Reviewing Member States' implementation of the Youth Guarantee Scheme

The European Commission hosted a conference with over 370 practitioners, experts and politicians on EU Member States’ implementation plans for the Council Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee, adopted in April 2013. The recommendation urges Member States to ensure that all young people under the age of 25 receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed.

The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, opened the conference by emphasising that high-quality offers under the Youth Guarantee Scheme, as well as targeted approaches are needed to make a difference for unemployed young people: “The point is that the Youth Guarantee needs to be a comprehensive scheme that reaches all unemployed or inactive young people, even those who are hardest to help.“ He also mentioned other EU initiatives – the Quality Framework for Traineeships, the European Alliance for Apprenticeships, the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs – as well as providing funding – of 6 billion Euro under the Youth Employment Initiative to support national policies delivering the Youth Guarantee in 2014-15, through the European Social Fund and the Erasmus+ programme in the field of education and training available during 2014-20.

László Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, emphasised that the focus of the conference was on the practical implementation of the Youth Guarantee Scheme. During four sessions, delegates discussed the implementation of the Youth Guarantee Schemes in countries with high youth unemployment, putting young people at the heart of the implementation process, together with corporate contributions and EU funding for the Youth Guarantee.

The Director General of the International Labour Organisation, Guy Ryder, underlined the role of the Youth Guarantee Scheme as a measure to reconnect young people to the labour market and with society. Moreover, the launch of the implementation plans gives an opportunity to re-think and “improve the administrative ability and capacity to match young people’s needs with labour market requirements; to forge effective public and private partnerships and achieve stronger collaboration between national and local authorities in delivering results.”

Miguel Fernandez Diez-Picazo, Youth Guarantee Coordinator in Spain, presented the Spanish Youth Guarantee Implementation plan which is based on a general reform of activation policies, early intervention with a better information system, cooperation at all administrative levels and a monitoring and evaluation process. The Irish implementation plan, presented by Brian McCormick, Youth Guarantee Coordinator in Ireland, will build on existing and new schemes and targeted case-management approaches. However, long-term unemployment is still high amongst prime workers and Mr McCormick underlined that much will depend on the economic recovery.

In order to enhance the practical implementation of the Youth Guarantee Scheme, the European Social Network (ESN) emphasises the role of local authorities to develop services in partnerships that address the needs of unemployed young people.

Resources

Council Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee
Video highlights from the ‘Youth Guarantee: Making it Happen’ conference
Two local examples of youth employment strategies