Youth on the Move

The European Commission launched a comprehensive package of policy initiatives on education and employment for young people in Europe called Youth on the Move in 2010. The scheme is part of the European Union’s Europe 2020 strategy for ‘smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’.

The overall goals of Youth on the Move are to improve young people’s education levels and employability, to reduce youth unemployment and to increase the youth employment rate – in line with the wider EU target of achieving a 75% employment rate for the working-age population. The initiative aims to do this by:

• making education and training more relevant to young people’s needs;
• encouraging more young people to take advantage of EU grants to study or train in another country;
• encouraging EU countries to adopt measures to simplify the transition from education to work.

A key element of the Youth on the Move scheme is the Youth Opportunities Initiative, a set of measures introduced in 2012 and 2013 with the aim of reducing youth unemployment in the EU. The specific goal of the Youth Opportunities Initiative is to support those who left school or training without having achieved upper-secondary education by encouraging them to return to school or enrol in vocational training to acquire the skills most in demand on the job market. The initiative also aims to help graduates acquire their first work experience.

Another element of the Youth on the Move initiative is Your First EURES Job, which has set a target for 2012–13 of helping around 5,000 people fill job vacancies throughout the EU. The scheme is based on national employment services offering their support to both young jobseekers and businesses interested in recruiting from outside their home country. Support includes providing information, job search and recruitment help, as well as funding. The amount of funding is subject to the conditions and procedures put in place by the national employment services.

See also: Young workers; European Employment Strategy; European semester; NEET.