As much as 90% of young Slovaks think that young people do not have enough opportunities to find an adequate employment, the majority (73%) of the participants of the survey believe that young people have ample opportunities to continue in their studies, however the opportunities to find a job still remain a problem. According to the opinions expressed in a survey, the small opportunities to succeed on the labour market result to the fact that young people do not have real chances to acquire a work habits which lead them into economic difficulties. Such "black perspective" makes up 55% of the respondents feels frustrated and unused.The frustration of young people is getting a featuring topic and trend across Europe. Among other demonstrations of these trends can be listed also a rapid increase of extremism, intolerance and “ghost enemy hunt”. The rise of extremism, among others, is betting to be among common characteristics, when considering the election results. Visegrad countries, namely Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, are not an excuse and the named trends are, unfortunately, getting a common and well accommodated features of nowadays picture.The model of Youth Guarantees, which became a main EC approach tackling the youth unemployment is trying to reflect this situation by the facilitating the access to the first and better job for young people up to 25 years old. Although the program has been implemented in all Visegrad countries for almost two years, at the local level it remains unknown and its implications are unclear. One of the reasons may be its implementation exclusively at the national level, through established structures of labour offices without any involvement of any other stakeholder. Informal interviews with the representatives of relevant ministries in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary confirmed the will of the authorities responsible for the Youth Guarantees implementation to streamline and bring the program implementation over to the local level, at the same time, however, each of them also confirmed the lack of capacity to change this situation.Project and its activities are inspired by practices of Youth Guarantees implementation in Finland, where it is concentrated at the local level with the strong involvement of the local stakeholders. In each of the involved Visegrad country the project aims to create a precedent related the implementation of the youth guarantees on the local level, based on which the relevant ministries will be inspired to reconsider the implementation of the Youth Guarantees from the national to the local level, which could create an excellent condition for strengthening the quality of the youth work on the local level, as the Youth Guarantees model will at least till 2022 remain a key and generously funded instruments to tackle youth unemployment in each of in the project participating countries.
The common project under the gestion of non-for-profit organization Epic, Municipality of Zvolen and expert partner of Education Division of Municipality in Turku (Finland) named “Realization of Youth Guarantee on the local level” has initiated in September 2016 and was accomplished in August 2019. The main aim of the project was to create vital and innovative collaboration between diverse organizations and individuals (representatives of local schools, employers, students, town of Zvolen, civic organizations, support professionals, Labor Office, lecturers, etc.) so to make a multisectoral network of cooperation. The main goals of the meetings and subsequential activities was to support education, employability and employment of all young people, especially within the region. The working group members (altogether around 25 active people, more then 50 connected) of local youth guarantee were meeting among themselves regularly, altogether 15 times during the project period January 2017 – May 2019. They were exchanging information, experiences, contacts and making corporations – and foremost they were suggesting measures in order to improve provision of youth guarantee values on the local level. The members of the working group themselves were the ones that suggested as well as realized the project activities. The working group identified 4 main areas of local youth guarantee provision which formed the foundation for the local action plan. The pilot testing has been realized of the activities by members of the working group. Four areas of the local Action Plan of Youth Guarantee: (1) Improvement of networking and cooperation between the local employers, schools and local government – municipality; (2) Adequate support in education and prospective for employability of young people with disadvantages; (3) Raise of support measures in career counseling at local schools (primary, secondary) as well as in non-formal environment; (4) Formation of one-stop-shop center for young called “Konekt” people up to 29 years old and workers with youth. After the opening of Konekt (in January 2019) all the activities and meetings of the collaborating organizations have moved to these premises. Konekt has become the main realizer of youth guarantee on the local level. Main goals of Konekt: 1 - Help raise of knowledgeability of all young people about the possibilities of education, employment, personal growth and participation, foremost within the region; 2- Facilitate and assist in realization of diverse forms of support for young people in order to improve the accessibility of quality services; 3 – Initiate and help cooperation between the professionals working with young people and supporting them; 4 – Provide non-formal space for young people in the region, their participation and active spending of leisure time that responds to their needs. During 7 months of existence of Konekt (February 2019 - August2019) there were realized over 55 events with over 400 of individual visits. These figures, together with active commitment of the members of the working group showed the willingness to continue in local youth guarantee provisions. Members of the working group have initiated formation of the civil organization of OZ KONEKT Zvolen. The premises of Konekt belong to the Municipality which support activity of Konekt by this means. Since the project official end there is continuity as well as already new collaborations showing up – from the part of self-governing regional body, municipality of Zvolen or other accessible grant schemes.