It does this through its Policy Area (PA) on Education, one of 14 policy areas in the EUSBSR Action Plan, and an initiative supporting young people to enter work.
In fact, Preventing early school leaving and improving the transition from school to work is Action 1 of PA Education. This Action focuses on:
I asked three education experts, Gunnar Anderzon, Anders Bergström and Lovisa Fransson, for their opinion on the current situation and challenges addressed by Action 1. They told me about the School to Work EUSBSR Flagship, or policy-action process, which deals with education and the labour market for young people in the Baltic Sea Region.
How does School to Work operate?
Priority areas of both the EUSBSR and the overall Europe 2020 (2030) Strategy include preventing early school leaving and responding to the challenges of integrating young people in a NEET situation into the labour market. There is a particular ambition to reduce the proportion of early school leaving from the current level of 10 % to 5 % by 2025.
Against this background, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) launched the School to Work (S2W) initiative in 2012. To start up the initiative, SALAR received financing from the Swedish Institute and seed money from the Council of the Baltic Sea States. In 2014, S2W became the first EUSBSR Flagship, and since 2016, its platform has been financed by the European Social Fund and its participating parties.
The launch of S2W was in part a result of increased interest from both SALAR and its collaboration partners in learning about and disseminating well-functioning methods and ways of working in other countries. For example, Finland was considered to be at the forefront in the prevention of early school leaving, and Germany at the forefront in developing well-functioning forms of collaboration. It was also in part because funds had been set aside in the European Social Fund programming period for the development of transnational cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region and of already-established networks of organisations in these countries.
S2W provides regular mapping and reports on the state of early school leaving in the Baltic Sea Region. The Flagship is a response to the 2019 European Semester Country Reports. These recommended identification of investment needs in various Baltic Sea Region countries to promote measures to prevent early school leaving and to improve transitions from school to work for youth in general and youth with migrant backgrounds, as well as at-risk groups.
Guiding youth
Integrated support and services to unemployed and inactive people, including young people, as well as targeted outreach and individualised support can help to improve access to employment. Young NEET people are a vulnerable group in our societies, which is a challenge. They are a diverse group, difficult to find and difficult to motivate to take the first step to ask for help. When they are in contact with welfare services, the measures needed are complex.
Youth Guidance Centres providing multiple welfare services under one roof have proved to be a successful model when organising an effective answer to this societal and individual challenge. This low-threshold service provision has become increasingly common, particularly in the Baltic Sea Region, with for example ‘Ohjaamo’ in Finland, ‘Navigatorcentrum’ in Sweden, ‘Ungevejen’ in Denmark and ‘Jugendberufsagentur’ in Germany.
Commonly, the centres gather multiple municipal and national public services responsible for educational guidance, labour market integration, social services and health. The idea is to make it easier for the user to access available services while facilitating coordination and cooperation among authorities on both a case-by-case basis and a strategic level. As new, cross-sectorial structures, they face complexity related to the necessary collaboration between different authorities as well as the need to provide individual guidance for users on services offered by the centres.
The key function in these centres is that of the coordinator. This person is responsible for managing the centre, which includes staff representing different organisational and professional cultures, often with varying mandates and missions. This is a demanding role that needs to be strengthened as integrated services become a necessary response to complex and increasingly fragmented welfare systems.
Main results
It has been decided to define this new profession of coordinator in the framework of S2W and its NEET platform, and to develop and test it in the Baltic Sea Region. This is done within the Erasmus+ strategic partnership project. The partnership represents both practitioners and education providers from Denmark, Finland, Lithuania and Sweden.
The coordinators from all eight states in the region are participating in the pilot action. This is an example of how a Flagship delivers impact on a local level, introducing, adjusting and improving a well-functioning concept.
S2W’s primary target group are organisations that work in various ways with one of the following groups: young people at risk of leaving school, who have already left school, or who are not at work or studying. This approach is connected to the pathways for success through improved systems of education and training (15-29-years age group).
Activities currently carried out can be divided into two main categories:
Since 2017, there has also been a shared website for all knowledge platforms. The purpose of the website is to gather and disseminate knowledge about the work of S2W to member organisations and operators working with any of the identified target groups in the Baltic Sea Region.
The most common benefit for the members of the S2W Flagship is that they have access to networks and to knowledge on well-functioning methods and ways of working with the target groups.
‘We use S2W as a tool for inspiration for how to work, and to pick up ideas and good solutions from other organisations in other countries. We also found a good partner organisation that we work with. They are very well organised, so we have much to learn.’ S2W Flagship member
The impact of COVID-19
The pandemic has had a number of impacts on S2W activities. Travel restrictions and lockdowns significantly affected both early intended and planned activities such as study visits, seminars, lectures and gatherings with members and other stakeholders. Consequently, many of the core S2W platform functions and operations – i.e. facilitating dialogue, networking and sharing of experiences and best practices – were put on hold at the beginning of the pandemic. However, the flagship adjusted and adopted a digital approach, which made it possible to resume many of the activities.
Digitally-based activities have been easily accessible. The flagship has certainly reached out to more stakeholders at individual events than before, which has been a clear advantage in that sense. At the same time, as before the pandemic, it has been a challenge to get members and other stakeholders involved in the long term. Therefore a combination of digital and physical meetings and activities is needed post-COVID-19, as they both have benefits for the Flagship and complement each other well.
Ongoing challenges
The consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which is causing the next migration crisis, add to the challenges facing S2W.
To put it in a broader perspective, in 2019, 14 % of young adults aged 18-24 years were in a NEET situation on average across OECD countries. Like the 2008 financial crisis, which left young people bearing a significant share of the economic and social consequences, COVID-19 has greatly exacerbated this situation. Disruptions in schools and training programmes have made it more difficult to keep more vulnerable young people engaged, especially as face-to-face support services have been severely curtailed.
The overall economic downturn means that many young people are entering the labour market with limited prospects for finding a job, or even internship in the short-term. This could result in longer-term scarring of their working lives.
However, the crisis has also increased innovation in young people's access to education and training and pushed the youth issue back to the top of the political agenda. To build on this momentum, the OECD Local Development Forum proposes to organise a webinar with SALAR on ‘What works in local approaches to smoothing the school-to-work transition’.
This webinar could build on the networks SALAR already has through S2W and its other ongoing projects (e.g. Plug In) by bringing together a wider range of local practitioners from across the OECD, including countries outside Europe (e.g. Canada and the USA).
It is too early to assess the situation regarding the Ukraine crisis. However, it will definitely have a deep impact on the education systems in all EU Member States. S2W plans to conduct an investigation or mapping of early school leaving and the NEET situation in the Baltic States Region to be able to measure the situation in total.
Rafal Rolka, Let’s communicate! project
Anders Bergström
Gunnar Anderzon
Lovisa Fransson
The Norden Association, Sweden
EUSBSR Policy Area Education Coordinator
Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, Sweden
„School to Work“ Flagship Coordinator
Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, Sweden
