Youth employability in the spotlight at Alliance for YOUth event

Today in the European Parliament in Brussels, companies, politicians and young people including interns and apprenticeships got together for an event to mark one year of the Alliance for YOUth, an initiative bringing together so far almost 200 companies to provide young people with training and job opportunities.

The Youth Forum's Vice President, Luis Alvarado Martinez, joined a panel which also included Marianne Thyssen European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility. Young MEPs, CEOs from Alliance for YOUth companies as well as youth representatives including trainees and apprentices also discussed what the Alliance has achieved so far and the main challenges and solutions to youth unemployment in Europe.

The Alliance aims to create 100,000 job opportunities for young people by 2017 and it announced today that, one year on, it is half way to that target having created 50,000. The Alliance, initated by Nestlé, promotes dual learning and labour mobility schemes, as well as "readiness for work" through, for example, workshops preparing young people for getting a job on topics such as CV preparation and interview tips.

At today's event the Alliance launched the results of a survey of HR/managerial employees from across 70 of the initiative's companies in 22 countries, which sheds light on the benefits of the kinds of apprenticeship schemes they are providing. The survey found that:

• 66% of employers agree that apprenticeships and internships (58%) lead to permanent employment
• 60% say that the Alliance for YOUth has changed internal practices and enhanced youth recruitment
• 67% say that they could create more opportunities for apprentices and interns with greater financial support from governments
• A third (33%) say that internship schemes don't last long enough and it takes too long to train interns (29%)

The Commissioner, Ms Thyssen, spoke about ways the EU and member states can help get young people into work and said: "The fast implementation of the Youth Guarantee in close cooperation with companies is crucial to facilitate school-to-work transitions and get young people into jobs. Member States have to take advantage of this opportunity and the financial support the EU makes available."

The European Youth Forum is a partner of the Alliance for YOUuth and Luis Alvarado Martinez commented that whilst the Youth Forum is happy to hear of its success so far, it calls for such internship and apprenticeship schemes to be a quality experience. "Interns must be paid, they should have a contract and they should be a learning experience!" said Luis, "interns must not be doing the photocopying and making coffee!".

The European Youth Forum is looking forward to continuing to work with the Alliance for YOUth to help spread best practice and increase the number of good quality training and internship and apprenticeship schemes offered by companies.

Read more:

European Youth Forum's Employers' Guide to Quality Internships

European Youth Forum's European Quality Charter on Internships & Apprenticeships

More about the Alliance for YOUth

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