WHITE PAPER Fighting Youth Unemployment (original) (raw)
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Educationalisation of youth unemployment through lifelong learning policies in Europe
European Educational Research Journal
In the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, European authorities reinforced the economic objectives of European lifelong learning policy, promoting employability solutions to address youth unemployment, and increasing their political influence on the implementation of national lifelong learning reforms. This article investigates to what extent these supranational policy orientations have been translated into concrete national lifelong learning initiatives. Although European countries were not equally affected in terms of time and intensity by the rise in youth unemployment rates, the political responses from their governments shared a central focus on employability solutions to youth unemployment in lifelong learning policy reforms. Our comparative analysis shows how different lifelong learning policy initiatives managed to ‘educationalise’ a structural economic problem (i.e. youth unemployment) into an individual educational concern (i.e. lack of education and skills). We...
2007
The EU experience with youth unemployment has changed over recent years with the launch and re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy and the Bologna process. A dramatic shift has taken place from the 1990s emphasis on labour market flexibility as a tool to abate youth long term unemployment to the more recent stress on the importance of increasing the human capital endowment via a deep reform of education and training systems. This shift is also taking place worldwide, since, as recent studies show, labour market flexibility can increase employability when the human capital level of young people is sufficiently high. To reduce the "experience gap" between young and adult people, the education systems should become of a higher quality, more inclusive to reduce the dropout rate, homogeneous to other EU countries to favour labour mobility, flexible to allow young people to better find the best match, and contemplate the duality principle, by providing training together with education, to favour smoother school-to-work transitions. Apprenticeships schemes, fiscal incentives to hire the youth unemployed as well as on-the-job training schemes should help reach objectives that cannot be guaranteed simply via an increase in labour market flexibility.
Employment and social inclusion have been regular themes in the agenda of the European Union for the past fifteen years. From a soft coordinated approach mainly focused on the fight against unemployment, the European Union has moved towards a more coordinated but still voluntary strategy for its Member States and this agenda now has multiple economic, social and environmental objectives. A constant feature of these strategies has been the use of education and training policies, in particular for young people who are at risk of social exclusion. This paper reviews the relevant agenda of the European Union and presents the concept of second chance schools initiated by the European Commission in 1995. It seeks to understand how the elements associated with these youth and the policy-makers are combined in order to achieve success in terms of job opportunities and better inclusion for young people.
"A Youth strategy for Europe's future"
“A Youth Strategy for Europe’s future'', 2018
Unemployment in the European Union continues to plague Europe, threatening the fragile economic growth experienced over the recent years; a drastic difference is emerging between North and South, with countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Croatia having an alarmingly high youth unemployment rate consistently for years. This disparity concerns the European Union as it puts a huge strain on the shoulders of the whole Euro system, the European Central Bank quantitative easing enabled citizens to borrow easier thus creating more opportunities subsequently more employment whilst the austerity measures had mix results, measures that worked in countries such as Ireland and Cyprus but failed in Greece. The European Union’s Commission adopted a transparent approach in dealing with matters within the Union and it has established the 2015-2019 political objectives roadmaps which include a substantial investment in creating jobs and dealing with unemployed individuals, especially young persons finishing school, university or training. Looking at Cyprus, a lot has changed since the country ascended within the European Union- changes include legislation and enhanced protection for employees but also success stories of young people who benefited from EU’s programmes, however there is still a long way to go and Europe should continue its efforts through strategic thinking mentality and planning. This research paper will outline the current situation both at European and national level, discuss future development and suggestions of economic empowerment and finally political objectives and relative strategies at the European level.
New evolutions in education and employment in EU27
Accurate prediction of structural development, quality and quantity of labor demand can cause some significant positive changes in employment. Designing curricular areas in close correlation with the evolution of current and future economic and social environment must take place both in the initial processes in the formal and adult education on lifelong learning, and not just active life, taking into account phenomena such as life extension, aging, etc. Nor can we ignore the implications of educational attainment on the quality of jobs, economic competitiveness, individual and organizational performance, with beneficial effects on the labor market and employment specific phenomena, including the creation of conditions for promoting equality, reducing combating poverty and exclusion. Therefore, this paper aims to briefly address the direct relationship is established between education and employment, and some aspects of developments at European level in this field.
The effectiveness of lifelong learning policies on youth employment
Lifelong Learning Policies for Young Adults in Europe, 2019
In a context of historical growth of youth unemployment rates due to the global financial crisis, most of the LLL policies adopted by national governments all over Europe have been dominated by the employability agenda. The problem with this agenda is that it assumes that the main causes of youth unemployment are to be found in the education and training system and in the inadequate level of skills of young people, without questioning the economic and labour market policies that led to the youth unemployment crisis. In this sense, LLL policies contribute to turn a structural economic problem into an individual one, usually of an educational nature (Biesta, 2006). These LLL policies construct their target groups as individuals with educational deficits or without the skills demanded by the labour market. Consequently, the policy solutions offered to these individuals are additional work relevant education and training opportunities, preferably delivered through work based learning modes of provision. Most of the LLL policies analysed in this research can be classified in two main groups: apprenticeships and employability training courses. While apprenticeships aim at providing work-based learning to gain industry and/or firm relevant skills, employability courses aim at activating unemployed youth and prepare them for the demands of the world of work. In both cases, there is a strong focus on meeting the skills demanded by employers, which vary across regions due to their different labour market and socioeconomic configurations. Education and training institutions, as well as most LLL policies, are designed and promoted at the national level. Nevertheless, their enactment and implementation takes place at the regional and/or local level. Given the heterogeneity of socioeconomic contexts within countries, the effectiveness of these national policies are likely to be moderated by the regional labour markets and the employment opportunities available to young adults in each context. The aim of this chapter is to analyse and discuss to what extent the effectiveness of national LLL policies on youth employment varies across regions displaying different regional labour market demands and employment opportunities for young adults in vulnerable situations.
Investments in education - an imperative objective for Europe
2009
The increase of competitiveness through education-research-development, the demand for more, better jobs, the assurance of a sustainable development are the results of the investments made in education and development. However, we believe that the investments made in education can only get efficiently anchored in the European context, as the Communication of the Economic and Social Committee to the European Parliament,