Get to know the “Youth Guarantee”, a project to support young people in gaining work experience and developing the right skills for a changing world of work.

This initiative doesn’t have an end date and it will persist as the European Union’s primary policy framework for combating youth unemployment and inactivity.

After 2022, it will retain the substantial EU funds allocated in the 2021-2027 long-term budget and NextGenerationEU to further its mission of delivering improved outcomes for young people in Europe.

About the initiative

The Youth Guarantee represents an opportunity from every Member State to guarantee that all individuals under 30 are provided with a high-quality opportunity for:

• Employment
• Ongoing education
• Apprenticeships
• Traineeships

Within a timeframe of four months from the moment they become unemployed or conclude their education.

The initiative started during 2022, with the implementation of the reinforced Youth Guarantee.

Member States started implementing measures under their recovery and resilience plans targeting young people and youth employment related measures.

The goals of the initiative

The final goal of the project is to enhance the employability of the youth.

It aims to support individuals under 30 that want to access high-quality employment, continued education, apprenticeships, or traineeships.

In 2020, the Youth Guarantee underwent a strengthening process to better cater to the needs of young individuals.

This reinforced approach places a primary emphasis on preventing unemployment and inactivity while facilitating smoother transitions from school to work.

One of its central objectives is to support young people in acquiring valuable work experience and cultivating the necessary skills to thrive in an ever-evolving job landscape.

What has been achieved so far?

The project has already achieved excellent results, improving the difficult situation caused by the COVID pandemic which has made it difficult for many young Europeans to find employment.

Over 24 million young people who were once registered in Youth Guarantee schemes started a job, continued education and traineeships.

To learn more about the results obtained in recent years through the program we recommend you visit the official website of the initiative.

Discover more about the initiative

For more information about this initiative, its results and future objectives you can consult the official website.

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L'articolo Reinforced Youth Guarantee | Youth Employment and Education proviene da Youth Networks.

The ministers of Education coming from the EU member States started following a draft document written on 16 April by the “Youth” group, that transmitted it to the permanent representation in the Council.

The youth organisations as relevant stakeholders

On the basis of the European Youth Strategy 2019/2027, the paper aims at providing a series of measures to resettle the difficult work situation awaiting the youngsters of nowadays. Young people shall be free to develop their working, social and personal skills and the European Union is asked to provide them with all the available tools to accomplish this goal.

It addresses to the youth sector’s stakeholders: member states, the European Commission and, this time, there’s space also for youth organisations (see p. 10 of the document). What does it recommend? Member states shall adopt concrete measures to promote formal and non formal education, deepen the development of the key competences recognized at European level, further explore ways of cooperation and youth entrepreneurship possibilities (in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme and European Solidarity Corps too) and, overall, a special attention to steer national politics towards a better inclusion of youngsters into the work market.

The European Commission shall go on with the analysis of tools as the Youthpass and Europass, as well as guide national institutes to help young people exploit the possibilities offered by the EU in order to get into the work market. It will also provide information and results coming from the follow-up of studies based on qualitative and quantitavie researches in the field.

Finally, it is of great importance the fact that the Counil addresses also to youth organisations. They’re asked to sensibilize young people in relation of their rights and responsibilities; keeping their methodologies and their programmes updated, in order to comply with the work market needs; keep on to strive with the inclusion of youngsters with fewer opportunities in their programmes; making contacts with the national work market stakeholders, in regular dialogues that can provide the right guarantees for young people.

The Council recommended the youth workers (speaking for NGOs, youth associations and organisations) to implement always new programmes and encourage the young people to do an European mobility, also in light of the new European programmes such as Erasmus+ and European Solidarity corps (link). These in fact give to youngsters the possibility to do not only a study period aborad, but also to do an internship, a training course, a volunteering.

The issues to tackle

The paper gives an overview of the working situation in Europe. It focuses on the factors that are shaping a change with regards to this context.

• The demographical issue: the population is ageing and the work market is losing labour that needs to be quickly subsituted, in order to keep up with the needs of an assistance system that is going to become particularly demanding;
• The progress of technology: the process of digitalization, that the EU is fostering in the first place, is going to bring about a reshaping of the work market needs. It is causing a rapid obsoloescence both of tools and jobs, creating at the same time new possibilities for digital natives – as the European young people are;
• The mismatch between high qualified workers needed and the number (still to low) of graduated people coming from European universities;
• The climate change and the challenges that are to be tackled;
• The ageing population that reconnects with the first point;
• Finally, the development of a global economy, that’s reshaping the relationships between employers and employees.

The measures to implement

The European Council has proposed the following measures, included in the press release:

• adaptable and responsive education and training systems;
• the promotion of lifelong learning;
• smooth school-to-work and work-to-work transitions;
• equal access to quality jobs for all young people in the future.

L'articolo Youth policies: new EU Council conclusions proviene da Youth Networks.