# EUR-Lex - 52012DC0727 - EN

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# 52012DC0727

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Moving Youth into Employment /* COM/2012/0727 final */**

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Moving Youth into Employment

I.            Introduction

The crisis which Europe has been undergoing since 2008 is having an exceptionally severe and ever-increasing
impact on young people: the youth unemployment rate stood at 22.7 % in the
third quarter of 2012, twice as high as the adult rate[1], and no signs of improvement
are in sight. Beyond the immediate effects of the crisis, structural problems
in the education system and in the labour market have been making the
transition from school to work long and difficult. Young people have been in a
more difficult situation than adults for too long a time. Being unemployed at a young age can have a
long-lasting negative impact, a ‘scarring effect’. In addition to higher risks
of future unemployment, these young people are also at a higher risk of
exclusion, of poverty and of facing health problems[2]. Effective remedies are
urgently needed.

One year ago, the Commission
adopted the Youth Opportunities Initiative[3]
(YOI), prompting EU and Member State action to improve youth employment. EU
Structural Funds were mobilised to increase support for youth and financial
resources for policy measures and investment projects are now being funded. Both
the European Council[4]
and the European Parliament[5]
have since re-emphasised the crucial importance and urgency of addressing youth
unemployment, highlighting the potential for initiatives on youth guarantees
and on a quality framework for traineeships. The Commission also recently
adopted the 'Rethinking Education' package[6].

This Communication and its
accompanying Staff Working Document[7]
present the action taken at EU and at national level to implement the YOI (including
through 28 country fact sheets). The Communication then outlines further
concrete initiatives proposed by the Commission and to be taken forward by the Member States and social partners, in order to address the different short-term and
structural problems behind the youth employment crisis.

Young people face numerous problems
on their way from education to work. In many countries, ineffective labour
market regulation or poorly functioning institutions make it more difficult for
young people to find a stable job. Too many are left without help if they drop
out of school or have difficulty finding a job. More favourable labour market
outcomes can be observed in countries where a higher proportion of students
undertake quality traineeships or work placements as part of initial education and
training or in countries with well-established apprenticeship systems[8]. Geographical mobility can also
help resolve local mismatches between supply and demand for young workers. Table
1 provides a simplified overview of the types of measures that can help address
each of these problems. The initiatives presented by the Commission are then
detailed in subsequent sections.

Table 1: Problems affecting youth employment addressed
in this package and possible EU-level actions

Problem || Possible Remedy || EU-level Tools/Actions

Young people face difficulties in finding a strong foothold on the labour market || Take measures supporting young people's inclusion on the labour market, such as facilitating school-to-work transitions, reforming labour market regulation/institutions to make them more employment-friendly and addressing labour market segmentation || Adopt and implement relevant Country-Specific Recommendations in the context of the European Semester. (section III and annex II of the SWD)

Young people, particularly from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups, dropping out of education or work; rising long-term unemployment and inactivity || Set up Youth Guarantee schemes; use ESF funding effectively in their implementation || Support Youth Guarantee schemes (incl. through exchange of best practice; ESF funding) à The Commission is proposing a Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee (section IV)

Difficult school-to-work transitions || Increase the supply of quality traineeships and apprenticeships || Take decisive steps in promoting quality traineeships and apprenticeships: à The Commission is launching a second stage social partner consultation on a Quality Framework for Traineeships (section V.1.) à The Commission will set up a European Alliance for Apprenticeships (section V.2.)

Substantial number of vacancies coexists with high unemployment rates, growing skills and geographical mismatches || Reduce obstacles to mobility to allow companies to recruit workers, apprentices and trainees from other EU countries || Reinforce EU financial instruments on intra-EU mobility à The Commission will launch, in the first half of 2013, a stakeholder consultation on a future EURES jobs for young people programme (section V.3.)

II.        A worsening
employment outlook for young people

The youth unemployment
rate[9] is more than
twice as high as the rate for adults (22.7 % as
against 9.2 % in the third quarter of 2012) and has dramatically increased over
the last four years. A similar upward trend can be
noted in terms of unemployment ratios[10].
Young people are typically the last to be hired and the
first to be dismissed. Long-term unemployment[11]
is much higher for young people and has been rising fast during the crisis: the
rate went up by 3.7 percentage points (to 7.3 % of the young labour force)
between 2008 and 2012, compared with a 1.8 point increase for adults (to 4.3 %).
Overall employment rates[12]
for young people fell by almost five percentage points over the last four years
(from 37.3 % to 32.8%) — three times as much as for adults.

The chances for a young
unemployed person of finding a job are low. Only
29.7 % of those aged 15-24 and unemployed in 2010 found a job in 2011, a fall
of almost 10 % in three years[13].

When young people do find
work, their jobs tend to be less stable. They are
strongly over-represented in temporary and part-time work[14]: in 2012, 42.0 % of young
employees were working on a temporary contract (four times as much as adults)
and 32.0 % part-time (nearly twice the adults’ rate)[15]. Young women are more likely to experience fragile starts and in
particular a doubly fragile position combining temporary work with part-time
employment[16].
Temporary jobs can be a stepping stone to permanent
employment, but their prevalence at such elevated levels raises economic and
social concerns and signals dysfunctional labour markets. Moving from a
temporary to a permanent contract can be even more difficult in countries with
strict employment protection legislation and high
labour market segmentation[17].

Early school-leavers are
a high-risk group: 54.2 % of early leavers from
education and training in the EU are not employed and within this group about 70
% want to work. Early school-leaving is higher among those born abroad and
among men. Recent trends show for both groups that the gap is widening, which
will affect their labour market prospects.

Resignation among young
people is an increasing concern: 12.4 % of inactive
youth wanted to work but were not searching for employment in the second
quarter of 2012[18].
Furthermore, the percentage of young people who are neither in employment nor
in education or training (so-called NEETs) is rising. In 2011, 12.9 % of youth
were NEETs, 2 percentage points more than four years earlier[19].

There are significant
skills mismatches on Europe's labour market. Many
young workers hold formal qualifications above those required by the job they
are able to get (under-employment), but at the same time their skills are less
likely to be the right ones (matching rate) compared to older workers[20]. Although the low-skilled overall still face the highest
risk of unemployment[21], the young highly skilled have suffered the biggest drop in
employment (9.5 percentage points, almost twice as much as the low skilled).
Even high-skilled young people are now increasingly affected by long-term
unemployment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European
industry's competitiveness and for the EU's ability to meet societal challenges[22].

Despite the crisis, there
are over two million unfilled vacancies in the EU,
often because there are no workers with the required skills in the local job
market. Furthermore, sectors with important job creation potential, such as the
green economy, health care and ICT, would require an increased number of
qualified workers in the next years. Preliminary flow analysis for 2011
confirms the increase in mobility from Southern European countries to the North,
although flows still remain limited. A lack of affordable housing or of
experience in working abroad, weak knowledge of foreign languages, low
awareness of local legislation and of workers’ rights, and difficulties in the
recognition of qualifications are all factors hindering mobility.

Although young people’s job
prospects are, overall, unsatisfactory in the EU there are important
differences in the gravity of the problem among EU countries. Unemployment
rates[23]
in the worst-performing countries are more than five times higher than the
rates in the best-performing. Over the last year, the youth unemployment rate has
swollen to over 30 % in many countries and to over 50 % in Greece and Spain. Youth unemployment rates were below 15 % in only four countries.

III.         The Youth
Opportunities Initiative one Year on

While the EU-level is implementing its
actions ...

Implementation of the 18
EU-level actions planned under the Youth Opportunities Initiative (YOI) is well
advanced[24].
The Commission is making European Social Fund technical assistance available to
help set up of apprenticeship-type schemes, cross-border learning mobility and
social innovation projects targeting youth. It is also increasing volunteering
opportunities and financing cross-border traineeships and entrepreneur
exchanges. It is supporting labour market mobility, notably through initiatives
such as ‘Your first EURES Job’ and is analysing measures taken across Europe to fight youth unemployment and to improve education and training.

Figure 1: Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rates and year-on-year changes, September
2012

...Member States are also taking measures
...

Many Member States have taken action to boost youth employment,
developed youth employment plans, and stepped up education and training
programmes, also in response to Action Team[25]
visits and bilateral meetings organised after the launch of the YOI. Unemployed
young people are usually one of the main target groups covered by large-scale
employment measures. The accompanying Staff Working Document[26] contains country fact sheets
outlining the measures taken by all 27 Member States and Croatia. The support measures typically include wage subsidies, job search assistance, traineeships
and further learning, sometimes accompanied by reforms to reduce labour market segmentation.
Trends in apprenticeships are less uniform: while some Member States have
well-functioning dual apprenticeship systems, others are only starting their
progressive introduction. Measures for promoting youth entrepreneurship and
business start-ups are gaining momentum in most Member States[27].

Examples of the use of reallocated ESF funds in the Action Team Member States[28]: · ES: € 294.2 m redirected towards actions to support the employability of young people, support public employment services (PES) with developing active labour market policies for young people too and reinforce measures to combat early school leaving and promote vocational training. · IT: € 1 bn redirected towards boosting education and employment in Southern regions, including tackling early school leaving. · IE: € 25 m redirected to maintain 3 700 training places for early school leavers until the end of 2013. · LT: € 18.3 m redirected for doubling the number of young unemployed benefiting from direct EU support over the next two years to 21 000. · PT: Decision taken to reallocate € 143.3 m to support 89 510 young people for measures contained in the programme "Impulso Jovem", such as traineeships. · SK: € 70 m reallocated to create 13 000 jobs in Slovak regions most affected by unemployment, the majority of which are reserved for young people, using partial reimbursement of labour costs. · EL: € 250 m reallocated; an action plan is under preparation to provide training, work experience, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for 333 000 young people. · LV: € 26.3 m from state budget allocated to implement ESF activities on youth competitiveness and employment.

... making use of mobilised funds...

The
European Social Fund (ESF) is the main instrument supporting large-scale youth
employment measures at EU level, while a number of youth-targeted programmes
are supported by other EU funds, such as the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
Overall, at least € 10 billion has been targeted for re-allocation or
accelerated delivery in the eight Action Team countries in the past 12 months
under the YOI, covering for example job subsidies, vocational training, and early
school leaving prevention. At least 56 000 SMEs and 658 000 additional young
people are likely to benefit from these recent adjustments to funding
programmes.

21 Member
States have already redirected significant resources, within and among their
ESF, ERDF and/or EAFRD operational programmes, towards measures to boost workers'
employability, and to combat and prevent youth unemployment. The priority is
now to fully implement the modified funding programmes at Member State level.

...and seeing their structural challenges addressed
through the European Semester

European
Semesters, and the country-specific recommendations (CSRs), are a policy
coordination tool to strengthen governance and reinforce coordination of
economic policies at EU level. They provide a framework for multilateral
surveillance of employment policy and structural reforms and assess the EU’s progress towards the targets it set
itself in the Europe 2020 Strategy.

In
2012, CSRs specifically aimed at improving the situation of the youth in the
labour market were made for nearly all Member States. The accompanying Staff
Working Document[29]
contains a detailed overview of youth-specific recommendations[30].

The
2013 Annual Growth Survey (AGS)[31],
launching the European Semester for 2013, stresses that Member States should do
more to fight unemployment, improve employability and support access to jobs or
a return to the world of work for young people

IV.         Securing
transitions for all youth: the Youth Guarantee

A Youth Guarantee ...

It
is necessary to invest in the human capital of young Europeans in order to address
the profound youth employment crisis of today and benefit from sustainable and
inclusive growth over the medium-to-long term. Given the difficult
school-to-work transitions experienced by young people, the Commission is
calling on all Member States to swiftly implement a Youth Guarantee and is
presenting a proposal for a Council Recommendation supported by several calls
from the European Council[32].

The
Youth Guarantee is to be implemented by a comprehensive
and holistic scheme that ensures that young people
receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an
apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months after having left school or
become unemployed. Details on what constitutes a Youth Guarantee, its costs and
benefits and how to make the Youth Guarantee a success can be found in the
Staff Working Document accompanying the Proposal for a Council Recommendation[33]. The annexes to this Staff
Working Document outline measures supporting youth employment already underway
in Member States as well as examples of actions and interventions that can be
supported by the ESF.

The
Youth Guarantee scheme must be based on supporting measures, according to six
axes: building up partnership-based approach, early intervention and activation
measures, measures enabling labour market integration, use of EU Structural
Funds, assessment and continuous improvement of the scheme and swift implementation.
The Commission leaves it up to Member States to define the institutional framework
within which such a Guarantee should be provided.

...
has long-term gains...

A Youth
Guarantee has a fiscal cost. The cost depends on national circumstances and on
the way in which the scheme is set up and implemented. It will be greater in
countries with high rates of NEETs or of youth unemployment. The duration of
young people's unemployment will also have an impact, as well as different
starting points in terms of existing supporting measures (e.g. well-trained PES
staff to address young people’s needs).

These
costs however will be outweighed through avoiding the long-term costs of
unemployment, inactivity and lost productivity[34].
This means that there will be positive returns on the investment into a Youth
Guarantee[35].
Being unemployed at a young age has a long-lasting negative impact (‘scarring effect’)
on both future income levels and future risk of unemployment. A Youth Guarantee
scheme providing young people with real, tangible opportunities will enable
them to avoid a long and harmful absence from the labour market, preserve and
enhance their human capital, maintain their employment and career prospects
further down the line and increase their wage potential, which is relevant for
aggregate demand and overall economic performance in the years to come.

In
the 2013 AGS the Commission considers that investments in education should be
prioritized and strengthened where possible, while ensuring the efficiency of
such expenditure. Particular attention should also be paid to maintaining or
reinforcing the coverage and effectiveness of employment services and active
labour market policies, such as training for the unemployed and Youth Guarantee
schemes.

Investing
now in the right skill-set will enable young people to be employable to fill
job vacancies and create economic value. In light of the risk of
marginalisation and resignation, giving young people a perspective is also
necessary so that their confidence in public institutions, government
structures and society can be maintained.

...
which the EU will financially support

Member
States suffering from the highest levels of unemployment are also typically
those facing the greatest challenges concerning the sustainability of their
public finances. The EU can already financially support Member States in
implementing the Youth Guarantee through the Cohesion Policy funding
instruments, in particular the ESF. The Commission will encourage Member States
to make best use of them and of any future instruments.

The
Commission’s proposals for the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework highlight
the role of the ESF as the EU’s key instrument for investing in human capital. It
has proposed that at least 25% of future cohesion funding is allocated to the
ESF and that at least 20% of it is earmarked for social inclusion policies. Youth
employment can be addressed under a number of ESF investment priorities, and
specific attention has been proposed to the sustainable integration of NEETs in
the labour market.

V.           Targeted
EU initiatives

Further
to the initiative on a Youth Guarantee, this chapter presents three targeted
Commission initiatives on quality traineeships, on promoting apprenticeships
across the EU, and on facilitating the mobility of young people.

1.           Quality
Framework for Traineeships

Traineeships can help to
improve young people's employability ...

Traineeships, intended as a
limited period of hands-on practice spent at a workplace either during or after
studies, are becoming more and more part of a career path for young people.
They often allow them to increase their employability while offering various
benefits to the host organisations too, in terms of addressing skill
mismatches, tapping into up-to-date knowledge and facilitating future
recruitment.

The Commission will continue
to provide financial support through the ESF to Member States wishing to improve
the employment situation for young people through traineeship schemes.

... provided they are of
good quality ...

It is crucial to ensure that
transitory periods such as those spent in traineeships serve young people’s
development and allow them to gain a strong foothold on the labour market as
quickly as possible. Nevertheless, traineeships need to be of sufficient
quality, in terms both of learning content and of adequate working conditions. There
is a risk of traineeships being abused as a source of cheap or free labour and
that — given their increasingly important role in a depressed labour market — they
may lead to a vicious circle of precarious employment or discourage young
people from taking up traineeships in the first place. A large proportion of
traineeships lacks high quality learning content and/or adequate social
protection coverage and compensation/remuneration, especially among open market
traineeships[36]. A gender pay gap is also apparent in traineeships: a
larger proportion of women are in unpaid or in low-paid positions.

Concerns about the quality
of traineeships have been echoed several times at political level: in 2010 the European
Parliament called upon the Commission to propose a European quality charter for
internships[37],
while the Council invited the Commission to provide guidance on conditions for
high quality traineeships[38].

... which will also
support transnational traineeships

Transnational traineeships
offer many advantages, but are still not widespread. The lack of a structured
quality framework and guidance is likely to hold back the development of
transnational traineeships. Barriers to transnational traineeships include the
lack of transparency and of easily accessible information on the legal and
administrative conditions and the difficulty of finding and selecting host
organisations. Furthermore, given the investment of moving abroad, the cost of
an unsuccessful traineeship is higher for foreign trainees and it is harder for
them to switch hosts.

The Commission's proposal on
modernising the Professional Qualifications Directive[39] extends the scope of the
Directive to cover traineeships undertaken in other Member States. However, the
Directive applies only to traineeships that are a condition for access to a
regulated profession and not to open-market traineeships where problems are
most frequent.

Social partners are key
in ensuring quality traineeships

In April 2012 the Commission
launched a public consultation[40]
on a Quality Framework for Traineeships. This consultation was followed in
September 2012 by a first-stage consultation of social partners. Both
consultations revealed a consensus on the useful role of traineeships but pointed
to a lack of quality and widespread misuse in relation to trainees across Europe, making it clear that action needs to be taken against these issues. However, there
were diverging views about the scope and possible form of the action. The
Commission is now seeking the views of social partners under Article 154 TFEU
on the content of the envisaged action at EU level to adopt a Quality Framework[41]. The Commission will present its proposal
in 2013, if the social partners do not wish to enter into negotiations.

2.           European
  Alliance for Apprenticeships

Well-designed
apprenticeship schemes smooth the transition from school to work ...

Company-based
apprenticeship schemes (also known as 'dual' or 'twin-track' apprenticeships)
enable a young person to both gain work experience and practical skills through
a work-contract in a company as well as acquire theoretical knowledge, often
through an educational institution. There are good examples in some Member
States of how to use apprenticeship schemes optimally to smooth the transition
from education to work.

The
need to improve the supply and quality of apprenticeships is widespread: in
2012, the Council addressed CSRs to seven Member States on apprenticeships and
to three on vocational training. Even in the other Member States, much could be
done to improve the functioning of the apprenticeship system, and to make
better use of ESF funding to this end.

The success
factors for apprenticeship schemes can be categorised into three main groups.
Firstly, effective partnerships between vocational education and training (VET)
schools / institutions and companies are a determinant of successful
apprenticeships. VET schools need to operate in networks with local businesses.
More broadly, closely involving social partners is necessary to ensure that
apprenticeships remain attuned to the times so that the skills learnt keep pace
with needs. Training/occupational standards need to be reviewed and updated
regularly, and social partners are well positioned to provide input. Secondly,
both the qualification gained and the learning process should be of high
quality to exploit the full potential of apprenticeships and ensure that this
model is recognised as a valuable learning pathway, transferable across borders,
and opening up the route to high-skilled jobs. Thirdly, apprenticeships should
be well integrated within the national or regional education and training
system and based on a clear regulatory framework. The latter should clarify the
responsibilities, rights and obligations of each party involved and promote
collaboration and commitment by a wide range of stakeholders. Finally, it should
also be underlined that young people who have dropped out of education, or are
at risk of doing so, particularly need support to undertake apprenticeships.

... require the engagement of employers...

Good governance of
work-based learning implies having a cost-benefit ratio that encourages
employers to get involved. Work-based learning can only exist in a country if
companies buy into this concept and offer apprenticeship places, student
placements or cooperate with schools.

The regulatory
framework should ensure appropriate incentives for employers to provide
sufficient apprenticeship places. It should address the specific needs of SMEs,
which face particular challenges and have limited resources. Incentives can be financial,
such as tax benefits, subsidies or other, but also non-financial, such as
access to certain support services, for example to help companies to host
apprentices. In this context, ERDF support for SMEs can have a positive effect.

Support for
apprenticeships, besides being a privileged way of screening potential
candidates for new hires, generates wider economic benefits over the longer
term and at the same time is an expression of social responsibility.

... and can be supported by EU leverage

Given
the need to improve the quality and supply of apprenticeships quickly and to
support Member States' cooperation in the field of VET, the Commission will set up a European Alliance
for Apprenticeships. The Commission has already recognised that good
cooperation between all stakeholders is essential for the success of such
initiatives[42].
This alliance would bring together stakeholders from authorities, business and
social partners, VET researchers and practitioners, and youth representatives.
It would pool the various streams of existing actions under a common umbrella
and would promote the benefits and ways of successful
apprenticeship schemes and ways to build them up. The alliance would also help
develop common dual training curricula for various professions, facilitate
recognition of apprenticeships undertaken abroad and promote an appropriate
regularly framework.

In
the context of this alliance, the Commission will also promote national partnerships for developing dual
learning. These should bring together business representatives, authorities
responsible for education and employment, ESF managing authorities and social
partners in order to work out how the role of apprenticeships in the Member State's labour market and education system can be strengthened and how national ESF
allocations can be drawn upon in the design and implementation of dual learning
systems.

Activities
similar to the alliance for apprenticeships are already ongoing at sectoral
level. An EU-level alliance is being formed in the ICT sector'[43].

3.           Mobility
for young people

Increased mobility would
offer more employment opportunities ...

The substantial differences existing
between youth unemployment levels, coupled with a rise in vacancy rates in some
Member States, highlight that intra-EU mobility can give young people access to
more employment opportunities. Transnational traineeships and apprenticeships
offer many advantages in this regard, together with the possibility of trying
out working in another country without immediately committing to long-term
employment. However, they are not yet widespread. This is in direct contrast to
the openness towards mobility generally shown by young people and to the
success enjoyed by programmes aimed at studying abroad, such as Erasmus and
Leonardo.

... which EU instruments
are supporting...

The recent EURES decision[44] transforming the European jobs
network into a result-oriented matching and placement instrument has direct
relevance for young people, since it will notably be expanded to also cover
work-related apprenticeships and traineeships. Moreover, the Commission intends
to develop further its 'Your first EURES Job' initiative to help EU nationals
aged 18 to 30 to find work in another Member State. The scheme combines
customised job-matching and job placement services with EU financial incentives
(contributions to travel expenses for job interviews, pre-job training and work
integration activities). The Commission will build on these steps by launching an
initiative on public employment services in 2013 to improve the functioning of
the European labour market. Such services will be called upon to play a greater
role in exploiting all the job opportunities which can be created by intra-EU
labour mobility and securing the employment prospects of EU citizens,
especially the youth. This will make the European labour market more efficient,
by reducing the risk of greater mismatches, and will help address future labour
and skills shortages.

... but requires further
efforts

However, given the urgent
challenge of youth unemployment, further efforts are essential. The Commission calls
upon the EU Budgetary Authority to ensure that adequate resources are available
in 2013 and beyond to continue support for targeted mobility schemes such as
‘Your first EURES Job’ and upon Member States’ PES to further develop EURES-based
programmes and mainstream them in their normal business.

Developing more targeted and
individualised actions for all jobseekers, including youth, must be a priority
for the foreseeable future. In 2013 the Commission will consider, as part of the
future EURES axis of the Programme for Social Change and Innovation, the
viability of a broader EURES jobs for young people programme to this end, building
on the lessons learnt with the ‘Your first EURES Job’ initiative and in
education (Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci). This could support young people in
finding and taking up jobs, work experience, apprenticeships and traineeships
in another Member State[45].

VI.         The
way forward

Despite a number of efforts at EU and national level, job prospects
for European youth have further worsened in the past year. A stronger response
is urgently needed. This communication outlines the Commission’s analysis of
the situation and gives an overview of what can be done through employment
policy instruments, both at EU and Member State level, to remedy the situation.
Action has to be taken together, building strong partnerships of trust with all
stakeholders, be they employment services, education providers, social
partners, employers or youth organisations. The issue at stake is Europe’s economic and social future.

The Commission:

·
urges Member States to quickly adopt the
proposal for a Council Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee, which
is part of this package, and to introduce their Youth Guarantee scheme in the
course of 2013;

·
calls on social partners to work towards a
Quality Framework for Traineeships to ensure that traineeships provide young
people with high-quality work experience under safe conditions;

·
will set up a European Alliance for Apprenticeships
to improve the quality and supply of apprenticeships
and to promote national partnerships for dual vocational training systems; and

·
will launch, in the first half of 2013, a
stakeholder consultation on developing a EURES jobs for young people programme,
and will present an initiative to put EU mobility instruments, funding and
governance on a more structural footing, commensurate to their importance.

[1]               Eurostat Labour Force main indicators, seasonally
adjusted quarterly data, youth is defined as less than 25 years of age, adults as over 25.

[2]               Status of the situation of young people (accompanying
the EU Youth Report) SWD(2012) 257 of 10 September 2012.

[3]               COM(2011) 933 of 20 December 2011.

[4]               European Council Conclusions, EUCO76/12
of 29 June 2012 and EUCO 156/12 of 19 October 2012.

[5]               European Parliament resolution on the Youth
Opportunities Initiative (2012/2617(RSP)) of 24 May 2012.

[6]               COM(2012) 669 of 20 November 2012. The Council
Conclusions on European cooperation in education and training ('ET 2020')
(2009/C 119/02 of 28 May 2009) and the EU Strategy for Youth (COM (2009) 200 of
27 April 2009) also provide relevant frameworks for concerted European efforts
in education, training and youth employment.

[7]               SWD(2012) 406 of 5 December 2012.

[8]               Study on a comprehensive overview on traineeship
arrangements in Member States, European Commission, 2012, Apprenticeship
supply in the Member States of the European Union, European Commission, 2012.

[9]               Eurostat Labour Force main indicators, seasonally
adjusted quarterly data, youth is defined as less than 25 years of age, adults as over 25.

[10]             The unemployment
ratio (defined as the share of young unemployed persons in the whole young
population) includes a large inactive group mainly in education in that age
group and thereby can give a
more complete picture of the size of the unemployment problem. This is relevant
when comparing countries with big differences in youth inactivity (for more
details see the European Commission’s Employment in Europe Report 2007, Chapter
1).

[11]             Eurostat Labour Force Statistics, quarterly
non-seasonally adjusted data (lfsq_pganws) and (lfsq_upgal) for the second
quarter. Youth aged 15-24, adults 25-64.

[12]             Eurostat Labour Force Statistics, quarterly
non-seasonally adjusted data (lfsq_eppqa) and (lfsq_etpga) for the second
quarter. Youth aged 15-24, adults 25-64.

[13]             Data for 13 European countries. European Commission,
Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE), 2012, forthcoming.

[14]             See footnote 12.

[15]             See footnote 12.

[16]             Calculation from the European Network of Experts on
Gender Equality based on the 2009 LFS Ad hoc module on school-to-work
transitions.

[17]             In dual labour markets a large share of temporary
contracts, employing for the most part young workers, coexists alongside a
stock of open-ended contracts with much greater employment security.
Disparities in employment protection rights for permanent and fixed-term
contracts have been identified as a key source of segmentation.

[18]             Eurostat Labour Force, quarterly non-seasonally
adjusted data [lfsq_igaww] for the second quarter. Youth aged 15-24, excluding
"no answer" responses.

[19]             Eurostat, Labour Force Statistics, [edat_lfse_20].

[20]             ESDE, 2012, forthcoming.

[21]             The low-skilled still face the highest risk of
unemployment, and their prospects are likely to worsen. According to the latest
skills forecast by Cedefop (http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/about-cedefop/projects/forecasting-skill-demand-and-supply/skills-forecasts.aspx),
the number of jobs available across the EU for individuals with lower secondary
education at most — which has already decreased by 20.4 % between 2000 and 2010
— will decrease by a further 18.9 % between 2010 and 2020.

[22]             Industrial Policy Communication Update — COM (2012) 582 of 10 October 2012. For
example, there will be up to 700 000 unfilled ICT practitioners' vacancies in
the EU by the year 2015 (see Report for the European Commission Anticipating
the Evolution of the Supply and Demand of e-Skills in Europe (2010-2015),
Empirica and IDC Europe, 2009. Updated forecast presented at the European
e-Skills Conference, Brussels, 13 December 2011). Addressing skills mismatches
is also highly relevant in health and social care, as well as for the green
economy.

[23]             Eurostat Labour Force main indicators, seasonally
adjusted data, second quarter, youth is defined as less than 25 years of age.

[24]             Details of action already taken and the next steps can
be found in the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document, SWD(2012) 406
of 5 December 2012.

[25]             At the informal European Council meeting of 30 January
2012, President Barroso proposed a pilot action to help the eight Member States
with the highest levels of youth unemployment to re-allocate some of their EU
structural funds allocations to tackling youth unemployment.

[26]             SWD(2012) 406 of 5 December 2012.

[27]             Self-employment is increasingly recognised as a
possible career option for young people, see also Entrepreneurship Education
at School in Europe, European Commission, 2012.

[28]             The figures in this table are provisional and reflect
information as of November 2012.

[29]             SWD(2012) 406 of 5 December 2012.

[30]             Furthermore, the Joint Employment Report (Annex to
COM(2012) 750 of 28 November 2012) is part of the Commission package to launch
the 2013 European Semester, underpinning and expanding on the Annual Growth
Survey. It is based on the employment and social situation in Europe, on the
implementation of the Employment Guidelines, as well as on the results of
country examination of the National Reform Programmes that led to the 2012 CSRs
and on the assessment of their implementation so far.

[31]             COM(2012) 750 of 28 November 2012.

[32]             Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Establishing a
Youth Guarantee, COM(2012) 729 of 5 December 2012.

[33]             SWD(2012) 409 of 5 December 2012.

[34]             The annual cost in Europe of having young people
neither in employment, education or training are currently put at 1.2 % of GDP,
or € 153 billion, see: Eurofound (2012), NEETs – Young people not in
employment, education, or training: Characteristics, costs and policy responses
in Europe, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

[35]             The investment into a Youth Guarantee does not fall
within the category of gross fixed capital formation in national accounts.

[36]             Study on a comprehensive overview of traineeship arrangements
in the EU Member States, European Commission (2012).

[37]             'Promoting youth access to the labour market,
strengthening trainee, internship and apprenticeship status', EP
2009/2221(INI), 14.6.2010

[38]             Council Conclusions 17.6.2011

[39]             Proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2005/36/EC
on the recognition of professional qualifications and Regulation on
administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System, COM
(2011)883 final from 19 December 2011.

[40]             SWD(2012) 99, 18.4.2012.

[41]             COM(2012) 728 of 5.12.2012.

[42]             COM(2012) 669 of 20 November 2012.

[43]             A 'Grand Coalition for ICT Jobs' aims to federate
stakeholders to address the shortage and the skills mismatches which
characterise the labour market for ICT professionals.

[44]             C(2012) 8548 of 26 November 2012.

[45]             The Commission also intends to present a Youth on the
Move Card initiative to support the mobility of young people.