USA: Interesting new idea for dealing with youth underemployment and inclusivity

It was inspiring to come across this idea. Concepts like underemployment, inclusiveness, and mobilizing rather than networking.

COOP Careers

Our mission: Overcoming underemployment through digital skills and peer connections.

Challenge
Every college grad deserves a fair shot at a meaningful, upwardly mobile career. That’s the promise of higher education in America, and every year, millions of young people enroll, persist, and graduate on this premise, often with great sacrifice.

Yet nationwide, half of college grads (ages 21-27) are unemployed or underemployed, including more than two thirds of black college grads. (CEPR)

Even in the digital economy, a bachelor’s degree is not enough. We need social capital—connections, casual favors, timely referrals—as much as we need skills. These favors travel quickly and organically across strong and weak social ties, but rarely across racial or economic lines.

Ultimately, a labor market powered by relationships will only reinforce the status quo, amplifying residential and school segregation in the professional sphere.

The Youth Guarantee country by country

All EU countries have presented comprehensive Youth Guarantee Implementation Plans, complying with the deadlines set by the European Council.

The plans identify precisely the measures to be taken to implement the Youth Guarantee. They outline the timeframe for youth employment reforms and measures, the roles of public authorities and other organisations, and how it will be financed.

Please see the country fiches for a detailed assessment of the Youth Guarantee implementation in each country.

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1161&langId=en

Study: Countries with faster school-to-work transitions have lower unemployment

The study Mapping youth transitions in Europe by the tripartite body of the EU states that countries with a higher integration of school and work, through apprenticeship programmes or through more young people effectively combining school and early labour market experiences, display a smoother and quicker transition from school to work.

According to Eurostat, the best school-to-work transitions are the ‘Nordic’ and the ‘Apprenticeship’ (found in Austria and Germany) models.

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/social-europe-jobs/study-countries-faster-school-work-transitions-have-lower-unemployment?utm_source=EurActiv+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a587af6a0d-newsletter_daily_update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bab5f0ea4e-a587af6a0d-245775009

Youngest MEP: ‘EU unemployment schemes have no value’

Youth unemployment has been Europe’s most pressing issue over the past years. What is your assessment of the situation?

I think the role the EU can play here is helping bring growth back. I think the only way and the best way Europe can do this is by developing a single market. The single market has been a success and needs to be developed further.

But I don’t think that social mechanisms or structural funds will help anything. 28 different countries have been hit differently by the crisis and I think the way out must be an individual solution for each country. A European solution is not the good approach; it needs to be dealt with in different ways.

So programmes like the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) are not helping Danish youngsters who are looking for a job?

I haven’t heard of anyone using the programme. I think things like the Guarantee schemes only work if you have you can turn it into something of value and I don’t think that is the case with these structures. I think it is more of a politician’s solution to say they’ve done something.

Would I end the programmes? Well, I think it is always a good goal for politicians that we have to find ways to increase jobs. I just don’t believe that it is a politician’s job to actually create jobs. That is up to the private sector. The only way to create this is to have a healthy private sector.

 

 

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/youngest-mep-eu-unemployment-schemes-have-no-value-303251?utm_source=EurActiv+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b595974b91-newsletter_daily_update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bab5f0ea4e-b595974b91-245775009

Youth Guarantee – Youth Employment

Youth employment

Key actions

• Communication: Working together for Europe’s young people – A call to action on youth unemployment (2013) to accelerate the implementation of the Youth Guarantee and the investment in young people, and develop EU-level tools to help EU countries and firms recruit young people.
• Youth Employment Initiative (2013) reinforces and accelerates measures outlined in the Youth Employment Package. It aims to support particularly young people not in education, employment or training in regions with a youth unemployment rate above 25 %.
• Youth Employment Package (2012) is the follow-up to the actions on youth laid out in the wider Employment Package and includes:
  • A proposal to Member States to establish a Youth Guarantee – adopted by the Council in April 2013
  • Second-stage consultation of EU social partners on a quality framework for traineeships
  • The European Alliance for Apprenticeships and ways to reduce obstacles to mobility for young people.
• Youth on the Move is a comprehensive package of policy initiatives on education and employment for young people in Europe
  • Youth Opportunities Initiative (2011) includes actions to drive down youth unemployment
  • Your first EURES Job aims to help young people to fill job vacancies throughout the EU.
• EU Skills Panorama is a EU-wide tool gathering information on skills needs, forecasting and developments in the labour market.
• Measures in the field of education and culture

Fighting youth unemployment: An EU priority,EurActive

Fighting youth unemployment: An EU priority

A Youth Guarantee scheme, inspired by the national scheme in Finland, will be introduced by each EU country according to its individual need. It will apply to young people who are out of work for more than four months. It aims to give them a real chance to further their education, or get a job, apprenticeship or traineeship.

The proposals for implementation of the national schemes were supposed to be ready at the end of the year 2013, making the YEI fully operational by 1 January 2014. But by June 2014, only France had received an approval for its national scheme. The Commission will make funding available so that France can receive €620 million from the YEI and the European Social Fund (ESF).

Proactive jobs policy vital for European recovery by Douglas Busvine

“European leaders agreed last month to spend 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion) over two years on measures to combat youth unemployment. The Youth Guarantee scheme would offer a job, training or apprenticeship within four months to those leaving school, full-time education or becoming unemployed.

Economists have criticised the measure, with a total cost of 20 billion euros, as too little. They say that Germany, where chancellor Angela Merkel faces an election in September, has put the brakes on bolder action to avoid alienating voters.

Andor defended the Youth Guarantee project, saying it would provide near-term help to jobseekers and also pay social and economic dividends over time.”

Eurofound, 2012

This report reviews existing evidence on the effectiveness of 25 policies tackling youth unemployment for a selected number of countries (AT, FI, FR, HU, IE, IT, ES, SE, UK) and complements this information with expert interviews. It seeks to assess the extent to which the chosen measures have been successful, looking at their outputs, outcomes and wider impact