About: European Youth Guarantee
More cooperation, greater inclusion key to preventing a ‘lockdown generation’
Already precarious in many regions of Europe, youth unemployment has spiked dramatically with the onset of COVID-19, sparking fears of another lost generation. At a recent StartNet Conference, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders called for greater cooperation on facilitating young people’s transition to work.
Commissioner Schmit: EU must stop rise of low-quality jobs in wake of pandemic
While impacting all parts of the economy, COVID-19 has hit young people particularly hard. Nicolas Schmit, the Commissioner for jobs and social rights, spoke with EURACTIV about the EU executive's efforts to address these challenges and avert the prospect of another 'lost generation.'
Moment of truth for the Youth Guarantee
The Youth Guarantee scheme will be relaunched this week and the Commission must learn from the mistakes of its first run, argue Ludovic Voet and Tea Jarc.
Private sector jumps in to fill youth skills gap
Youth unemployment remains a lingering issue in Europe. While the public sector has a central role to play in supporting young people in the transition from education to work, private companies can also contribute to closing the skills gap.
Europe’s half-empty sandwich
The EU's new policy to provide financial support to workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is a bold new initiative. But it is not a panacea, and risks being over-hyped, writes László Andor.
‘NEETs’: A youth group at high risk of poverty and exclusion
Education and skills gaps are not only a challenge for businesses seeking to recruit, they also make poverty and social exclusion more likely among young people who are excluded from labour and education at the same time.
The disengaged youth, a pending challenge in the EU
The financial crisis of the previous decade was particularly hard on young people. However, as the latest data shows, 15% of young Europeans are neither at work nor studying (NEETs), which means this remains a structural issue.
European Youth Guarantee needs to address labour market changes, experts warn
As the new European Commission vows to reform the European Youth Guarantee to tackle youth unemployment in the EU, EURACTIV looked at how the future initiative should look like according to the experts.
EU elections 2019: What do parties propose for young people?
Only 28% of Europeans aged 16 to 24 voted in the last EU election in 2014 compared to a total turnout of 42%. Ahead of this week's vote, EURACTIV looked at the proposals for young people coming from the main European political parties.
What Europe’s millennials want in 2018
A future priority for the EU needs to be empowering the younger generation who want to make a difference, writes John Hewko.
Dual vocational education and training in Germany – a blue print for Europe?
To tackle the continuously high youth unemployment in Europe, the EU has introduced a range of initiatives and so-called “guarantees”. A long term strategy could contain the adaptation of a dual education system in other EU member states, which has hold up well in Germany so far. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Looking for jobs after the crisis
After almost eight years of economic crisis in Europe, the discussion for what comes next has been launched.
EU should harness economic recovery to push structural reforms, economists say
Despite positive momentum, the European economy still faces challenges in terms of low investment, youth unemployment and the social fracture growing across the bloc.
Debate: Tackling youth unemployment in the EU
Does Europe do enough for its youth? Half of young people in the EU's southern member states are neither employed nor in training.
European youth jobless scheme relaunched and explained
Suspended due to a lack of funds in 2016, the European programme to tackle youth unemployment was relaunched this week with a budget of €700 million. French Socialist MEP Isabelle Thomas explained the purpose of the scheme to EURACTIV France in Strasbourg.
Voting alone won’t save our democracies
We are so often told that ‘those who don’t vote are not allowed to complain about the result’. Allan Päll asks what would happen if instead of forcing us — the citizens — to adapt to a failing system, democracy evolved to suit our modern day society.
Overeducation: When fish and chips are served by historians
SPECIAL REPORT / In some EU countries, up to one-third of young people aged 18-25 are overqualified for their jobs, a new research project has revealed. Many of them are highly educated and multilingual, with university degrees, who are taking on low-paid jobs to avoid unemployment.
Education expert: Linking schools with businesses is win-win
We need to increase the interaction between the education and the business community. We know both sides want to increase the cooperation, but it seems like there is a need for a “broker” in the middle, says Caroline Jenner.
Brussels unlocks funds for Youth Employment Initiative
The European Commission is proposing to make €1 billion from the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) available earlier and increase the pre-financing rate by up to 30 times for eligible member states in order to boost youth employment.
Youth leader: ‘We, Europe’s young people, feel as though we are being left behind’
Young people deserve a better situation than either being unemployment or accepting unpaid internships, says Johanna Nyman?. The inadequate response of the EU and national governments threaten to turn Europe's youth into a lost generation, she argues.