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“Youth Unemployment? No, Thanks!”

2020-1-IT03-KA105-0178972020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: IT|AM|GE|UA|PT|TR · Grant: €20,842.87
Social entrepreneurship / social innovationLabour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemploymentYouth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Objectives

Approximately 15 million young people aged 20-34 in the EU are neither involved in employment, nor in education and training. Italy has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Europe and more than a quarter of young people are out of the labor market. Youth Unemployment is also alarmingly high in the EU’s Neighborhood. In Armenia, for example, the youth unemployment rate is 37%, making it the highest youth unemployment rate in the Eastern Partnership region, while in Turkey it hits record high of 28%. As a response to the high unemployment rates in Europe, young people from 6 different countries (Italy, Portugal, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Turkey) have developed the “Youth Unemployment? No, Thanks!” Youth Exchange project. The Exchange gathered 36 young people from the Programme countries (Italy, Portugal and Turkey) and the Partner countries (Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine) with the aim of exploring the topic of youth unemployment as well as informing, motivating and enabling young people to raise the issue back in their communities and develop solutions. Throughout the exchange, young people shared their knowledge and experience on how to combat unemployment, what are the skills needed for job seeking in 21st century, how to access the labor market and what are the necessary employability and entrepreneurship skills in nowadays Europe. The main objectives of the Youth Exchange were the following: A. Sharing experiences and best practices on youth unemployment in participating countries and exchange useful information; B. Exchanging knowledge, experience and information on how to combat unemployment and what are the necessary employability and entrepreneurship skills required from young people in the labor market; C. Reflecting on unemployment situation of young people in Europe; D. Stimulating young peoples’ spirit of initiative, creativity, entrepreneurship and employability through inputs from group leaders and peer-to-peer learning; E. Encouraging development of partnerships between young people and designing new local activities and youth exchanges within Erasmus+ programme, targeting unemployed youngsters. The Youth Exchange was based on Non-Formal Education methodology. Active participation, group-work and teamwork, as well as theoretical inputs characterized the program of the exchange. Through participation in different scale activities, such as discussions, presentations, field visits, participants exchanged their skills and experiences on youth unemployment, entrepreneurship, social exclusion and partnership and cooperation perspectives in different parts of Europe. Additionally, participants learnt more about the realities in the Southwestern and Eastern Europe as well as Caucasus.

Project partners (6)