Youth Forum’s new interactive map shows challenges in implementing the Youth Guarantee

The European Youth Forum today launches a new interactive map, showing how the implementation of the Youth Guarantee is going in nine European countries and regions. In consultation with its member organisations across Europe, the Youth Forum has identified six main challenges regarding the implementation and monitoring process of the Youth Guarantee.

The new tool, which features an interactive map and the six challenges, gives examples from member organisations and shows how countries have progressed in implementing the Youth Guarantee. The information from the National Youth Councils in nine countries and regions reveal that implementation is still lagging behind, two years after it started. Much more work needs to be done in order to help young people get back into work.

In order to ensure the effective roll out of the Youth Guarantee, we call on member states and the European Union to address the following six challenges.

• A better economic environment for young people is needed and counterproductive measures such as cutting funding to education must be stopped!
• The Youth Guarantee should provide young people with high quality offers – only high quality internships or apprenticeships support the long-term participation of young people in the labour market.
• Youth organisations play a vital role in preventing social exclusion. For example, young people who are not registered with public employment services are often difficult to reach, but youth organisations can provide that link.
• Public employment services should offer more personalised services, in particular to target young people in more vulnerable situations.
• All stakeholders must work together on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, in particular youth organisations play a vital role in providing expertise on youth issues.
• A proper monitoring and evaluation system needs to be set up to create the most effective measures to fight youth unemployment.

The infographics also show how much youth organisations were involved in the design and implementation of the Youth Guarantee in their country, and the Youth Forum's member organisations rate it as follows:

High involvement:

• Flanders
• Finland
• Slovenia
• Spain

Medium involvement:

• French-speaking Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Catalonia
• Croatia

Low involvement:

• Austria

Read the Youth Forum’s position paper on the Youth Guarantee below.