Youth in on the Move

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/news/news1807_en.htm

Youth on the Move - strengthening support to Europe's young people
Five million young Europeans are looking for a job. Many of them will miss opportunities because they lack the right qualifications or experience. Today, the European Commission launches Youth on the Move, a new flagship initiative aimed at helping these young people to gain the knowledge, skills and experience they need to make their first job a reality.
Part of the EU's new Europe 2020 strategy, Youth on the Move proposes 28 key actions aimed at making education and training more relevant to young people's needs and encouraging more of them to take advantage of EU grants to study or train in another country. This will increase young people's employability and access to the labour market.

Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: "The measures we are presenting today are aimed at raising the quality of education and training in Europe so that our young people are properly equipped for today's job market. We want to reduce the number of early school leavers and increase the share of young people in tertiary education so that they reach their full potential. The EU needs even more young people who are highly skilled, knowledgeable and innovative if it is to prosper in the future."

László Andor, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, said: "Finding a job is what millions of young Europeans are most concerned about. Youth on the Move will create new momentum at EU and national level to improve support for young people so that they can find a job, make a living and pursue their own plans."



It's time to act…
At present, too many young people leave school early and too few enter higher education, which jeopardises Europe's future skills base.

Youth on the Move will be instrumental in achieving the Europe 2020 headline targets of reducing the share of early school leavers from 15% to 10% and increasing the share of young people with tertiary education or equivalent from 31% to at least 40% by 2020. Youth on the Move actions will also help Member States reach the headline EU target for 75% employment over the next ten years by helping to ensure that young people have the right skills for the jobs of tomorrow. Commission studies show that 35% of new jobs will require high-level qualifications by 2020 and that 50% will require medium-level qualifications.

The economic and financial crisis has made it harder for young Europeans to enter the labour market. The number of young people looking for a job has increased from 4 to 5 million since the onset of the financial turmoil, with EU youth unemployment now at nearly 21%.

These challenges call for concerted action and robust policy coordination to identify action at EU level and in Member States. The Commission will support Member States in designing policies to support those most at risk of unemployment, to do more to encourage young entrepreneurs and to address legal and administrative obstacles to learning and working mobility.

Independent studies show that more than 40% of employers attach importance to the experience gained from study and work abroad, which not only enables young people to improve their language abilities but also to acquire other skills that are highly valued. The Commission already has a long tradition of supporting mobility through the grants it provides from Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig and Marie Curie.

Youth on the Move aims to extend opportunities for learning mobility to all young people in Europe by 2020. The Commission will today launch a public consultation on the future of its mobility programmes for post 2013.