Det Udenrigspolitiske Nævn 2012-13
UPN Alm.del Bilag 259
Offentligt
Joint letter on youth unemploymentto the European Council President from PrimeMinisterJyrkiKatainen, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Prime MinisterHelleThorning-SchmidtHerman van Rompuy, President of the European CouncilCopy: Members of the European CouncilDear Herman,Youth unemployment is a major challenge in many parts of Europe. Giving young people a footholdin the labour market and hope for a better future should be at the top of our agenda.The best helping hand we can extend to young people without jobs is by facilitating the creation ofmore jobs. Hence, we need to make full use of the growth levers at our disposal. A rapidimplementation of the Compact for Growth and Jobs should have top priority.This includesadopting the remaining measures in the Single Market Act I and give priority to the Single MarketAct II as well as progressing on free trade agreements. We also need to set the right frameworkconditions for our business sector including promoting innovation, ease the regulatory burdenwhile ensuring proper protection of consumers andemployees, andstimulateaccess to finance forSmall and Medium Sized Enterprises that play an important part in job creation, including foryoung people.While employment policies are first and foremost a task for Member States, jointefforts andattention can help ensuring well-functioning labour markets. We believe that Member States have alot to learn from each other’s experiences of how to tackle this challenge. Therefore we agree to theimportance of an exchange of experience between Member States as outlined in your letter of May24 and wish to respond to your call for ideas to foster youth employment. We would hence like toshare some of the best practices that we believe have or will have a positive effect in our countries.Nordic experiencesThe so-called Nordic model aims at combining high levels of competitiveness and productivity atthe one hand and high rates of labour market participation and comprehensive welfare servicesatthe other. These two aspects have in our experience proven to be mutually reinforcing factors. Animportant part of this model is close dialogue with social partners and flexibility in the labourmarket. A high level of human and social capital fosters economic growth and job creation. What isgood for the young is also good for the future of our societies.On the national level,Denmark, Finland and Sweden are in particular working withactivationmeasures towards young people without an education or job. Years of experience have shown thatan early, active and tailor-made youth effort is effectivein ensuring access of young people toeducation and employment.
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In Denmark,in line with the Youth Guarantee, young people under 30 years of age receiveaninterview at a job centrewithin 1 month of unemployment andare offered vocational training, ajob with wage subsidyor training in a company within 3 months of unemployment. Furthermore,young people without formal education receive special support to begin ordinary education. Youngpeople without the needed preconditions to complete ordinary education can also be offered mentorsupport and receive upgrading courses and/or training in a company.The Youth Guarantee implemented in Finland is a comprehensive scheme to support youngpeople’s employment and education, development of skills and participation in a society.In Finland,young people under 25 years of age and also recent graduates under 30 years of age are offeredwork, a traineeship, a study workshop or labour market rehabilitation place within three months ofbecoming unemployed. This includes, for instance, a specific skills programme for young adults.Acrucial element is outreach youth work which aims at reaching out to young people who are not inemployment, education or training and are not able to seek help on their own. They are escorted tothe services and support that they need.In Sweden, the Public Employment Service aims at working actively with young persons that needthis from the first day of unemployment. Registered unemployedyoung persons should gradually getmore intensified support for job seeking, followed by active matching coupled with anapprenticeship or further education.We believe that education system reform plays an important role as well as linking school and workmore effectively. Young people should have the necessary qualifications and be job-ready whenleaving school. And young people who already have an education should get access to the labourmarket.In addition to reform of the education system, there is also a need to look at more targetedmeasures for especially vulnerable groups.An essential element in a new Danish school reform is to enhance students' readiness for educationand training and their knowledge of the labour market.In Denmark, we find that alternationbetween school-based education and work place experience supports young people’s labour marketreadiness and the development of necessary skills. Dialogue with social partners plays animportant part in Danish efforts to raise the attractiveness of the vocational education and training-programmes and the creation of apprenticeships.Inserting social clauses requiring apprenticeshipsin public procurement agreements is part of recent Danish efforts.In Sweden, focus is on structural measures emanating from tripartite dialogue, promoting the use ofcollective agreement on vocational introduction with help of public subsidies. This kind ofagreement is a novelty in Sweden and is inspired by apprenticeship systems in e.g. Germany,Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. The support measure targets young people aged 15-24 thateither lack relevant professional experience or are unemployed and is assumed to contribute to asmoother transition from school to work and increase youth employment.The Finnish education system is based on continuous quality enhancement and the philosophy oflife-long learning. Vocational training programmes contain at least a 6-month on-the job learning2
module. The diversified higher education system and programme foster different individual, labourmarket and social needs. A priority is to develop more flexible study paths. Labour market needsand education and training are better matched together through a close collaboration with socialpartners and the efficient use of research on learning and changes in the labour market. Extrafunding is steered for the development of apprentice programmes geared especially for freshcomprehensive school leavers.It is also our experience that much can be achieved through close cooperationon the regionallevelallowingthe exchange of best practices and providing concrete opportunities for young people.In line with current efforts at European level we have within the Nordic Council of Ministersinitiated a project on how to improve the quality of learning at the workplace. The aim is toexchange good practice between the Nordic countries on high quality workplace learning inVocational Education and Training including apprenticeship programmes. The Nordic countriesalready have good experiences with internship exchangethat gives young people the chance to doan internship in another Nordic country.Considerations for EU and national effortsThe current serious situation demands that we maintain focus on necessary reforms of our labourmarkets, ensuring better and sustainable access for young women and men and a flexible labourmarket. To this end, the European Semester is an important framework for promoting necessaryreforms.We would like to draw attention to the following areas:-Taking into full account the Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee across all MemberStates.The Youth Guarantee can succeed if it is based on a comprehensive model involvingall the relevant organisations such as ministries, municipalities, enterprises, social partners,youth organisations and NGOs.-Integrating work based learning in education systems, improving incentives for businessesto provide apprenticeships, and promoting initiatives to ensure that qualifications obtainedare recognised in the labour market. In this context, we are looking forward to theEuropean Alliance for apprenticeships to be launched at July 2nd. The initiative can serveas a very important framework – in line with the so-called Copenhagen process – forenhanced common efforts at European level amongMember States, the Commission, SocialPartners and other stakeholders to support work based learning and to increase theavailability of high quality apprenticeships. We also support the proposal to use theEuropean Social Fund and the new Education and Training programme to further developand promote apprenticeships and work based learning across Europe.We look forward to discussing these issues at our upcoming meeting and remain at your disposalfor further information regarding our Nordic experiences,JyrkiKatainen, Prime Minister of FinlandFredrik Reinfeldt, Prime Minister of SwedenHelle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark3