Youth unemployment in Europe is a growing concern for EU citizens. What is being done at EU level to combat youth unemployment?

When we speak of the youth sector many times we associate it with those who intend to continue studying at higher levels but this is not always the case and every year each country is faced with a number of school leavers seeking employment. The level of education and the degree of skill of these young persons varies and many a time it is not easy for these first time job seekers to find immediate employment. It is therefore important that schools provide professional guidance to those that do not intend to further their studies for them to be able to evaluate their options in a more rational way.

We have to take into consideration that the economic crisis that has hit Europe during these last months has also caused a huge wave of unemployment and those falling in the youth bracket have been more affected then others. We therefore have to find ways and means to ensure that these people remain financially independent as failing to do so will result in slower economic growth and will end up as being a financial and social burden on society.

It is imperative that we have financial backing at hand while sharpening and fine tuning our employment policies to adapt to the situation and not get caught in a situation where economic growth is hindered by jobless growth. We therefore have to give incentives to companies that invest in employing young people whilst employing a programme of Life Long Learning, thus teaching the new workers the necessary skills to advance in their place of work and subsequently in society.

Having said all this we have to make all the effort possible to reduce early school leaving in accordance with the EU2020 strategy. There are many ways to tackle this, including the lowering of the number of students in each class, the introduction of professional counselling in all schools and keeping contact with school leavers. Thus a structured programme incorporating these measures should be initiated. Adding to these, public and private companies as well as training corporations should invest in more frequent and more professional traineeships to prepare school leavers to enter the labour world.

In this difficult time for Europe’s economy we should encourage those who wish to pursue their education to do so and incentives should be given to such people. We must also ensure that everybody has access to a minimum of 12 years free education and the guarantee of financial support to those who want to further their studies.

European Union countries have an important contribution to give by allowing flexible arrangements where contracts are concerned and by supporting life long learning programmes. Public private partnerships should be encouraged to make special concessions and to focus on skills and inclusion.

There is a need to address this ever growing problem and we should be given the necessary tools to do so. The setting of a permanent EU taskforce is important to enable cross-section policies, share best practice examples, to initiate new polices and to implement new strategies. In an ever turbulent economic market we have to put youths on top of our agenda as they are the future of this Europe.

David Casa is a Nationalist MEP

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www.davidcasa.eu