Social Agenda Issue 53 - EN

Promising reaching-out practices The Youth Guarantee has given rise to innovative practices, including for reaching out to the most vulnerable young people In April 2013, the EU Member States took a commitment to give every person under the age of 25 a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education: the Youth Guarantee. By July 2018, youth unemployment in the EU had dropped from a peak of 24% in April 2013, when the EU launched the Youth Guarantee (see box), to less than 15%. And the share of 15- 24 year olds not in work, education or training had fallen from 13.2% in 2012 to 10.9% in 2017. Beyond the beneficial impact of economic recovery, the Youth Guarantee has boosted EU countries’ efforts to tackle youth unemployment. It has encouraged them to be more strategic and innovative, engage in structural reforms, create partnerships between all the relevant stakeholders and focus more on those young people that are most difficult to reach. Core group Indeed, one of the specificities of the Youth Guarantee is the emphasis it places on reaching out to young people not in employment, education or training: A highly diverse population that includes a core group of particularly vulnerable young people who are facingmultiple barriers, such as poverty, social exclusion, disability and discrimination. Young people that face these obstacles tend to require more hands- on support. They also need to have the time and means to develop trust in institutions, to remain committed to the programmes that can help integrate them into society. Involving young people in co-designing and co-delivering Youth Guarantee services is one key way of ensuring this commitment, as the Talent Match programme in the United Kingdom shows. Co-production Talent Match has supported hundreds of participants so that they could take part in partnership boards and youth panels. In Greater Manchester, the Youth Panel members evaluated the YOUTH EMPLOYMENT Facing multiple barriers: Young people not in employment, education or training make up a highly diverse population with, at its core, those who are particularly vulnerable. © Belga Image 6 / SOC I A L AG E NDA / NOV E MB E R 2 0 1 8