Compilation document of the Structured Dialogue with Young People “Social Inclusion of Young People”

Cycle 3 Phase 2 of the Structured Dialogue with Young People “Social Inclusion of Young People” Compilation These results are based on the reports of the consultations of National Working Groups in all 28 EU Member States and of the International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations (INGYOs). According to the reports, more than 20,000 young people1 participated directly in the structured dialogue during this first phase on the theme of social inclusion of young people. 17 International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations organised consultations and contributed with inputs to this phase of structured dialogue. In addition, more than 1,200 experts and public authorities in the field of youth, social affairs and welfare services took part in the discussions with young people.

BACKGROUND Consequences that Young People are Not in Employment, Education or Training

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ADAPT Education to the Needs of Young People and Demands of the Labour Market

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INFORM and GUIDE Young People in their Transitions

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FACILITATE the Transition from Education to Employment

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IMPROVE the Labour Market for Young People

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SUPPORT for Young People’s Autonomy

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ENHANCE the Role of Youth Organisations

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DEVELOP Cross-Sectoral Cooperation

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Data indicated in the reports submitted by National Working Groups. Taking into account that some National Working Groups have not indicated any concrete figure, the actual number of young people involved in this phase of structured dialogue is higher.

BACKGROUND: Consequences that Young People are Not in Employment, Education or Training Young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) are the young people who are unemployed or inactive, and who are not attending any education or training courses. Therefore, NEETs are not a homogenous group, but very diverse group, including higher education graduates without employment as well as young unemployed who have not completed secondary school (early school leavers), among other sub-groups.

Being out of employment, education or training (NEETs) has great consequences upon individuals, community, the economy and the society overall. Below is an indication of which consequences were mentioned most often in the reports of the results of discussions with young people, experts and public authorities across the EU Member States. It should be noted that some reports mentioned more consequences than others:

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Young people from nearly all Member States identified rise in violence (youth delinquency) and increase in risk behaviours, in particular alcohol and drug abuse, as the most important and visible consequences. Increase in health problems, drain brain and emigration, poverty, waste of human capital and higher costs of social welfare and healthcare are also considered among the most serious consequences of belonging to the NEETs. Alienation, political disenchantment, decrease in participation in democratic life and rise in far right, extremist and xenophobic movements are also reported to be important long-term consequences upon the respective societies.

When analysing the different types of consequences reported by young people across Europe, it is clear that social consequences are perceived as the most serious and have been reported the most often: among others, rise in violence, brain drain, social exclusion, discrimination, poverty, etc. Economic consequences, such as reduced tax intake for government and escalation of costs for public health and social welfare, have been reported as important consequences along with the strong effects of civic and political nature: loss of trust in public institutions and nonparticipation in elections. Being out of employment, education or training is reported to have serious impact also on the concerned individuals: loss of self-confidence and self-esteem, frustration, loss of social support, apathy and demotivation, among others.

The reported aggregated impact of these social, economic, political and individual consequences is a perceived feeling of failure in life, of not contributing to society, and in short, a feeling of ’worthlessness’. However, reports highlight that temporary non-participation in employment, education or training does not mean that young people do not contribute to society or are excluded since many do get involved in youth work and volunteering activities.

Nevertheless, the consequences are serious when exclusion from education, training or employment is long-term.

Young people across Europe have reported that the economic and social costs of preventing young people from becoming NEETs are far less than the costs of re-integration of NEETs into society. They emphasised that the vicious circle in which young people who have difficulties in finding employment or entering into education face a higher risk of exclusion as time goes by, should be broken.

The results of the dialogue and discussions between young people, experts and public authorities across the EU Member States and the inputs and contributions from the International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations (INGYOs) have been compiled in this background document to serve as a basis for joint discussions at the EU Youth Conference in Lithuania. A visual summary of all inputs from reports can be seen below:

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ADAPT Education to the Needs of Young People and Demands of the Labour Market WORKSHOP 1 Young people across the EU consider that the current education systems are maladjusted to the needs of young people and to the demands of the labour market. Too much emphasis on theoretical knowledge to the expense of practical skills, too much pressure on obtaining qualifications instead of competences and lack of adequate support in transition between education levels demotivates young people and leads to early school leaving.

Young people in Europe believe that it is utmost necessary to reform the education system to make it more practical, flexible, learner-focused and attractive for young people. Curricula should be adjusted to provide more practical training and life skills, more alternative education opportunities should be developed, state support for students strengthened and specific support ensured to facilitate transitions between education levels.

Conclusions Reform education to make it more practical and flexible ñ Reform the education system towards broader practical learning, to implement a better balance between theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in order to better match the labour market demands and trends.

The secondary school system should be reformed to ensure that young people acquire more skills useful for the labour market and have the possibility to do a practical experience in their field during their studies. ñ Develop a National Strategy on education, which should be of high quality, long-term oriented and adapted to the dynamics of the labour market, in order to ensure symetria between education and employment. ñ Reform the education system towards more flexibility to open pathways for vertical and horizontal mobility. ñ The education system should help all students fulfill their potential and to ‘learn how to learn’. Therefore, the education system should be centred on students’ individual needs and interests and thus should be tailored to individual learners instead of focusing on averages. ñ Reform the methodology to ensure a transition from a certificate-oriented formation to a formation oriented on skills and competences. ñ Schools should promote and value continuous, lifelong learning from an early age. ñ Schools should be given the possibility to change part of the curriculum in order to adapt to new learning needs and to respond to young people’s interests. ñ Enhance students’ autonomy in choosing subjects and increase the number of classes available to choose from in school and university to enable pupils/students to shape their educational and career paths. ñ Divergent proposals as to financing schools: Some proposals call upon the state to finance all schools regardless of achievements so as to promote diversity versus others call for linking schools financing with the rate of successful graduates in the labour market to reward the schools’ ability to prepare their students. ñ Some reports disagree with adapting education to the labour market demands: Education should not only provide young people with the knowledge and skills they need for the labour market, but also with a civic education and values that prepares them for all aspects of adult life, including participation in democratic life. ñ Ensure a sound basis of general knowledge and life skills for all students who finish education, including in vocational education and training. ñ Encourage and promote European mobility programmes at all levels of education. International programmes and educational exchanges should be better funded to benefit more and more diverse young people. ñ Increase opportunities for intercultural learning and youth exchanges.

Adjust school curricula ñ Curricula should be monitored qualitatively and adjusted according to the needs of students as well as to the demands of the labour market. ñ Educational institutions should introduce classes/courses which equip students with basic management and entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. ñ Improve the teaching of foreign languages in schools, at all levels. ñ Include social and emotional skills development in school curricula. ñ Develop social rights education in schools. ñ Include career orientation in school curricula as well as interview skills and CV preparation courses. ñ Broaden the curriculum of the secondary-level schools to include life-skills courses and practical training, such as financial literacy (management of personal finances), and provide knowledge about practical issues relevant for young people’s autonomy, like basics about the labour market, tax system and welfare state. ñ Include youth participation and empowerment as a subject in school curricula.

Improve teaching and learning support ñ Improve qualifications and training of teachers. ñ Ensure compulsory inclusion and diversity training for all teachers and educators in order to improve their preparation in working with students who are young parents, LGBT young people, and young people in state care and to be particularly supportive towards students at risk of dropping out from school.

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ñ Restore the social recognition and value of the teaching profession in order to attract the best graduates into teaching and to motivate teachers to believe in the individual talents and capacities of students. ñ Improve teaching through more engaging learning methods, such as through non-formal learning, group discussions and online learning and using interactive tools like video and audio lectures. ñ School material should be synchronised with material needed for preparation of university exams. ñ Ensure a modern and up-to-date learning environment by improving the equipment, technology and educational facilities in schools. ñ Establish e-learning platforms in all schools and universities. ñ Create and make use of trans-European networks that facilitate peer-to-peer learning.

Support for all learners ñ All Members States must ring-fence education spending from future budget-cuts and reverse any cuts made.

Investment in education and training in Member States should be no less than 6% of their GNP. ñ Governments should guarantee that all young people have equal opportunities by ensuring free education at all levels and providing state financial support for students during all years of their studies, for example through student allowance support or guaranteeing low-interest loans for students. ñ Ensure equal opportunities in education and training for all young people with no discrimination on financial, family, social, health or other background. ñ Promote a system of financially non-discriminatory educational support. ñ Increase the number of social scholarships for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. ñ Ensure high-performance scholarships in schools/universities to reward and motivate for good performance. ñ Introduce ‘scholarships for mobility’ to enable more students to benefit from intercultural experiences abroad. ñ Enhance comprehensive financial support for covering study-related costs (textbooks, school equipment, meals) and improve supporting infrastructure, including access to affordable student housing and canteens. ñ Ensure financial support for students’ travel to schools/universities, especially for students from rural areas. ñ Establish a National Observatory for a fare assignment of grants, scholarships, and benefits for students. ñ Increase the number of counsellors and educators for the support of students with special learning needs. ñ Ensure that all schools and universities have social workers or psychologists. ñ Empower Student Councils at all levels of education. ñ Secure inclusion and equal treatment of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression across all curricula, alongside comprehensive anti-discrimination and a norm-critical approach to education.

Specific support for transition between different phases in education ñ Improve the cooperation between schools and universities, which should organise more joint events. ñ Schools and universities should put in place transition and induction programmes for first-year students, including summer schools, induction seminars, preparatory trainings and curriculum bridging schemes. ñ ‘Open days’ and ‘introduction days’ should be organised in secondary schools and universities to allow prospective students to visit educational institutions. Guests from secondary schools and universities should be invited into primary and secondary schools, respectively, to present available educational opportunities. ñ Universities should make available online campus tours and samples of lectures to prospective students. ñ Schools and universities should develop and support participatory extra-curricular activities (i.e. social clubs) to support interaction and social activities among students so as to integrate the newcomer students. ñ Set up peer-to-peer support mechanisms, especially for students in transition between education levels. ñ Ensure individual support (instructors, tutors, coaches) for young people in transition phases in education. ñ Free tutoring and free preparatory courses should be made available to assist young people in making the transition from secondary schools to universities. ñ Higher education opportunities should also be promoted among young people following vocational training. ñ In addition to presenting different types of education (formal education, vocational education and training, nonformal education), present alternatives to direct transition, such as exchange programmes and volunteering. ñ Education system should allow a gap year, such as a year of European Voluntary Service, to reduce pressure on young people and to allow them to discover their interests, aptitudes and competences. ñ Youth organisations should assist in the transition between educational phases through non-formal educational methods and support in the learning process.

Keep young people in education ñ Provide funding for students to stay in education, such as educational maintenance allowance, and make it available to a wide range of young people and particularly to those at risk of dropping out (i.e Roma youth). ñ Teachers should be trained to identify as early as possible the students who are disinterested or struggling in order to work efficiently towards prevention and early intervention strategies. ñ Ensure a safe and inclusive educational environment through early interventions at primary school level to combat bullying, conflicts and discrimination or racism from class mates or teachers in order to prevent that such negative experiences in young people’s social settings make them drop out of school. ñ Set up or strengthen early counselling and assistance from expert pedagogical and psychological services in schools so that at-risk students can be monitored and offered timely support. This should be done in 5

cooperation with social services and family since the underlying cause is often inadequate family support. ñ Increase learning and training options alternative to traditional curricula, such as non-formal education, youth work activities and volunteering to better suit the individual needs of each young person. There should be a better visibility of information on alternative options to higher education. ñ Develop preventive programmes with individual support and ‘youth coaching’ to advise and accompany at-risk students on their way from secondary schools to further education or to an apprenticeship in the labour market. The programmes should involve also the parents of young people. ñ Open organised alternative education or support centres with smaller learning groups and involving creative, practical learning methods to keep young people at risk of leaving school engaged in education. ñ Strengthen the communication between parents / carers and schools/ universities. ñ Improve individualised pedagogical approach to students and customised support through youth and community work. Every school should have youth workers to provide support to those at risk of exclusion. ñ Raise awareness of young people about the benefits of education through case studies and inviting successful alumni who can show how education has impacted on their lives and contributed to their life achievements. ñ Develop effective buddy/ mentoring schemes aimed specifically at young people at risk of leaving education to provide, among others, both online and face-to-face homework assistance and in-house mentoring to help these young people to improve their chances of finishing education. ñ Establish appropriate systems for support with homework, either after school care or all-day schools. ñ Provide flexible study arrangements, for example individual study plans, evening classes, partial leave and starting again as well as more second-chance education programmes. ñ Make horizontal student mobility easier in higher education to allow students to change study fields if they realise they made a ‘wrong educational choice’, in order to prevent them from dropping out. ñ Participation in youth organisations is proved not only to bring students back into schooling, but also to improve young people’s ability and motivation to finish education and training through the added effect of expanded social network and peer support. Therefore, schools should cooperate with youth organisations in preventive programmes and should promote participation into youth organisations from an early age.

Synergies between formal education and non-formal education ñ Promote cooperation and synergies between formal and non-formal education in order to facilitate smoother transitions between education phases and the developing of skills relevant for the labour market and for life. ñ Promote a holistic approach to education, starting by validating competences acquired in all education contexts. Foster cooperation between formal and non-formal education in the recognition of competences. ñ Establish an integrated system of credits for courses/activities attended in formal and non-formal education. ñ Schools, youth and civil society organisations should cooperate in promoting the variety of learning and training opportunities to young people, particularly by inviting youth organisations to be part of the practical classes to present the various offers for non-formal education activities and projects for young people.

Good practices ñ Some schools/universities in the French-Speaking Community of Belgium set up a peer-to-peer guidance system between pupils/students to facilitate the transition between the different study degrees. ñ Portugal implements a Public-Private-Partnership initiative to run a Programme for School Guidance to Disadvantaged Background Young People, to fight school drop-out. ñ In Denmark, young people who are not keen on traditional formal education are offered alternatives like “Production Schools” and “Youth schools”. “Production Schools” are centred on a workshop-based approach to education to help learners develop practical skills while co-operating with a teacher. “Youth Schools” combine leisure-time classes with full-time education and traditional subjects. Moreover, the Ministry of Children and Education together with Danish Youth Council, signed an agreement that ensures that youth organisations can visit schools and present their learning and participation opportunities for young people. ñ In Austria, “Jugendcoaching” (youth coaching) is implemented as a preventive programme with a case management approach. Pupils who are at risk of dropping out from school are informed about the programme and advised to attend it by their teachers while their parents are also informed. Coaches advise and accompany young people who are at risk of early school leaving on their way from secondary school to further education or to an apprenticeship in the labour market while empowering them to decide on their own. ñ In Ireland, ‘Youthreach’ is a programme directed at unemployed young early school leavers aged 15-20 and operates on a full-time, year-round basis and offers participants the opportunity to acquire certification. ñ In Slovenia, ‘Project Learning for Young Adults’ (PUM) is a public non-formal education programme for young people who dropped out of school, lack practical experience and have difficulties to get a job. The programme delivers good results, successfully supporting early school leavers to reintegrate into society. ñ Erasmus in Schools (EiS) is a good practice initiative for the promotion and motivation of people from early stages to participate in training and learning opportunities abroad.

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INFORM and GUIDE Young People in their Transitions WORKSHOP 2 Lack of adequate information and guidance is one of the biggest challenges that young people face in their transitions to adulthood. Young people across Europe reported that in all phases of transition – between education levels, from education to employment, from family household to autonomous life – they feel they do not have sufficient information, knowledge and support to take the ‘right’ decisions.

Young Europeans reportedly need easily accessible information and counselling services tailored to them. They need specialised and individualised educational and career guidance in schools, from an early age, as well as improved career guidance from employment services. Throughout the transition phases, young people need to be more and better informed about the various learning and training opportunities available to them.

Conclusions More information and counseling support services ñ Develop regional knowledge centres or hubs for transition management and support of young people. ñ Establish and increase the number of youth information and counselling centers managed by professional youth workers. ñ Increase the number of specialised youth information workers to enhance information literacy. ñ Strengthen the cooperation between youth information & counselling offices and public employment services in order to better provide young people with information about suitable job openings. ñ Establish ‘youth incubators’ to serve as centres for young people to obtain support, information and assistance, which should be jointly run by public bodies and youth organisations and focused on empowering young people through peer education, mentoring and volunteering. ñ Establish public information, guidance and support services for young people such as ‘Youth One-StopShops’, where youth can have free access to information on a wide variety of issues and to assistance and support on learning, training and career opportunities and choices, and on social welfare issues. ñ Develop a youth information package for opportunities, programmes and services which institutions, youth organisations and local authorities can offer to young people. ñ Provide comprehensive information on learning, training and other opportunities available for young people, as well as information on living independently, in an accurate and youth-friendly manner: in a clear language adapted to young people, with low-threshold, widespread, free and easy access and designed to activate and motivate youth to participate. ñ Information should be provided in places where young people are, such as music and sport events, cinemas, theatres and other occasions, and disseminated through communication channels most used by young people, where information is shared and multiplied, in order to reach as many of them. ñ Create a national online information platform for young people with information about their rights and direct links to relevant local authorities that can be contacted for further assistance. ñ Include young people and youth organisations in the development of information and counselling services in order to ensure meeting the needs of young people.

Improve career guidance ñ Set up information and guidance trails within the school frame, the non-formal education and the labour market in order to integrate vocational and career guidance as a long-term process for an ‘overall life plan’. ñ Establish or improve comprehensive, systematic and quality educational counselling and career guidance in schools, available to all young people, from primary to higher education, free of charge, in order to enable young people to take an informed decision and choice of their future educational or professional path. ñ Ensure that every primary and secondary school has a career guidance office with specialised and welltrained career/guidance counsellors to provide individualised support to every student. ñ Guidance counsellors should help young people assess career opportunities linked to specific professions and fields of study as well as provide them with information about job-search, recruitment procedures and seminars on how to write a CV and to prepare for job interviews. ñ Guidance counsellors should cooperate with schools, teachers, parents, psychologists, social workers and youth workers to guarantee that young people receive the career guidance they need. ñ Educational institutions, especially universities, should provide information and counselling related to their students’ career choices, as well as training courses for job-seeking skills. ñ Every university should have career counsellors to assist young people to continue their education and help them make another choice of education if they realise they have made a ‘wrong choice’. ñ Career guidance should be based both on assessment of individual skills and interests as well as on systematic and analytical insights in labour market trends and changes in particular to professional fields. ñ Improve quality information and education targeted at parents to prepare them in order to support young people in decisions, since family and friends are the most important personal contacts for young people in asking for advice or support in educational and career decisions. ñ Establish specialised centres for career orientation where young people can be counselled before graduating 7

secondary education and organise student visits to such career centres and to job agencies. ñ Involve youth work in the development of career guidance services and coaching, including tailor-made individual counselling support schemes for young people. ñ Since networks are a key factor in career orientation, young people should have free access to educational and professional networks.

Raise awareness about learning and training opportunities ñ Run public information campaigns to promote learning and training opportunities, in the local areas where young people are, including at schools and universities and via digital and social media. Use role models to advertise the learning and training opportunities among young people. ñ Youth organisations can assist public authorities in developing purposeful communication about learning and training opportunities and reaching out to as many young people. ñ Raise awareness about the direct added value of participating in learning and training opportunities, the benefits and utility for personal and professional development, and perspectives they bring towards employment, such as the skills development and new contacts gained, or in case of young employees, job satisfaction, possibility of getting a better paid job and remaining in a good position for longer time. ñ Promote the positive impact of learning and training opportunities and youth programmes on society in order to raise the public awareness about their benefits, both for the individual and for the community. ñ Raise awareness of the importance of education and life-long learning after graduation, emphasising its purpose in career development. ñ Facilitate sharing of good practices and experiences of participants in learning and training opportunities in wider (youth) public. ñ Promote the work of youth organisations, not just those working directly with young people, but also those that carry out activities designed to help, inform and guide them. ñ Raise awareness about youth programmes / projects and other empowering initiatives run by youth organisations. ñ Inform potential beneficiaries about the learning objectives and learning path of the respective learning and training opportunities, including in the case of non-formal education, in order to give them the possibility to evaluate the various opportunities and to motivate them to participate.

Improve employment services ñ Improve the services of the public employment offices so as to focus on the individual needs of young jobseekers, leading to better matching jobseekers with existing opportunities in the labour market. ñ Strengthen the personal contact between young people and job consultants. ñ Establish youth employment offices. ñ Provide more easily accessible information about existing job offers, including specialised job offers aiming at disadvantaged or disabled young people. ñ Develop programmes for youth employment in labour/employment offices. ñ Support job centres to assist young people in job seeking, job coaching, counselling and training. ñ Develop twinning of successful public employment services and initiatives with study visits, staff training and temporary staff exchanges. ñ Public employment services should organise systematic activities available for all young people, including individual counselling, job clubs, counselling for self-employment, developing professional employment plans and skill-building workshops (CV writing), to strengthen their job-seeking skills and increase their employability. ñ Job counselling, offered by employment services, should be tailored to young people. Therefore, job consultants should be specialised and trained to work with young people, for example through youth work trainings. Particular attention should be paid to youth from socially disadvantaged backgrounds or living in poverty. Job consultants should develop a better understanding of their specific situation and the problems they encounter in the contact with the labour market in order to provide more specialised job counseling. ñ Develop effective and integrated counselling and guidance from the public employment service, social economic actors and employer organisations. ñ Provide job guidance and counselling to young people, including through innovative tools like “job app”. ñ Provide information to young people about the functioning of the labour market as well as employment rights and entitlements. Information about the labour market should be adapted to the needs of young people. ñ Provide information about how to get a job in another EU country other than one’s own.

Information about social welfare services ñ Inform young people about their social rights as citizens. There should be a representative from the public information, guidance and support services or from social welfare services in every school. ñ Inform all potential beneficiaries through a strategy to educate young people from an early age about their rights to access welfare benefits and social services. ñ Information about social welfare services should be coherent and coordinated between the different agencies involved and accessible both online and via personalised support.

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ñ Agencies that provide welfare services should promote information about existing welfare programmes in schools and universities and wherever young people are, in cooperation with youth organisations, and particularly target those from disadvantaged backgrounds and from rural areas. ñ Provide youth and diversity training to all providers of social welfare services to better prepare them to deal with information for young people, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Good practices ñ In Denmark, the Ministry of Children and Education has established educational and vocational guidance targeted at young people up to 25 years, particularly those not in education or employment. The guidance is divided into different systems, which together ensure a coherent guidance of young people from primary to higher education: a) youth guidance centres (UU) provide educational and vocational guidance for pupils from 6th-10th grade and young people under 25 with special needs for guidance, offering information about alternatives to traditional education and how to choose and complete education; b) regional guidance centres offer guidance on choosing higher education to students in secondary schools; c) e-Counselling offers personalised guidance to all regardless of age and level of education. In addition, the Minister for Children and Education has established a National Dialogue Forum on Guidance. ñ In Austria, there are networks of regional youth information centers where youth experts provide young people with reliable information. Youth Information Centres offer young people a first point of contact for all their questions. 27 Youth Information Centres and Points all over Austria guarantee young people aged between 12 and 26 a nationwide service. The “Bundesnetzwerk Österreichische Jugendinfos” (i.e. National Network of Austrian Youth Information Centres) is the national umbrella organisation of the Austrian Youth Information Centres (www.jugendinfo.at). ñ In Ireland, information on career guidance and employment opportunities is provided via online portal (www.careersportal.ie), which provides information for second and third level students and other (young) people in search of a job. Moreover, Letterkenny Youth Information Service is a good example in running an Employability Programme for young people that offers services such as CV preparation, information on finding employment, employment rights and responsibilities, training opportunities, interview preparation, mock interviews, development of interpersonal skills and workplace etiquette, international exchanges, Youth in Action programmes and volunteering opportunities.

FACILITATE the Transition from Education to Employment WORKSHOP 3 Across the EU, young people, experts and public authorities agree that young people are not well prepared for the transition from education to the labour market. Lack of transversal skills and little or no practical experience are the most common challenges in obtaining a first employment, resulting in the vicious circle of ‘no job without experience and no one willing to give a job to get the experience’.

Better training opportunities and more quality internships and apprenticeships should be available for young people to acquire the skills and practical experience needed to enter the labour market. Participation in youth organisations, volunteering and non-formal education equip young people with valuable skills and experience for employment, which should therefore be better recognised, validated and valued by employers.

Conclusions Recognition and validation of competences ñ Young people should be provided a qualification or certificate after successfully completing a training or course, regardless of the education system (formal education, vocational training, non-formal education). ñ Qualification courses that alternate training, non-formal education activities and work should be facilitated. ñ Certificates validating young people’s participation in youth projects and of the competences gained through such experiences, such as YouthPass, should be more widely recognised and valued by the private sector. ñ The EU should finalise a clear and easy system of recognition of qualifications and diplomas all around EU and in all fields of education, training and practice. ñ Volunteer and youth work should be recognised as professional experience and the competences acquired through volunteering should be recognised by employers. ñ Internships should be recognised as professional experience by employers. ñ Member States should fully and immediately implement the 2012 Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning. They should develop and set up viable frameworks for the recognition and validation / accreditation of competences acquired in non-formal education. ñ Competences gained through non-formal education and informal learning should be recognised by employers. ñ Develop and promote tools for assessment and self-evaluation of competences of young people, which integrate skills acquired through formal and non-formal education as well as through work experiences such as work in youth organisations, in order to reinforce young people’s employability and their self-confidence.

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Better training opportunities to match the skills of young people to the labour market demands ñ Increase the quality of vocational education and training, including the quality of teaching, and improve its social recognition, such as through creating a positive image through media to better promote vocational education and training among young people. ñ Open more modern specialisations in vocational schools, according to the labour market demands. ñ Practical projects in the field of vocational education and training (i.e. Leonardo programme) should reach out to and be more accessible for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. ñ Training in another EU country should be extended to all young people, not only higher education students. ñ Training and non-formal education opportunities should be reinforced as direct measures of building young people’s skills, in particular social and soft skills. ñ Increase the offer of training and up-skilling opportunities for young people, including short-term and targeted training courses with a practical or vocational focus or focus on cross-cutting skills valued by employers, such as technical or IT skills and soft skills including team work, adaptability and communication skills. ñ The local government should provide financial support – ‘training allowance’ – or subsidise young people’s participation in training programmes and courses relevant for their skills development. ñ Promote low-threshold access to training opportunities by informing young people in schools/universities and via social media, among others, in order to motivate young people to participate. ñ Set up specific professional training programmes in order to facilitate the acquisition of specific skills and competences necessary for given professions. ñ Young people should be able to get in touch with experts and professionals in the field of their course. ñ Ensure that training programmes are attractive to young people, suitable to their needs as well as up-to-date and adapted to the demands of the labour market. ñ Involve youth organisations in developing training courses offers to ensure they are tailored to youth’s needs.

Better preparation of young people for labour market by facilitating the acquisition of practical experience ñ Integrate quality practical job-related experiences, such as mandatory ‘professional insertion trainings’ (internships and traineeships), into school curricula in order to offer young people a first contact with the labour market while they are still studying and thus better prepare them for the transition to employment. ñ Work experience placements/internships should be made available both in secondary and tertiary education. ñ Work experience placements/internships should be paid to make gaining experience attractive and allow young people to cover their expenses during the placement. Governments should encourage employers to offer paid work experience placements and internships. ñ Improve the quality of internships to ensure they are meaningful learning and training experiences. ñ States should introduce and promote ‘dual apprenticeships/internships’ by combining apprenticeship/internship in a company with training on practical skills in order to better prepare young people for the labour market. ñ Organise training sessions dedicated to young people in internship-or apprenticeship-based programmes, in cooperation with youth organisations. ñ Increase opportunities for and promote accessible quality internships/apprenticeships for students during their education to give them chances to gain work experience valuable for the labour market. ñ Promote structured and monitored traineeship/internship schemes. Internships should be monitored by both a professional in school/university and by business officer to evaluate the progress and prevent that interns undertake tasks that are not related to the internship programme. ñ Increase and promote paid internship opportunities in private and public organisations for young graduates to help them gain more needed skills for employment and meet potential employers. State should offer tax benefits to the employers that provide paid and quality internships. ñ Facilitate and increase opportunities for part-time employment, including ‘youth jobs’ and ‘student jobs’, which are tailored specifically to young people who are taking a break from studies or are working after school. ñ Create more ‘project-based’ and ‘collaborative’ jobs for students through a coherent legislation and support for employers to develop such programmes. ñ Universities should ensure arrangements that enable young people to combine studies with work, such as through adapting schedules of studies to working hours or giving students the opportunity to make their own study schedule. ñ Promote volunteering and youth work in youth organisations and its added value in practical experience, skills and contacts gained – youth organisations provide young people with a network of contacts that may enable them to find a quality job. Volunteering opportunities should be more visible and their benefits better promoted. ñ Broaden the accessibility of the European Voluntary Service to all young people regardless of their origin, education or training. ñ Promote role models, such as successful young professionals and young entrepreneurs, since positive experiences of other young people can motivate and inspire youth in their transition to employment. ñ Establish peer-mentorships in which young people who have successfully made the transition from school to work can support their peers as mentors and serve as role models. The mentors should receive adequate training prior to taking their responsibility as peer-mentors.

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Better cooperation between educational institutions and employers ñ Universities, government and private sector should, in partnership, monitor what specialists / professionals are most needed in the labour market and should create educational and training programmes for young people to develop the necessary qualifications and competences for these professions. This should be part of a longterm, comprehensive strategy of the government to match the number of graduates from different fields with the number of available jobs in the labour market and to anticipate future changes in the labour market. ñ Schools, businesses, government and youth organisations should work more closely together, especially at local level, to prepare young people for the labour market. ñ Serving as bridges between education system and labour market, schools and universities should proactively build strong relationships and sustainable partnerships with employers (private companies and public institutions) in order to implement joint projects and events, such as business presentations in schools, trial work days, structured internship/traineeship programmes, job shadowing for aspiring young entrepreneurs. ñ Schools and universities should engage employers in the education and/or training of their students, by inviting them to take part in classes/courses. ñ To connect students and employers, schools/universities should cooperate with employment agencies in organising ‘career days’ and ’job fairs’ inviting employers in schools/universities as well as ‘open doors’ events for students visiting different companies and institutions, to provide young people with better job orientation and direct contact with the labour market stakeholders.

Youth Guarantee ñ Implement youth guarantee for all young people – not only those registered with employment services – to offer a job, training or further education to all those within 4 months of becoming graduate or unemployed. ñ Youth guarantees should be promoted to support unemployed young people, both those who left school or training without having achieved upper-secondary education by helping them to return to school or enroll in vocational training for in-demand skills, as well as graduates by helping them get a first work experience. ñ Improve the system of grants and guarantees both in the education/training and beginning of professional life. ñ All measures aiming at facilitating transition into the labour market should target young people aged 15-30. ñ Secure an upward revision of the financial endowment envisaged within the 2014- 2020 Multiannual Financial Framework for the EU Youth Guarantee to at least €9 billion more in addition to the original 6 billion and an extra provision of another 6 billion for future emergencies so as to total €21 billion to finance the costs of implementation of the scheme in accordance with the estimates of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). ñ Set common EU criteria for ‘’good quality’’ offers of employment, continued education and apprenticeships. ñ The EU must encourage Member States to make every effort to ensure that no young people, especially those most socially disadvantaged and/or with the least training, are abandoned in their transition to employment.

Good practices ñ The Danish government has established a Danish Youth Guarantee for young people to receive either an offer to begin an education or a job offer no later than four months after finishing lower secondary education.

Another measure implemented in Denmark is a self-evaluation tool made by the Ministry of Children and Education, which gives a possibility for young people to identify the labour market-related competences they have gained through work in youth organisations etc. This can be combined with another tool for selfassessment called ‘My folder of competences’, which compiles one’s competences, both educational and skills gained through youth organisations, giving an overview of the competences of the young person. ñ In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science developed ‘The Action Plan Youth’ to tackle school drop-out through offering more intensive support to match young people with already existing jobs and creating more internships and traineeships for young people. There is a focus on the transition from preparatory to intermediate vocational education, better career orientation and guidance, and more tailored individual solutions. In addition, local municipalities also support actions, such as the initiative ‘From Education to Work’ by the municipality of Rotterdam, which organises a special conference to connect employers and young job-seekers. The government provides 25 million to regional/local partners to help youth find jobs through providing trainings or network meetings in cooperation with the unions for employers and employees. ñ Austria implements a ‘training guarantee’ scheme for young people, which is based on apprenticeships programmes, which are guaranteed placements in vocational training allowing for further qualification. The programme revolves around training courses – preceded by vocational guidance modules and accompanied by special coaching where needed – which teach the skills and knowledge needed in the field of the given apprenticeship. The Public Employment Service offers young people aged 20-24 prolonged ‘training guarantee’: within six months they are provided a job, training or a public funded occupation. Furthermore, Whatchado initiative is a good practice on job orientation for young people, which uses short videos to explain different jobs to young people, to show broad perspective on possible careers. ñ In Croatia, the government has recently adopted the Youth Guarantee package, which contains 23 measures targeting unemployed young people aged 15-29, focusing on: (self)employment subsidies, training subsidies, internships, public works and subsidies for continued employment. ñ In France, the objective of the Youth Guarantee is to help young people in difficulty achieve independence and, with increased support led by a designated local advisor as the first level interlocutor, to jointly build a 11

personalised course aimed at integrating back both into society and the workplace. The advisor coordinates all actors that may be involved during the progress of the young person concerned. An initial experience of work is guaranteed along with an income. ñ In Ireland, the YMCA Support Training and Enterprise (STEP) Programme is a pre-vocational training programme aimed at early school leavers aged 18-25 years who are both educationally disadvantaged and long-term unemployed. Participants can access an Intranet site for STEP trainees where they can register online, maintain their training records and participate in an online community with STEP trainees. ñ In the German-speaking Community of Belgium, young people starting an apprenticeship can follow a ‘starting aid’ or induction programme. Before the official beginning of the apprenticeship, they learn how to deal with stress, pressure, conflicts in school or at work.

IMPROVE the Labour Market for Young People WORKSHOP 4 Young people across Europe confirmed that there are not sufficient opportunities for them to find an adequate employment, which leads to the present critical situation of youth unemployment in Europe. Besides an acute lack of (entry-level) positions in the labour market, the employers’ misperceptions and discriminatory practices against employing young people aggravate the situation.

Young people demanded equality employment legislation to combat discrimination against young people in the labour market and putting in place appropriate regulations against precarious labour conditions. They highlighted the urgent need to create more quality jobs, through incentives offered to employers, as well as the need to stimulate and support youth entrepreneurship and to promote a better work-life balance.

Conclusions Combat discrimination against young people in the labour market ñ Pass legislation to protect against the widespread discrimination of young people in the labour market.

Improve and implement anti-discrimination, equality, diversity and inclusion employment policies for all, including LGBT people and young people from minority groups or with a migrant background, categories which should be specifically protected from discrimination in the labour market. ñ Guarantee equal employment conditions and rights for young employees. Equal opportunities, fair remuneration, adequate social security and fair working conditions for all must be ensured. ñ Establish a Youth Union who can defend the rights of young people engaged in the labour market. ñ The European Youth Forum should be fully established as a social partner alongside trade unions and employers federations to be able to take part in the social dialogue at European level. ñ Establish a European Unemployment Insurance in order to improve integration in the European labour market and to facilitate mobility for (young) workers. ñ Ensure equal opportunities for training and promotion of young people in employment. ñ Ensure equality of opportunities in the labour market by encouraging recruitment through examination centres, which undertake an objective evaluation process to select the candidates with best competences for the job. ñ Governments should encourage employers to reform recruitment and feedback processes so as to make them as youth-friendly as possible, to limit the use of informal recruitment and to provide written or spoken feedback to all applicants to ensure equality of opportunities. ñ Many employers have misperceptions about whether the recruitment of young people is a good investment, thinking that young employees have less experience than the older employees and they are less likely to stay for long term. Therefore, governments should better promote the benefits of young employees to employers to change the attitude of employers towards recruiting young people.

Combat precarious labour conditions ñ Governments should implement effective policy oversight to monitor exploitative labour situations and report them to the Labour Court, such as black market labour without employment contracts or abuse of internships by companies continuously taking in interns to undertake tasks that should be run by actual employees. ñ The EU should develop a framework for quality jobs, following the guidelines on decent work promoted by ILO, in order to improve the quality of employment on the labour market across Member States. ñ Governments should adopt and put in place specific employment policies to develop more secure working conditions for young people, such as preventing employers from offering successive short-term contracts, limiting the number of fixed-term contracts and increasing the number of long-term contracts. ñ Prevent unpaid job placements. ñ Adopt a regulation for internships, including interns’ rights, basic salary, working hours and conditions. ñ Prevent circles of ‘mini-jobs’ for young people. ñ Ensure more adequate (higher) wages for entry-level positions, including for low-skilled jobs, so as to ensure that young people have a decent income to be able to afford housing. ñ Government should reduce the level of income taxation for young people in first years of employment. ñ Improve the contractual arrangements for young people (in internships or first jobs), adapting them to the 12

actual standard of living in the country. ñ Create a coherent and universal system of evaluation and certification of good practice work placements, including internships and apprenticeships.

Create more quality jobs for young people ñ Increase the number of entry-level jobs and opportunities to learn in the job through ‘in-work training’. ñ Promote entry-level / starter jobs with ‘learning potential’, which are orientated towards the needs of the young employee fostering personal competences, instead of labor-market oriented models. ñ Governments should provide incentives for employers to invest in training of young employees. Employers should provide and encourage young employees to take part in professional trainings. ñ Governments should encourage employers to be more open to employing youth with little work experience. ñ Increase employment in the non-governmental sector (NGO). ñ Governments could introduce an allocation or quota of jobs specifically for recent graduates. ñ Increase financial recourses under existing EU funds, such as the European Social Fund, the Structural Fund and Cohesion Fund in the 2014-2020 Multi-Annual Financial Framework in order to provide more support to the countries with the highest unemployment rates. ñ Governments should subsidise geographical mobility measures. ñ Government should regulate the employer-employee relation. A mechanism and contact point could be established to advice and support young employees in issues of mobbing, bullying and conflicts with colleagues or supervisors. Systematic checks should be carried out in companies. ñ All employers should establish mentoring programmes for young employees to enable experienced employees to support young people in their early professional life, leading to intergenerational solidarity. ñ Employers should set up a training system in the first period of employment in order to help the new employee get integrated in the team, used with the internal procedures and familiarised with the environment, the communication and decision flow.

Incentives for employers to employ young people ñ Governments should put in place effective employment plans supporting the employment of young people, such as subsidised employment schemes for young people at first job. ñ Establish a system of subsidies for wages and non-wage labour costs across the EU Member States to lower initial labour costs for young people so as to attract employers to employ more young people. ñ Governments should improve the existing active employment policy measures. ñ Governments should put in place tax relief measures (lower taxes) for employers who employ young people. ñ To better streamline youth employment plans and make them more easily accessible by employers, the administrative requirements should be simplified and reduced. ñ Companies should promote employment of young people as part of their social corporate responsibility. ñ Create a ‘youth bursary’ for private companies to encourage them to provide work placement opportunities to young people.

Support self-employment and entrepreneurship ñ Government should promote self-employment and entrepreneurship as a way for young people to access the labour market and should implement inclusive youth entrepreneurship programmes to offer the necessary financial support and guidance to aspiring young entrepreneurs. ñ Government should support self-employment and entrepreneurship schemes like start-ups or junior enterprises. ñ Governments should support young enterprises through financial support, such as subsidies and guaranteeing low-interest loans with a period of grace of a few years. ñ Governments should provide legal support to young entrepreneurs, such as free consulting on labour laws and tax system, in order to enable starting businesses as much smoothly as possible. ñ Governments should ensure tax relief and other benefits for self-employment organisations. ñ Simplify the bureaucratic process for establishing self-employment organisations. ñ Promote social economy organisations as they are proved to be more resistant to instability and better in fostering social ties with the community where they are located. ñ Establish specific ‘youth entrepreneurship support structures’ and consultancy services for young people interested in entrepreneurship and in setting up their own business. ñ Support entrepreneurial education and training. ñ Municipalities and regional development agencies in cooperation with schools and universities should provide support tools for young enterprises. ñ Promote success stories of young entrepreneurs and their contribution to society in schools and media, for example by setting up a TV/radio show about successful start-ups. ñ Create a network of ambassadors of ‘next generation’ entrepreneurs.

Better work-life balance ñ Adopt and promote active policies for the reconciliation of family and professional life. ñ Improve work-life balance through support structures to combine family and work.

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ñ Foster flexibility work arrangements, such as flexible working hours and working from home. ñ Facilitate the transition from the labour market back into the education system.

Good practices ñ In Croatia, the national employment service conducted several EU-funded projects, in cooperation with local stakeholders, which aimed at setting up and developing local partnerships for employment and building human potentials for development and implementation of active employment measures. ñ In France, the "jobs of the future" initiative is a recent programme designed primarily for young people without qualifications aged 16-25, particularly from the urban or rural areas most affected by unemployment: 90% of the newly employed under the programme are below the baccalaureate standard of education. In addition, the ministry responsible for the social and solidarity economy has launched a website containing the CVs of young graduates from disadvantaged areas to help them overcome job discrimination. This CV database has 800 profiles and is free for small enterprises and stakeholders in the social and solidarity economy (SSE). ñ Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme is a good practice scheme for encouraging aspiring young entrepreneurs and thus should persist in the next EU youth programme.

SUPPORT for Young People’s Autonomy WORKSHOP 5 For most young people across Europe, the transition from family household to autonomous life is very difficult.

Financial independence is considered as the main precondition for autonomous life, but obtaining a paid job is very challenging in the current economic climate, therefore access to social and welfare benefits is significantly important for young people in this transition.

Young people find it essential to have guaranteed access to healthcare, decent and affordable housing and to financial support during the time of their studies and until obtaining secure employment. Measures to re-engage young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) back into education or into the labour market are vital for ensuring the social inclusion of all young people.

Conclusions Access to social protection and welfare benefits ñ Young people should have free and equal access to welfare services and social protection regardless of age or income or upon conditions of being in education or employment. A specific legal framework to guarantee equal access to social welfare should be created, wherever needed. ñ Welfare services should be better oriented and adapted to young people, as a specific target group, for example through creating a ‘’youth only section’’ in social welfare services on all levels. ñ Establish an integrated system to offer social, health and housing services for young people. ñ Ensure equal access to welfare services for young people in rural areas by setting up and increasing the number of local social welfare offices, also in rural areas. ñ Welfare social benefits should be the same for all young people regardless of their age. ñ Include peer-mentors in the welfare system, specifically by developing peer-education programmes and training youth mentors to mentor young people at risk of social exclusion in accessing welfare services. ñ Provide support for young people in the application process for welfare benefits, such as through online/by phone consultancy as well as personalised support to go through the processes to access welfare services. ñ Young people seeking help from different services are too often confronted with heavy administrative burdens and bureaucracy. Administrative procedures of welfare services should be simplified and streamlined to make them easily understandable for young people. E-governance should be promoted for easy and free access. ñ Recognise youth workers as key stakeholders in the welfare provision for young people. ñ Employ Youth Engagement Officers in social welfare services to assist and support young people. ñ Provide free legal advice to young people in accessing social protection and welfare services. ñ All social welfare, housing and healthcare policies and services should be inclusive of LGBT young people. ñ Carry out an EU-wide study on the quality and access to the current national and European welfare systems.

Access to healthcare ñ Enforce the universal right to healthcare; no one should be denied access to healthcare in emergency cases. ñ Improve support to non-resident young people to access healthcare. ñ Preserve the same benefits provided by the state in terms of health and social insurance for young people also after finishing school/university and until they are in stable employment. ñ Guarantee free health insurance for all young people and affordable medication. ñ Facilitate access of young people to mental health services. ñ Increase the number of doctors, psychologists and social workers for young people. ñ Secure local youth-friendly health services, clinics and counseling, which relate to young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Staff and professionals should be trained on LGBT issues. ñ Improve the prevention campaigns targeted to young people, especially related to teenage pregnancies and 14

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD). ñ Include health education in schools and guidance on healthy lifestyles.

Access to housing ñ Government should establish a National Strategy to give young people more and better options for affordable housing, including passing a regulation to ensure student accommodation prices are fair. ñ Local and national authorities should ensure decent housing for young people which can be rented at affordable prices. Guaranteed lower rent, possibility of long-term lease and paid rent which counts towards payment if a person decides to purchase a house, should be secured. ñ The government should develop more ‘social housing’ programmes for young people. These programmes should be better promoted and their transparency should be increased. The information on housing for young people should be accessible, youth-friendly and communicated through various channels including social media so as to reach as many young people as possible. ñ The government should provide preferential housing loans for both young people and young families through ensuring significantly lower interest rates and more flexible conditions so that young people with temporary employment contracts should also be given access to housing loans. ñ The government should provide incentives for young people and young families when purchasing their first house through subsidising the amount of interests on housing loans and providing tax exemption or concessions on the purchase. ñ State should provide financial support to young people to rent housing, such as through aid for rental guarantees and housing subsidies. ñ Promote ‘social rents’ of all houses that belong to the banks which have been bailed-out with public money. ñ Establish ‘hostels for young employees’, similar to the system of student hostels, to enhance the mobility of young people for work. These hostels can make it possible for young people to access a wider range of jobs, which are currently un-targetable due to great distances and high rent fees. ñ Public authorities should take measures to increase the accommodation offer by developing the existing spaces that are under-occupied or not occupied at all. ñ The EU should create a scheme to support young people to have better access to housing when moving to a new Member State.

Financial support ñ State should guarantee a secure income to all young people. Financial support (grants) should be provided to young people searching for employment or opportunities for study, training or internship/apprenticeship. ñ Adapt the rules and conditions of granting allowances (integration income, replacement income, unemployment benefits) to the new forms of group habitat (fellow tenancy, kangaroo habitat, group housing, etc.) in order to prevent penalising any forms of solidarity. ñ The grant application processes should be simplified. ñ The state should extend low/free-interest loans also to young people who are not students. ñ Improve support of interest-free loans guaranteed by the state or the EU in case young people decide to move for work or studies in a different Member State. ñ Promote public management of loans to avoid speculation.

Social services ñ Create specific programmes aimed at promoting the autonomy of young people with fewer opportunities, such as those coming from low-income families, from single-parent families, from rural areas etc. ñ Set up state-funded support services for expectant young parents and young parents, such as specialised home-school liaison officer to support and assist with childcare, parenting, welfare entitlements and to inform / advise on education and training opportunities. ñ Ensure a comprehensive framework to allow young people to keep social welfare benefits at home when participating in voluntary service abroad. ñ Improve and extend social services targeted at young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. ñ Young people living in state care should be ensured assistance from aftercare workers to navigate towards autonomous living, by securing accommodation and budgeting, when they reach the age of 18. ñ Improve the transparency of support services through a better overview of services concerned with facilitating the transition from school to employment or professional training for youth at risk of social exclusion.

Support for re-integrating young people not in employment, education or training ñ Divergent positions: some believe young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) do not have sufficient access to the welfare benefits they are entitled to and thus suggest extending their access and providing them support to live independently while others consider that they are overly resorting to these benefits instead of being pro-active in the labour market or looking for training opportunities and so they propose limiting access to social welfare benefits while providing them support in finding employment instead. ñ Create a national network of one-stop-shop services (‘navigator centres’) for young people seeking (re)integration into education, training and employment, rather than being directed to many different agencies.

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ñ Create social integration centres for young people with integration difficulties, including for young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs), where they can receive temporary accommodation, mentoring, career and job counseling, psychological counseling, legal counseling, practical training and other information.

Provide quality support from well-trained professionals in cooperation with youth organisations in such social rehabilitation programmes in order for NEETs to become (re-)qualified for the labour market. ñ The state should support requalification and re-training programmes to enhance the employability of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs). ñ Set up programmes and funding schemes for re-integration of long-term unemployed young people into work through offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities, as a first step. ñ Municipalities should employ social youth workers to seek out and assist young people who are socially marginalised and young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) as well as identify those at risk of becoming NEETs and work on prevention strategies in cooperation with the educational institutions, local authorities and youth organisations. ñ Identify and monitor inactive young people at all levels by monitoring participation in education and training. ñ Young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) should be guided and encouraged to participate in activities in their fields of interest, such as training courses that can improve their skills and competences and increase their employability, while supporting them with a ‘basic income’. ñ Encourage and finance volunteering opportunities to re-engage young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) in community life and in society. ñ Promote networks for young people, particularly through the participation in youth organisations, in order to reinforce sense of belonging and solidarity and prevent marginalisation of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs). ñ Put in place a system to provide state-funded allowance (‘basic income’) to all young people in return to their commitment to enroll in education or training.

Good practices ñ In Belgium, De Ambrassade is an organisation that strengthens the opportunities and quality of youth work, youth information and youth policy. With the support of the Flemish government De Ambrassade is spreading the youth guide jongerengids.be, through which topical and overarching information tailored for young people divided in three age groups (8-11, 12-15, >16) is spread, both online and offline. Health, internet safety, housing, money management, school, rights, environment and many more topics are tackled. ñ In Ireland, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) published a ‘Rent Book & Accommodation Guide’ every year which provides students and parents with practical information on accommodation issues and information on support organisations and services available (http:usi.ie). ñ For young people who leave education before qualification, in all Communities in Belgium, systems are in place to support them. In the Flemish Community youth work organisations work with them in an individual programme. At the end of the programme the participants receive a certification of gained competences. In the French-Speaking Community there are specialised services (Services d’Accrochage Scolaire). ñ In Ireland, the Community Employment (CE) programme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged people to get back into work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities. Participants can take up other part-time work during their placement. After the placement, participants are encouraged to seek permanent part-time and full-time jobs elsewhere based on the experience and skills they gained while in the Community Employment scheme.

ENHANCE the Role of Youth Organisations WORKSHOP 6 Young people across Europe strongly agree that youth organisations play a key role in preventing social exclusion of young people. Active participation in youth organisations contributes to building competences of young people, which in turn, increases their employability, and also leads to expanded social network and peer support. This added value of participation in youth organisations should be better promoted in order to reach out to more young people and particularly to those youth not in employment, education or training (NEETs).

Youth organisations can make significant contributions to active inclusion measures for young people and thus should be actively engaged in the development and implementation of any such measures. Therefore, to fulfill their potential for contribution to social inclusion of young people, the role of youth organisations needs to be recognised, promoted and adequately supported.

Conclusions Youth organisations contribute to improving active inclusion measures for young people ñ Youth organisations play a significant role in connecting young people with state institutions, agencies and services. Therefore, they can serve as ‘bridges’ between young people not in education, training or employment and public employment and further education and training services. ñ Youth organisations act as information channels for young people, facilitating their access to welfare services, 16

working in cooperation with public authorities, agencies and welfare services. ñ Youth organisations facilitate meeting points for creating dialogue between young people and institutions. ñ Youth organisations can provide training to other sectors on how to work with young people. ñ Youth organisations can reach out to young people who are out of institutional reach, such as long-term unemployed young people, young people with disabilities, early school leavers, young migrants, etc. ñ Youth organisations can identify those young people who are neither in employment, education or training and analyse their needs and guide them towards specialised support services. ñ Youth organisations act as preventive mechanisms of exclusion, firstly for young people not to drop out of education or employment, and secondly for NEETs not to experience exclusion and isolation, but to foster their social inclusion and bring them back to re-integration into education or employment. ñ Youth organisations can collaborate with the labour market actors (both employers and employment services) to ensure youth can acquire the needed competences that formal education does not provide. ñ Youth organisations must be involved in all phases of the Youth Guarantee in each EU Member State, from designing through implementation to monitoring and evaluation, in order to ensure better and longer lasting impact of such measures. Youth organisations can participate in designing the measures, bringing in their unique youth perspective; they can be implementing partners by offering employment, internship and training opportunities for young people as well as informing young people about opportunities offered by the Youth Guarantee, and finally, they must be involved in monitoring and evaluation of the scheme.

Motivate young people to participate in youth programmes ñ Offer low-threshold project lines in the new Youth chapter in Erasmus+ programme to encourage young people from disadvantaged groups to take part in easily accessible and tailor-made project activities of nonformal education. Funding for guidance, counselling, mentoring and accompanying measures should be improved in the new programme. ñ Youth programmes should be more visible and easily accessible without any language, educational, financial or other barriers. ñ Youth organisations should offer free-of-charge empowerment activities to make it possible for all young people to participate. ñ To enhance the social recognition, youth organisations and youth workers should improve the visibility and raise awareness about youth work and youth organisations and the benefits of participation by promoting them in schools (seminars, presentations) and among young people including those from most disadvantaged groups. Inspirational youth leaders should be invited to promote participation in youth organisations. ñ Create a network of ‘’youth ambassadors’’ for the EU Youth programme, composed of former beneficiaries who would promote the programme and show the tangible impact it had on their lives. ñ Establish more youth clubs at local level. ñ In addition to the traditional membership-based participation, youth organisations should provide project-based participation to young people who will not or cannot participate trough a traditional membership. ñ Enable short-notice participation of young people in youth initiatives and programmes. ñ Provide childcare for young parents engaging in youth programmes or projects.

Youth organisations can improve their role in enhancing social inclusion of young people ñ Youth organisations should raise awareness about their work among local and regional authorities. ñ Youth organisations should reach out to more young people, particularly to more young people at risk of social exclusion, such as LGBT young people, young people with disabilities, etc. They should implement outreach and youth work activities in the areas where young people spend their leisure time and should develop innovative and attractive means to reach out, such as peer-to-peer programmes. ñ Youth organisations should better orientate, tailor and target their activities, trainings and non-formal education programmes and methods to reach and engage young people not in employment, education or training and contribute to their skills building. They should regularly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the methods in reaching out to NEETs. ñ Broaden the access for all young people, including NEETs, to youth leadership programmes, youth exchanges and volunteering projects. ñ Youth organisations should be more involved in information and awareness raising campaigns on social services, funding opportunities and European programmes that promote the social inclusion of youth. ñ Youth organisations should increase the meeting points between youth workers, educators or trainers, employers, young people and NEETs, such as through open youth work projects. ñ Youth organisations should improve opportunities for participation in different forums such as working groups, round tables, conferences, discussion groups, consultative councils, training courses etc. ñ Provide educational and social inclusion programmes that are co-designed by young people. ñ Support self-organised bottom-up initiatives targeted at young people from socially disadvantaged groups and from migrant communities, who often do not integrate in traditional youth organisations. ñ Improve cooperation among youth organisations and NGOs working with young people such as through developing alliances of youth organisations and NGOs having common goals. ñ Youth organisations should work towards securing ever-increasing quality of their education programmes.

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ñ Provide inclusion and diversity training for youth workers and youth leaders. ñ Train multipliers in youth organisations in order to transfer information to young people they work with. ñ Youth organisations should organise more skills-oriented trainings and practical courses for young people, including creative job-seeking techniques, CV writing and preparation for interviews. ñ Youth organisations should create paid internship positions in their organisations, for example through programmes financed under the European Social Fund. ñ Establish and develop Human Resource departments in youth organisations with the purpose of active employment sessions to connect employers and young jobseekers.

Support to youth organisations to enhance their role ñ The state should recognise, promote and support the important role of youth organisations, allowing them to act and grow while upholding their independent status without political and state interference. Youth organisations must be treated as partners by public institutions so that they can fulfill their potential for contribution in active inclusion measures and programmes for young people. ñ The state should establish a clear legal framework as to the legal status of youth organisations and NGOs. ñ To strengthen youth organisations, governments and the EU should invest more in youth organisations by providing sustainable public funding to support their independence and sustainability. ñ Youth organisations should be supported through a strong and visible EU youth programme. ñ Governments should invest in decentralisation by supporting youth organisations that work in small and remote communities in order to ensure that all young people have access to non-formal education. ñ Local youth organisations and youth councils should be supported and funded by the local government to provide learning and training programmes and to promote internships and apprenticeships. ñ Governments should increase investment in youth programmes. ñ Governments and the EU should increase financial support to youth organisations working in the field of social inclusion of young people, particularly for (re-)integrating young people in education, training or employment. ñ Governments and the EU should recognise, empower and support youth organisations as main providers of non-formal education and youth work. ñ Decision-makers should show active interest in young people’s engagement in groups and organisations. ñ Streamline legislation regarding youth work. ñ Institutions, authorities and all other relevant actors should promote youth work and volunteering opportunities as a means of empowerment and inclusion of young people. ñ Develop a framework for youth work to support and enable young people in their transition from inactivity or education to work and to guide them through employment services, training offers, employers and educators.

A clear role and tasks should be given to youth work to complement the existing services.

Good practices ñ In Belgium, the organisation “Free Hands” in Antwerp is a good example of self-organised initiative where mostly Muslim young people engage in social projects. ñ Lithuanian Youth Council (LiJOT) has been actively involved in the process of implementation of Youth Guarantee, being one of the main partners of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour in the preparation process and being part in all major implementation parts so far. ñ In the UK, the ‘Bridges Project’, located in the rural area of the Shetland Islands, is an alternative learning intervention aimed at helping young people aged 15-19 to return to education, training and employment. The programme is a place for NEETs to develop a variety of social skills and strategies in becoming more effective in working with others. The programme works closely with the young person to support them in identifying their learning and social needs, on the basis of which an individual plan is designed with the young person and other agencies. The programme then offers a variety of activities for the young person to acquire skills and competences, such as numeracy and communication skills, among others. ñ In Slovenia, the project "Youth opening space" has linked communities/municipalities and young people and encouraged them to participate in the creation of new organisations for young people, especially local youth councils. The project has enhanced the participation of young people in the community. ñ European Confederation of Youth Clubs (ECYC) promotes open youth work centres, which can identify atrisk NEETs at early stages, track progress and offer support in the transition to re-integration into school or work. ECYC has produced a publication entitled ‘’Open Youth Work impacts young people’s world’’ documenting the impacts and results of various youth empowerment activities across Europe.

DEVELOP Cross-Sectoral Cooperation WORKSHOP 7 Lack of systematic cooperation across sectors and departments and lack of policy coordination is a big obstacle in achieving the policy changes needed to enhance the social inclusion of all young people.

Young people across Europe believe that policy coordination should be improved, youth policy should be better integrated, cooperation across government bodies and with private sector and youth organisations should be strengthened and young people should be engaged in the making of all policies that affect them directly.

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Conclusions Policy coordination ñ Foster coordination between all policies that have an impact on young people’s lives, including employment, education, mobility, family, housing, social protection, health and social justice. Youth policy must be the ‘bridge’ between different youth-related policies or actors in the field. ñ To achieve better social inclusion and smoother transition of young people from education to employment and to autonomy, coordinated strategies and measures involving all relevant governmental services, educational institutions, employment services, employers and youth organisations should be implemented. ñ All institutions and organisations working with young people should jointly create and promote prevention policies and programmes. ñ Active inclusion policies and measures should better integrate the private sector. ñ Any programmes or projects designed to address youth unemployment should incentivise co-operation, partnerships and the development of a cross-sectoral approach. ñ Develop long-term strategies, instead of one-off projects, to foster the social inclusion of young people. ñ Develop inclusive policies to cover young people from all backgrounds. ñ Member States should develop an overview of national active inclusion measures for disadvantaged young people and collect, analyse and report data in the field to stimulate peer-learning among Member States. ñ European Commission should encourage Member States to develop National Action Plans on Social Inclusion of young people with the participation of all key stakeholders including young people and youth organisations and specific groups that are most affected by social inclusion, such as LGBT youth. ñ European Commission should work with Member States to ensure the participation of civil society actors in the design, implementation and monitoring of policies in the social inclusion field. ñ European Commission should strengthen coordination between the different Directorate Generals to ensure more effective policies in the field of social inclusion and anti-discrimination. Social inclusion, nondiscrimination and equality should be mainstreamed across all relevant areas of EU competence.

Integrated youth policy ñ Youth policies should be formulated first and foremost not for the youth field, but for young people as individuals, for providing solutions to their needs and problems as individuals. ñ Ensure the integration of a youth perspective in all state policies by developing youth mainstreaming. ñ Youth policy agenda should be better reflected in other policy sectors and actions of the government. ñ Develop tools and instruments for the implementation of an integrated youth policy. ñ Ensure commitment to secure feedback from the government on implementation of policies, programmes and plans through developing quality monitoring and evaluation procedures.

Involving young people in policy- and decision-making ñ The state should involve young people and youth organisations in all decisions that directly influence them, not only in the making of youth policies, but in all policies concerning young people, at both national and European levels, in a systematic manner. ñ Create tools for young people to reach their decision-makers more easily (i.e. online platform). ñ Involve youth organisations in the development and implementation of youth policies, such as youth employment policies, so that youth organisations can voice young people’s needs and demands. ñ Set up a system of advisory youth representation in policy-making at local level, implemented through youth organisations, in order to involve young people in the process of deciding on local policies. ñ Include representatives from all youth organisations as equal partners in the development of policies and actions to address issues affecting young people who are not in employment, education or training. ñ Strengthen cooperation between youth organisations and local governments and local public services. ñ Enhance cooperation between national authorities and the National Youth Council for joint planning and implementation of actions towards youth participation and addressing social exclusion of all youth. ñ Establish co-management mechanisms with young people. ñ Improve communication and consultation channels with young people, through local youth organisations, to identify opportunities and obstacles to youth participation in shaping policies that affect them directly. ñ Promote regional youth councils, regional and national advisory councils on youth, coordinators of youth affairs and structured dialogue with young people to improve cross-sectoral cooperation in youth policy. ñ Secure a regular, open dialogue between youth organisations and decision-makers, which should be ensured a strong and visible outcome and follow-up. ñ Continue deepening the correct implementation of the structured dialogue with young people where the main goal should be discussing together with decision-makers and experts themes and matters affecting young people. Structured dialogue should be extended to the local level. ñ The structured dialogue with young people should be improved to have more practical impact of the proposals put forward by young people on the youth policies decided at national level. ñ The EU should use the structured dialogue tool to consult young people on all policies relevant to them.

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Cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination ñ Government should create a framework for cross-sectoral cooperation between the different ministerial departments working on youth issues. The youth-related government bodies should establish a cross-sectoral committee composed of all relevant stakeholders, including youth organisations and local authorities, in order to promote cooperation and coordination of common actions and to create specialised programmes for the social inclusion of young people to be implemented at local, regional and national levels. ñ Youth organisations and young people should be involved when developing cross-sectoral cooperation. ñ Strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation particularly at local level so that all actors in the youth field should work together to provide timely, coordinated responses to the problems and challenges young people face. ñ Encourage a multi-stakeholder approach in all policies that should combine the expertise and best practices coming from authorities on different levels, social partners, NGOs, youth organisations, youth workers and other relevant stakeholders. ñ Improve coordination between all institutions, agencies and organisations working with young people in order to avoid duplication of work and/or objectives and to ensure effective strategies with better impact. ñ Ensure sustainable funding for cross-sectoral initiatives. Existing initiatives of coordination should be recognised and further supported. ñ Support projects that involve cooperation between different levels – European, national, regional/local – such as conferences and meetings on each of these levels resulting in comprehensive policy proposals. ñ Municipalities should organise cross-sectoral local or regional conferences on youth issues with the participation of all institutions and organisations working with young people. ñ Strengthen the evidence base of the cross-sectoral cooperation initiatives and their impact.

More cooperation and partnerships ñ Public institutions should implement more joint projects and shared initiatives together with the nongovernmental sector as well as with the private sector. ñ Support multi-stakeholder projects on European level, as a means for sharing best practices and strengthening the national work on the topic of social inclusion and employability of young people. ñ Create a network of collaborating institutions and organisations, which should work jointly in social exclusion preventive strategies, from diagnosis to problem resolution of young people’s individual cases. ñ Improve financing of ‘projects in partnership’ at local, regional and national level. ñ Promote inter-agency cooperation, nationally and internationally, such as through sharing resources and conducting exchanges. ñ Introduce ‘job shadowing’ between organisations, institutions and departments to stimulate crossorganisational exchange and enhance mutual understanding of working processes and objectives.

Communication and information-sharing ñ Map all institutions and organisations working with young people from an early age, from schools to doctors to social workers and youth workers, among others. ñ Establish a network of all institutions and organisations working with young people and/or on youth issues, including local/regional authorities, agencies and civil society organisations, to facilitate systematic and stable cooperation. ñ Establish a shared communication platform online linking all youth-related stakeholders – government bodies and NGOs – to serve as a forum for discussion, dialogue and information sharing. ñ Set up jointly operated information system and a common database which all authorities and civil society organisations working with young people can have access to. ñ To enhance cooperation and ensure information sharing and visibility, joint meetings and working groups should be organised regularly between different authorities, organisations and agencies. ñ To promote mutual understanding and accessibility, a clear and easy-to-understand language should be used in the communication between public authorities and other stakeholders like youth organisations.

Good practices ñ In Belgium, there is an increasing coordination and cooperation between the different ministerial departments and social services. For example, in the French-Speaking Community there is an Inter-Ministerial Conference on Youth while the German-Speaking Community is developing a case and care management network which links all the different social services in the Community and improves the coordination between them. ñ In Romania, an Advisory Council was established composed of students’ organisations, youth organisations, trade unions, young entrepreneurs and the Romanian Youth Council. The Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Advisory Council discuss and analyse the main priorities in the youth field in Romania. In addition, an interministerial body has been created to address cross-sectoral policies targeting young people. The members represent the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Labor, Antidrug Agency and Ministry for Regional Development. ñ In Denmark, the Ministry of Children and Education launched a ‘Youth Legislative Package’ in cooperation with several other sectors including schools, municipalities, high schools, job centres, vocational schools etc.

The legislative package (launched in 2009) had a broad range of initiatives from local educational offers to 20

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young people who are not ready for an education, more online counselling, flexible education etc., which proved to be very successful according to a recent evaluation of these initiatives.

In Croatia, the government has introduced the Code for Consulting Interested Public which defines minimum requirements and guidelines for cooperation with other stakeholders in developing public policies. For example, the Ministry of Labour recently set up several fora of cross-sectorial cooperation, which involve youth organisations and social partners: Council for Designing Youth Employment Measures, Council for Labour, Active Ageing and Employment and Minister’s Council for Drafting Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan.

In the Netherlands, a new initiative was launched called ‘De Nieuwe Top’ (The New Top). Members of youth trade unions and other youth organisations claimed they wanted to be members of the boards of large public organisations not only to give advice to policy-makers, but also to take responsibility and to become policy makers themselves. This initiative was successful and indicates the importance of creating fixed seats for young people in boards of large public organisations to ensure that the voice of young people is represented.

Since 2007, German-speaking National Agencies have organised, in cooperation, large fora involving stakeholders from different sectors, politicians, youth workers and young people. The fora are a good example of exchanging experience and practices to benefit all to learn from each other.

Austria implements Territorial Employment Pacts (TEP) (in every province), which are regional partnerships to better link employment policy with other policies in order to improve the employment situation of young people.

In Ireland, Youthreach programmes are implemented to work with other sectors such as the Garda (Police) Juvenile Diversion Programme, Regional Drugs Taskforces and local youth services to develop new policies and practices.

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