Taking forward Youth Guarantee schemes in the Western Balkans

Reaching out to young people that are not in employment, education or training – the so-called NEETs that can represent a significantly group of disadvantaged youths in most countries – is among the key aims of education, training and transition to work strategies across European Union and its Neighbouring countries.

In the Western Balkans – where Youth Guarantee implementation plans modelled on schemes introduced in the EU  – are beginning to be rolled out, perfecting outreach strategies and career guidance is a core focus.

A two-day conference hosted September 24-25 by the European Commission, the ETF, the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, and Finland’s ministries of employment and education in Helsinki targeted the work being done in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, to reach out to young people under 30 that struggle to form successful strategies for moving forward in their personal and professional lives. The event was organised through the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument of the European Commission TAIEX - European Commission (europa.eu)

The EU’s Youth Guarantee – which promises to offer those classified as NEETs employment, work based learning or further education or training within four months since leaving education or becoming unemployed – brings multiple government agencies, youth organisations and other actors  together to tackle school-to-work transition.

It is not enough to simply offer the Youth Guarantee measures without designing effective strategies for reaching out to young people, participants at the conference heard.

“Young people deserve the best opportunities to develop their potential and to shape their future, and it is our duty to support them by investing in the youth of today,” Adrienn Kiraly, the European Commission’s Neighbourhood East and Institution Building director, told the conference in a video address.

The Youth Guarantee had “already significantly reduced the rate of youth unemployment in EU states,” she said, adding “we hope to see similar results in the Western Balkans in the years to come.”

The Youth Guarantee was “more than just a policy, it is a promise to the next generation that we will do everything in our power to ensure they have the support and guidance to succeed.”

Pilvi Torsti, the ETF’s director, stressed that a proactive approach to engaging with young people at risk of becoming NEETs, was essential to the success of the Youth Guarantee.

“Real impact only happens when there is a concrete approach in taking into account the evidence basis and a real commitment to youth,” she said.

“Keep the young people in your sights all the time – we are creating something not for the future, but for the present for those young people searching for their futures in uncertain times.”

Teija Felt, a Labour Market Counsellor at Finland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, outlined the country’s belt and braces approach to reaching out to young people to offer them access to the Youth Guarantee opportunities at regional and local level.

Developed since 2011 and embedded in a cross-sectoral approach to helping young people at a challenging point in their lives, Finland now has 65 regional youth centres known as Ohjaamo One Stop Youth Guidance Centres, where young people can access free help for their employment and training questions and get career guidance and counselling services as well as other types of support and advice.

Through bringing services to young people – connecting via social media, booths at malls and events, and through personal referral (including statutory referrals from educational and military establishments when young people drop out), Finland had brought its NEET figures down from 13.3% in 2015 to 9% in 2023, Ms Felt said.

A key to its success was that the Ohjaamo centres engaged with young people on an entirely voluntary basis, and brought together under one roof all the professional guidance services they needed – career, education and training, employment and other essential elements of support, she added.

The €13 million a year programme, which reaches around 26,500 young people every year is firmly designed for its users, said Janne Savolainen, Finland’s Youth Guarantee coordinator at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

“We have involved youth from the very beginning of the One Stop Shop establishment”, he said. “They have been involved at the national local and regional level in advice on design, where the offices should be located, the most important services they expected to be offered, and other aspects.”

Turning to developments in the Western Balkans, Florian Kadletz, ETF Human Capital Development expert, said that key to countries involved at different stages of piloting or rolling out new Youth Guarantee schemes is to examine how they could be best prepared so that “young people can be ready to take up offers of employment or training.”, underlining the critical role of outreaching strategies and relevant career guidance and counselling systems. 

Representatives from education, training and employment sectors in the region detailed where they were in the process of designing and piloting the Youth Guarantee schemes in the Western Balkans.

In Albania a pilot scheme has been extended until the end of 2024, by when 500 young people will have had “positive exit routes from the scheme,” Olta Manjani, Albania’s Deputy Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation said.

Klevis Hysa, Director General of the country’s National Agency for Employment and Skills, added that rolling out the national scheme in 2025 would be “challenging” but stressed that digitalisation was at the heart of the process.

Ljiljana Jurak, Assistant Ministerfrom the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said they were in the final stages of developing the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan fitted to the country’s administrative organisation, with  preparation for piloting currently in progress.

In Kosovo preparatory work is underway to launch a pilot scheme in January 2025, although the funding issues remain challenging.

“We are developing a strategy for outreach, and when we receive funds, we shall start tracking youth and follow their transition to the labour market,” Leunora Zylfijaj, Youth Guarantee coordinator at the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfer  said, She added some piloting work had already been done with the help of the International Labour Organisation.

Montenegro also launches its pilot Youth Guarantee Scheme in January 2025, and will prioritising ensuring that all youngsters, including from rural or remote areas, can access it, via digital and social media tools, Dragana Vojvodic, General Director at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue, said.

Although North Macedonia was the first country in the Western Balkans to implement a Youth Guarantee scheme, funding issues still represent a challenge for outreach activities. However, such challenges are being address through coordinated action via youth organisations for the identification and registration of NEETs, Mladen Frchkovski, of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Youth Guarantee coordinator said.

Serbia is also at an advanced stage, with Youth Guarantee model being developed by the ministry in charge with employment affairs, National Employment Service, ministries of education and youth as well as other stakeholders. A  legal change is due in 2025 that will secure the coordination model for  outreach activities.

“We are concentrating on information campaigns for young people in their final years of school to ensure they continue with job-search and labour market integration  immediately after leaving education,” said Milana  Sekulić, from the  Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs.

Delegates also heard about examples of good practice from Estonia, Slovakia and  Belgium, all of which had navigated funding and policy challenges to establish Youth Guarantee schemes that put trust and good relationships at the core of their work with NEETs.

Site visits to Finnish youth guidance centres and more focused activities on designing outreaching strategies were also on the agenda for the rest of the conference.