EU drive to find youth a job or course

By Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

ONE-IN-FIVE young Irish people aged 15 to 25 years are not in work, education or training, the third highest proportion in the EU.

Countries are being urged to devise ways to help the more than 7.5 million unemployed youth in the EU to return to education or get into the labour force, using €30 billion of still unspent EU funds.

But Ireland will not be able to tap very much of the fund because it has been the most efficient in the EU, drawing down close to 95% of its share.

The latest figures show close to 30% of Irish people aged 18 to 24 are unemployed. Many of them have little hope of finding work because they left school early to take up jobs in the building boom and are now ill-equipped to find work in the downturn.

The chances of many, including a growing number of university graduates, becoming long-term unemployed and creating a lost generation is growing, the European Commission has warned.

They are not getting the kind of work experience they need to allow them transition to full time employment, Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor warned. And others are being exploited by employers, working for little or no money, on a temporary basis without proper contracts and no prospect of a full time job, he said.

There is a skills mismatch also with lots of jobs available in some areas but young people do not have the relevant training, and few have learned languages that would allow them to seek the jobs they are qualified for in other EU countries.

The commissioner called on member states, workers’ representatives and business to join forces to tackle youth unemployment which now stands at 5m and is costing the economy an estimated €2 billion a week — 1% of the EU’s GDP.

Through a new drive, the Youth Opportunities Initiative, €30bn in the social fund, unspent so far because countries have not come up with projects that can be funded, will be available to help young people get back to work. Some €3m will be allocated for technical assistance to help countries with apprenticeship and placement programmes to help young people find jobs in another member state.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, December 21, 2011