One in five people under 25 cannot find a job in Europe.
This week, the European Parliament voted in favour of the Youth Opportunities Initiative, which aims at driving down youth unemployment by focusing on four areas:
- preventing early school leaving;
- developing skills relevant to the labour market;
- helping young people gain their first work experience and on the job training;
- and helping young people to access the labour market and get a job.
The initiative proposes a number of actions, such as making greater use of the European Social Fund, which could be used to provide technical assistance for young entrepreneurs and to set up apprenticeship schemes.
The UK Liberal Democrat MEPs who voted in favour of this initiative, have also emphasised the need to efficiently use Structural funds on youth related projects, and for further action to be taken such as the Youth Guarantee which would provide €4 million to help European countries get young people into employment, further education or (re)training within 4 months of leaving school.
After voting in favour of the Youth Opportunities Initiative, Rebecca Taylor, Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber Region said:
“I welcome this initiative to help young people gain access to the labour market, whether by providing training, helping develop apprenticeships or providing support and assistance to young entrepreneurs. Strong action at national and European level is needed to tackle youth unemployment and this initiative is a step in the right direction“.
Rebecca Taylor is a strong supporter of European initiatives that help young people gain access to the Labour market. She believes that more attention needs to be drawn in the Yorkshire andHumberregion to programmes such as Leonardo da Vinci, which enables young graduates to undertake paid internships in other EU countries and the Erasmus for Entrepreneurs programme, which provides placements for young entrepreneurs in small businesses in other EU countries.