Wednesday, November 6 2019, 12:30-14:30 (Snack lunch from 12:00)

European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

Rue Belliard 99-101 (room JDE 62/6th floor), B-1000 Brussels

The event will be held in English language.

 

 

With a new European Commission about to start its mandate, the political playing field in Europe is changing. However, youth unemployment at 14.3 % in the EU-28 and above 40 % in numerous regions remains a mayor economic and societal challenge. The legacy of President Juncker to restore youth employment rates to the numbers before the financial crisis has not been fulfilled, while part-time, short-term contracts or precarious jobs are on the rise. More than one out of five youngsters in the EU is struggling with the transition from education to work, without much security and predictability for future work life. What has been done, and more importantly, what needs to be done to address this remaining challenge in a more efficient way in the near future?

 

The EU response to this trend, coupled with the changing demographics, has resulted in the following measures:

 

Europe 2020 Strategy launched in 2010 focused on young adults and early school leavers.

The Youth Employment Package 2012 created the Youth Guarantee Scheme aimed at offering all youngsters under 25 a good-quality offer of employment, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within 4 months of leaving education.

The Youth Employment Initiative allocated so far 6 billion Euros for the Youth Guarantee Schemes.

The establishment of the New Skills Agenda and in light of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Commission launched a proposal for a European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeship in October 2017.

The European Commission proposed to launch a pilot ‘Erasmus Pro’ project, part of the Erasmus + scheme, to broaden the possibilities of financing the mobility of apprentices and increase financial resources for apprenticeships.

Despite all these efforts, there has been only a limited take-up of the apprenticeship model. A few bottlenecks have been identified, which might explain the situation: regulatory frameworks, lack of sufficient implementation at the national level, no sufficient financial investment or support for employers to implement the model, investment in career guidance, and awareness-raising campaigns for all stakeholders.

 

CESI Youth and the Goethe-Institut with its StartNet project are hosting this CESI@noon event on Apprenticeships to bring more visibility to the factors presented above and to look for concrete avenues to better support the take-up of apprenticeship schemes for young people’s transition to work across the EU. With the help of educational partners but also stakeholders from the national level and employers, we aim to better explore how to ensure more opportunities for apprenticeships under this mandate of the European Parliament and Commission, building on the New Skills Agenda and the European Pillar of Social Rights.

 

Introduction

Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI

 

Keynote

Norbert Schöbel, European Commission – Skills for the Young

 

Panel Discussion with the participation of

Matthäus Fandrejewski, CESI Youth Representative

Jan Wilker, StartNet / Goethe-Institut

Paolo Nardi, Cometa Formazione, Italy

Ben Butters, Deputy CEO of EUROCHAMBRES (tbc)

 

Concluding remarks

Matthäus Fandrejewski, CESI Youth Representative