so that parents and young people can see how well different institutions perform, providers can learn from the best, and extra support can be targeted where it is most needed�

The third axis will focus on how to unite the city in tackling youth unemployment, through a more joined-up system for supporting young people into work, reducing the fragmentation in the current system� Moreover, the City Council will seek further power and flexibility from Whitehall (the central government) so as to put more power in the hands of districts, parents and employers�

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Wales

One of the first challenges that faced the Welsh Labour Government upon being elected in May 2011 was the unacceptably high level of long-term youth unemploy-ment� As such, it was necessary to formulate bold poli-cies that would achieve a real improvement to the lives of young people in Wales�

The Welsh Labour Government was elected on a mani-festo that laid down as its very first principle a commitment to tackling youth unemployment by means of creating a young people’s jobs and training fund, and by the exten-sion of apprenticeship opportunities for young people� This builds on the Welsh Government’s decision to place skills at the core of improving economic performance by placing a greater emphasis on meeting the needs of both employers and learners and by ensuring that resources are aligned with national priorities.

The Welsh Government’s flagship initiative to increasing employment here in Wales remains the creation of appren-ticeships, which provide a solution particularly suited to helping young people who face barriers in accessing work� By means of the Young Recruits Programme, finan-cial assistance is provided to eligible employers who in ordinary circumstances would be unable to recruit and support an apprentice, to offer high quality apprentice-ship programmes to additional young apprentices� Initially launched as a one-year scheme that was due to finish in March 2011, the success of the programme has led to its extension� Wage subsidies are offered to employers taking on an apprentice aged 16 to 24 for a full-time placement lasting at least a year, with a thousand places available at present and the initiative being extended in future years� Apprenticeship placements will be considered from any sector provided certain eligibility criteria are met�

Christine ChapmanChair of the Children and Young People’s Committee

at the National Assembly for Wales (UK)


116

In addition, the Welsh Government is seeking to create new employment opportunities for young people� In April 2012, they launched the GBP 75 million Jobs Growth Wales, a new pack-age of support to help unemployed 16–24 year olds’ transition into paid employment� It is expected that this will create 4 000 jobs a year for three years, the majority of which will be in the private sector� Through this programme, young people will be able to progress either into apprenticeships or alternative employment with the same employer� The sustainability of the programme will be supported as the Welsh Government will encourage and support employ-ers to make jobs permanent after six months� Jobs Growth Wales will replace the successful Future Jobs Fund, which the current UK Government inexplicably axed when it took office�

European funding has been critical in supporting these and similar initiatives� A recent report into the use of Structural Funds in Wales between 2000 and 2006 suggested that EU projects created over 50 000 jobs and 3 000 small and medium-sized enterprises� Participants gained over 200 000 qualifications, and nearly 100 000 economically inactive people were helped back into work or training�

The current round of funding has seen similar results, and includes the application of funding to projects that support particularly disadvantaged groups� For example, over 1 500 young people with learning disabilities in South Wales were helped into employment by means of the GBP 15 million Special Educational Needs (SEN) Transition to Employment project� The GBP 15 million Potential project has been used to help young people at risk of dropping out of school in North West Wales — it will now be expanded to help 16–19 year olds who are in further education but at risk of dropping out, enabling them to complete their qualifications and improving their economic potential� Both were backed by money from the Social Fund�

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CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

Jobless and disillusioned youth is an immense waste of talent and potential for Europe� While much-praised mobility can alleviate youth employment pressures on a particular Member State, region or city in the short term, it can lead to considerable brain drain and the weaken-ing of local economies� This is why European Socialists and Social Democrats have been urging for measures to address this major challenge at the European level� Their call for a Europe-wide Youth Guarantee aims at ensuring that young people spend as little time as possible outside the education system and/or the labour market� At the same time, they have underlined the necessity to strengthen and modernise education systems across the EU� The PES Group in the CoR has particularly insisted on the need to support individual Member States, especially those under severe budgetary constraints, for the implementation of youth employment measures, including Youth Guarantees� But the fight against youth unemployment cannot be effective if it is not part of a comprehensive strategy to relaunch growth in the EU� This requires both a clear European vision and strong political will� This also supposes that the 2014–20 Multi-annual Financial Framework will be capable of putting Europe back on track to sustainable and socially just growth� We are holding our breath for the final outcome, in the hope that it will be less disappointing than the initial agreement of the European Council of 7–8 February 2013�


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A special thanks to Eurostat and Eurofound, which provided us with valuable information about youth unemployment in Europe�

Figures 1 (p� 11), 3 (p� 15), 4 (p� 17), 5 (p� 19), 6 (p� 20) and 7 (p� 21):NEETs: Characteristics, costs and policy responses in Europe© European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2012

Figure 2:© Eurographics Association for the administration boundaries

Photographs on pp� 4, 6, 7, 8, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 36, 40, 42, 46, 50, 54, 58, 60, 63, 68, 70, 72, 77, 81, 84, 86, 90, 95, 100, 105, 109, 113, 115:© Party of European Socialists — all rights reserved

Eurostat: http://epp�eurostat�ec�europa�euEurofound: http://www�eurofound�europa�euParty of European Socialists: http://www�pes�euCommittee of the Regions: http://www�cor�europa�euPES Group Secretariat: http://www�pes�cor�europa�eu

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu

http://www.pes.eu

http://www.cor.europa.eu

http://www.pes.cor.europa.eu

PES Group Secretariat


Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union

2013 — 118 pp. — 14.8 × 21 cm

ISBN 978-92-895-0670-0

doi:10.2863/69912


EUROPEAN UNION


QG

-32-13-101-EN-C

Youth employment: make it happen!

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Transcript of Youth employment: make it happen!