The renewed Youth Guarantee targets youth unemployment by generating more inclusive education, training and job opportunities for Europe’s next generation.
In her political guidelines for the current European Commission (EC) 2019-2024, the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen praised the success of the Youth Guarantee (YG), so far having helped 3.5 million young people to gain ground in the labour market, as an instrument to fight youth unemployment: “Building on this success, I will turn the Youth Guarantee into a permanent instrument to fight youth unemployment. It should have an increased budget and regular reporting to ensure it delivers what it promises in every Member State.” In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated youth unemployment in the EU from a level of 14.9% before the crisis to 17.6% in August 2020, the need for boosting action to support youth employment has become ever more acute. To this end, on 20 October 2020, the Council adopted the Commission’s Proposal for a Council Recommendation on ‘A Bridge to Jobs – Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee’ from 1 July.
The new Youth Guarantee is part of the Youth Employment Support (YES) package, which was presented along with the new European Skills Agenda in July (see SwissCore article). Next to addressing structural challenges such as the skills gap, demographic change and issues related to or revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU-level initiatives also put vocational education and training, lifelong learning as well as green and digital skills in the centre stage and focus on the improvement of the quality and availability of apprenticeships with the aim to provide ‘a bridge to jobs’ for Europe’s next generation.
With the renewed Youth Guarantee, Member States commit to fighting youth unemployment by providing young people up to the age of 29 years with a quality offer of employment, continued education, a traineeship or apprenticeship within four months after leaving formal education or losing a job. The Youth Guarantee further puts a special emphasis on the more vulnerable groups, including those from rural areas, with a migrant background or with disabilities, as well as young people ‘not in employment, education or training’ (NEETs) and young women. The Youth Guarantee will be backed by EU funds such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and investment from the Member States. Additional funding will be provided under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, and the Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU).
Since the establishment of the Youth Guarantee in 2013, the Member States have undertaken a number of national reforms and implementation measures, improving their services and creating more and better training and employment opportunities for young people across Europe. Measures for implementing the new Youth Guarantee on national, regional and local level should be accompanied by the mapping of target groups and skills needs; outreach activities; counselling, guidance and mentoring; and training and employment offers that ensure quality and equity. Furthermore, measures should focus on equipping young people with digital skills. To track progress, the EC intends to improve data collection and the monitoring of the Youth Guarantee schemes. Geared-up investment into youth strives for an active, innovative and skilled workforce, which has the potential not only to strengthen the social market economies and contest the demographic challenge, but also to act as a motor for the digital and green transitions.