Businesses on board to create apprenticeships for young people at European Alliance for Apprenticeships event in Riga

More than 40 companies and other organisations met in Riga on Monday for the second birthday of the European Alliance for Apprenticeships in order to reaffirm their commitment to ensuring more and better apprenticeships for young people. Companies, social partners and civil society in total pledged to create 140,000 apprenticeships and training opportunities available to Europe’s youth.

The European Youth Forum, which attended the event, is pleased to see the relaunch of the European Alliance for Apprenticeships, which followed a meeting of Ministers responsible for Vocational Education and Training. The number of new pledges made by a variety of stakeholders as well as several inspiring examples of the impact of apprenticeships, made it clear that this is a priority on youth across the board.

At the same time, however, the European Youth Forum warns that there is a risk with focusing on the supply of apprenticeships without tackling at all the issue of quality. Quality apprenticeships involve fair remuneration, safe working conditions and clear learning objectives, as outlined in the European Youth Forum’s European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships. The Youth Forum is currently working on several pledges that have quality assurance at the heart, through encouraging and empowering companies with tools to improve the quality of the apprenticeships they offer youth.

Apprenticeships are a crucial way to ensure youth employment, and the European Alliance for Apprenticeships is a necessary platform where stakeholders can share best practices, commit and learn together. We call on all stakeholders in the Alliance to see through their commitments, ensuring young apprentices are put at the heart of the schemes, and on the European Commission to develop a quality framework that guides all apprenticeship pledges under the Alliance. Through ensuring the quality as well as the supply we can begin to ensure that apprenticeships lead to sustainable quality jobs for youth.

Read more about the event in Riga here.