Brussels, 21/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Speaking at the Youth and Employment Forum at the European University of Cyprus on 21 March, during an official visit to the country, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou underlined the urgent need for Cyprus to tackle the “skills mismatch” on the island. This challenge involves all European Union countries, as well as Cyprus, where unemployment for those aged under 25 stands at more than 40%. “Like many other countries, Cyprus needs to better prepare its young people for work. We have to address the mismatch between the skills our young people leave education with and the needs of employers”, Vassiliou stated. In her opinion, there are currently 2 million vacancies in Europe, which could be filled by young people, but a third of employers cannot recruit staff with the right qualifications. She stressed that “levels of youth unemployment across Europe are unacceptably high. They can only be overcome if our education and training systems are more effective and adapted to the needs of the job market. Like many other countries, Cyprus needs to better prepare its young people for work.” Cyprus is also faced with a unique problem in the EU - an unemployment rate for young graduates (25%) that is higher than that of the lowest skilled groups (22%). This partly reflects Cyprus' high level of tertiary graduates but is also due to the skills mismatch. In contrast, the unemployment rate in the EU is less than 11% on average for graduates and 27% for those with only lower secondary qualifications or less. The Youth Guarantee aims to tackle youth unemployment. Cyprus is due to receive €11 million under this initiative and in this context has submitted the Commission with an implementation plan, in which it outlines reforms it intends to conduct on apprenticeship, vocational education and training systems. Vassiliou pointed out that the new Erasmus+ programme is also expected to help train young people better through apprenticeships in other member states, help them gain experience and improve their foreign languages - all new skills to help them find a job. (IL)