The Youth Guarantee

Malgorzata from Warsaw in Poland had a question for UTalk: “I would like to know what the EU is doing to support young people, especially those who are looking for jobs?”

Nina Koudelkova, Europe Direct Communication Officer, answered: “EU countries are working towards setting up a Youth Guarantee, a new approach to tackling youth unemployment.

“The aim is to ensure that all young people who are up to 25 years old even those not registered with the employment offices, receive good employment offers, continued education, apprenticeships or traineeships within 4 months of finishing school or becoming unemployed.

“Some of the measures envisaged include support for high-quality traineeships and apprenticeships, mobility support to bring skills and jobs together, and start-up support for young entrepreneurs.

“Developing and delivering a Youth Guarantee scheme requires strong cooperation between all the key stakeholders such as: public authorities, employment services, career guidance providers, education & training institutions, youth support services, business, employers, trade unions.

“The Youth Guarantee is above all a structural reform and in many countries requires much change. To make the Youth Guarantee a reality, national budgets need to prioritise youth employment.

“The EU will top up national spending on these schemes through the European Social Fund for the period 2014-2020, together with the Youth Employment Initiative, which has a budget of 6 billion euros and is an additional help for European regions with youth unemployment at above 25%.

“All EU Member States have presented national Youth Guarantee implementation plans, and their implementation is now starting.”

For more information on these national Youth Guarantee implementation plans, call 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 or go to the EU’s official website.

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