School >> apprenticeship or higher education >> Job >> Family
This chain is the common way of young people to grow into the society. Nowadays, this “normal way of life” is not easy anymore. Young people have a broad range of opportunities. To find the individual best way is a challenge to all young people in Europe. Particularly challenging is the step from the student to the employee. 15 % of the young people are unemployed. This is double to the total average unemployment rate of Europe. And the reason for these alarming figures is not that the young people are not well-educated or not interested in work. They just do not fit the market.
The first job is hard to find. In many cases the first job is only a temporary job or a low-paid job. Many graduates also try to enter the labour force by doing internships. In Germany the expression Generation Intership describes this situation of job insecurity for young people. This of course affects the social life of the young people. Jillian van Turnhout, Vice-President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) explains the vicious circle that is implicated by job insecurity for young people: “The problem with Youth Employment is a contributing factor to the demographic change. Young people are entering the labour force later, they start their family life later, which potentially means they have less children.”
Where are the problems for the Youth Employment? Brenda King, President of the Section Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship at the EESC, explains that very often a mismatch between the skills of the young graduates and the needs of the labour market is a reason for the problematic job start. “It would help if the requirements of the employers were more transparent. In Australia for example these requirements are published, so young people can focus on certain skills.” During the European Citizens’ Forum in Wroclaw, the topic Youth Employment was one topic out of ten that has been discussed in working groups. As a result of this working group, the participants also see the mismatch of qualifications of the young people and demands of the labour force as main problem. To solve this problem, the working group suggests “A system of career counselling and mentoring should be developed and introduced in schools as early as possible.” The young people should be guided to identify their set of interests to concentrate their skills on. Furthermore the future trends on the labour market need to be anticipated.
In the end of the forum, only three topics were chosen to be transmitted to the institutions of the European Union. The citizens chose the topic Youth Employment besides the topics European social model and family policy to be the main concern of the future social Europe. This direct voice stresses the importance of the topic Youth employment for the European agenda.
By Anna-Lena Alfter
