Irish Regions Office Website

September 21, 2010

Youth employment package unveiled

The European Commission's flagship initiative to enhance the performance of education systems and to facilitate the entry of young people to the labour market was launched with a 15 September Communication. 'Youth on the Move' (part of the 'Europe 2020' Strategy which set a number of targets for educational access and participation) is intended to provide for coordinated actions among Member States to tackle the common challenges of youth unemployment by enabling young people to improve their skills and job prospects. This is the EU's first effort to integrate youth and employment policies.

The initiative bring together new and existing measures at EU level and in the Member States with the aim of creating a more effective package of support for young people. Although concrete implementation details have not yet been revealed, there are to be 28 key policy actions and measures across three strands:
* modernising youth education and training to make it more relevant and attractive to young people and employers - actions will target schools, apprentices and better recognition for informal skills.
* facilitating transnational mobility periods for students and trainee workers through a new generation of EU funding programmes for education, training and employment; a revamped EURES job portal; and the removal of existing obstacles.
* a set of measures to provide a new policy framework for youth employment including recommendations to Member States on labour market reform and reinforcement of public employment services.

Additional funding is to be made available for two new actions directly accessible to young people: The''Your first EURES job'' scheme should help link young people with companies looking for qualified workers and will be launched in 2011 while the 'European Progress Microfinance Facility' (See April's Bulletin) will provide young unemployed entrepreneurs with access to credit.

Some possible further elements which have been spoken about by interested parties outside the process include the targeting of measures towards those with lower levels of education; more effective incorporation of the various EU exchanges programmes into national education and training systems; the use of Structural Funds to improve national education infrastructure; providing incentives to hire young people; and improved protection and standards for interns and placement workers.

Further details

Posted by iroronan at September 21, 2010 11:28 AM