Transcript Youth employment

Youth employment &
“Youth on the Move”
Kick-Off meeting « Future City Jobs » London, 11/10/2011
Brigitte DEGEN
Policy & Communication Officer
European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
EU economy: what is the current picture?
•
23 million people (on average 10% of active population) now
unemployed
•
Much higher percentage for young people (20,9%), harshly hit by the
crisis (more than 40% unemployed youth in Spain & Greece)
•
In 2009, EU GDP fell by 4% ; industrial production dropped by 20% to
1990s levels
•
National deficits at 7% of GDP on average, national debts at over 80% of
GDP on average
•
EU‘s growth potential has already halved as a result of the crisis
EU priorities for young people (1)
ENSURING TRANSITIONS
•Individualised professional guidance and advice
• Youth guarantees
• Vocational training, apprenticeship
• Targeted active policies
• Personalised approach, reach out to young people in
partnership with various relevant actors
EU priorities for young people (2)
IMPROVING THE LABOUR MARKETS
•Stimulating the offer
• Reducing segmentation
• Promoting quality mobility
MOBILISING EU SUPPORT:
• Sharing experiences & good practices (Progress)
• Using EU funding, in particular ESF
Europe 2020: 3 relevant EU headline targets
By 2020
• 75 % employment rate for people between 20 and 64
• < 10% early school leavers & min. 40% hold tertiary
degree
• reduce by 20 million the number of people at risk of
poverty
Europe 2020: 3 interlinked priorities
Smart growth: developing an economy based
on knowledge and innovation
Sustainable growth: promoting a more
efficient, greener and more competitive
economy
Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment
economy delivering social and territorial
cohesion
Europe 2020: 7 flagship initiatives
Smart Growth
Innovation
« Innovation Union »
Sustainable
Growth
Inclusive Growth
Climate, energy
Employment and
and mobility
skills
« Resource efficient
« An agenda for
Europe »
new skills and jobs »
Youth education and Competitiveness
Fighting poverty
employment
« An industrial
« European platform
« Youth on the
policy for the
against poverty »
move »
globalisation era »
Digital society
« A digital agenda
for Europe »
Youth on the move
3 strands of key actions
• Improve education and training systems:
lifelong learning, higher education, VET
• Facilitate EU mobility for learning
purposes and on the labour market
• Policy framework to improve youth
employment
1. Actions to
support
education &
training
• Re-launch cooperation on vocational education and training
• Modernise universities
• Quality framework for traineeships
2. Support for learning and job mobility
• Access to job opportunities in the wider EU labour market
through new mobility scheme: Your first EURES job
• A European Vacancy Monitor to increase transparency
• Ensure free movement of young workers and monitor the
application of EU legislation to ensure that mobile workers
enjoy the same rights as « home » young workers
• Remove obstacles and increase opportunities: proposal for
a Council Recommendation on promoting learning mobility
3. A framework for
youth employment
• For all young people: graduates from VET, graduates from
HE, vulnerable groups (NEETs, low-skilled, women, ethnic
minorities, migrants, disabled)
• Focus on: transitions, fighting segmentation, provide
adequate safety nets, encourage youth entrepreneurship &
self-employment
A framework for youth employment
What do we want to achieve?


Reduce high youth unemployment
Raise youth employment rates
EU had these objectives already before the crisis when youth
employment was not satisfactory either, but there are important
additional short term challenges in the jobs crisis:


tight public budgets
fewer job openings, risk of “lost generation”
A framework for youth employment :
How does EU intervene?
• Design and implementation of youth policies: first and
foremost a Member States’ competence
• EU has mainly a policy coordination role:
* setting common priorities
* monitoring progress
* making recommendations to individual Member States
* promoting mutual learning and best practice exchange
Priorities of the policy framework
* Help young people to get the first job and start a career
* Support youth at risk
* Provide adequate social safety nets for young people
* Support young entrepreneurs and self-employed
Improve education-to-work transitions
Information, guidance and counselling
 Skills development at labour market entry
(vocational training, apprenticeships)
 Early contact with labour market during studies
(traineeships, internships)
Youth Guarantees
Ensuring that all young people are in a job, further education or
activation measures within four months of leaving school and provide
this as a “Youth Guarantee”
Implementation at national level; Youth Guarantees (and similar
approaches) need to be based on consensus and joint action of
different stakeholders
“Single contract”
In segmented labour markets, introducing an open-ended "single
contract" with a sufficiently long probation period and a gradual
increase of protection rights, access to training, life long learning
and career guidance for all employees.
Make permanent contracts more attractive, e.g. by introducing
minimum incomes specifically for young people and by positively
differentiated non-wage costs.
Strengthening social safety net for youth
* Offering a good balance between rights to benefits and targeted
activation measures based upon mutual obligation; in order to avoid
that young people fall outside any social protection system and to
avoid benefit traps.
* Modernising social security systems to take account of specific
situation of young people, especially their increased risk of
precariousness
Promoting youth entrepreneurship & selfemployment (1)
• Increasing knowledge on entrepreneurship and
self-employment
• First report on "entrepreneurial activity in Europe"
focusing on the social and employment aspects of
entrepreneurship;
•Policy brief on youth entrepreneurship beginning of
2012
• Youth@Work campaign
Youth@Work
Awareness-raising campaign to build contacts between young people
and small businesses (SMEs). The aim is to:

help young jobseekers find jobs in SMEs and rapidly gain
experience and skills

raise awareness among small businesses about the potential
benefits of recruiting inventive, dynamic young people

make young people aware of the existing tools that can help
them become self employed or set up their own business
Promoting youth entrepreneurship & selfemployment (2)
Supporting entrepreneurship & selfemployment financially:
 European Social Fund
 European Progress Microfinance
Facility
 ERASMUS for young entrepreneurs
Progress Microfinance
Creating jobs and fighting exclusion
by:
Increasing access to, and availability of,
microfinance for:
 vulnerable groups (unemployed,
disadvantaged people, youth...)
 micro-enterprises, especially those in the
social economy
Some relevant links
Promoting entrepreneurs & the self-employed
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=952&langId=en
Progress Microfinance
http://ec.europa.eu/epmf
Erasmus for young Entrepreneurs
http://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/
Youth on the move
http://europa.eu/youthonthemove
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=950
Youth@Work
http://ec.europa.eu/social/youth@work
Thank you!