Brussels, 09/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 September, seven member states presented 18 pilot projects to the European Commission for implementing the Youth Guarantee. This aims to provide every young person with a job, training or quality placement within four months of their arrival on the labour market.
The 18 projects involve between 35 and 700 young people and show that “this approach works and brings results” and that “the Youth Guarantee is proving to be the most rapidly implemented EU structural reform”, said European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor.
Commission experts met the coordinators of the 18 pilot projects during a seminar in Brussels. Participants in the meeting examined the results and lessons that can be drawn from the efforts made in this field. The pilot projects were set up in Spain, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom between August and December 2013. Their average length is a year.
The projects can be divided into two different categories - those that targeted young people at the end of education or training, and those that targeted young people that are not in education, have no job and are not in training. The projects included motivation building, careers advice, skills tests, meetings with employers, learning programmes in specific sectors, and setting up centres for young jobseekers.
A spokesman for Andor, Jonathan Todd, stated that “the numbers of young people that are involved are quite small, but the real value of these projects is to give practical examples to member states of how to implement the Youth Guarantee”. (JK)