PRESENTATION Santa Ozolina Policy Officer Employment and Social Affairs The European Youth Forum: working towards a more inclusive & accessible labour market for young people

What is the European Youth Forum? *The European Youth Forum is a European youth-platform independently established by youth organisations, it is made up of more than 90 National Youth Councils and International Non- Governmental Youth Organisations, which are federations of youth organisations in themselves. * It brings together tens of millions of young people from all over Europe, organised in order to represent their common interests. *Representation, internal democracy, independence, openness and inclusion are among the main principles for the functioning of the European Youth Forum and its Member Organisations.

Youth Forum's Work on Youth Employment: a strategic priority * Youth employment has been a strategic priority for the Youth Forum for a number of years as a number of our Member Organisations work on the issue. * The Youth Employment issue became even more significant in due to the way in which young people in Europe were disproportionately affected by the Global Financial Crisis. With over 5 million people under the age of 25 unemployed in the EU27 by ( * To pursue lobbying and advocacy activities, Youth Forum has developed a number of policies and positions on employment issues, including: internships, youth employment in crisis and a “youth guarantee”; YFJ has also started a civil society and social partner initiative on European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships

Youth Organisations & Youth Employability * Youth organisations as main providers of non-formal education for young people thus increasing employability of young people: -personal development; -active citizenship; -various soft and interpersonal skills; * Youth organisations as bridges between young people and employers: -organising career days and workshops; -organising internships and supporting creation of workplaces; -organising and facilitating learning, internship and volunteering mobility; -developing instruments for recognition of skills and competences;

YFJ Work on Youth Employment: Youth Employment Action project * YFJ member organisations that are particularly concerned about the employment of young people have started “Youth Employment Action” (YEA) project in order to strengthen, support & promote existing activities of youth organisations in improving the employment situation of young people in Europe * Youth Council of Slovakia set up Young Entrepreneurs Support Network to launch co-operation and an exchange of knowledge and experience * AEGEE-Europe runs a project to increase the recognition of voluntary work as working experience, the recognition of non-formal education and to increase short-term job shadowing schemes for university and high-school students *Finnish Youth Co-operation Allianssi administers a 6 million Euro project on behalf of the Finnish government that has already created more than 1000 workplaces for young people

PRESENTATION Interns Revealed A Survey on Internship Quality in Europe

Interns Revealed: short survey overview v v # European Youth Forum created this survey due to lack of information and data about interns in Europe. # Respondents were asked to give information on their personal background, the number of internships they have done, their financial means and motivation. They were questioned about how they discovered the internship, which sector they worked in, whether they had a written contract and whether they received remuneration. Respondents were also asked to rate specific aspects of their internship experience and about expected outcomes. # The survey was made available online from April to July 2011.

Interns Revealed: short survey overview v v # Interns Revealed survey was distributed to member and partner oganisations of the YFJ, relevant educational institutions, trade unions, recipients of YFJ press releases via , and followers on a variety of social media websites. The survey was also promoted at YFJ events and statutory meetings. # Of the 3791 who accessed the survey, 3028 completed it. These 3028 constitute the respondents of the survey. # Six countries make up over half the survey population, with Germany (13%), Italy (11%) France (10%) being the largest contributors, followed by United Kingdom (7%), Spain (6,5%) and Romania (6,5%). # Shortcomings: results have some degree of self-selection bias. For this reason, the general characteristics of the whole population, which in this case is all European interns, cannot be reconstructed. Also because the general population of interns in Europe remains unknown.

Interns Revealed: general observations of results v # most interns are in their twenties; # internships typically last between 4 and 6 months; # majority of respondents have done one or two internships; # almost half of the respondents did their internship as a part of their formal studies, 77% of them in higher education; # most common ways of finding an internship is by applying directly to organisations, searching on the internet, and making use of personal connections; # most interns have contracts

Interns Revealed: general observations of results v v # main motivation for doing an internship is to improve CV, future job opportunities and lack of available jobs; # three out of four respondents were insufficiently compensated and had to rely on parental support, savings, or other forms of external financial means. This observation does not vary between sectors; # internship satisfaction rates reveal that interns value potential gains from the internship more than its costs; # the results from this survey suggest that doing internships have become the norm for many young Europeans and that the costs associated with them are accepted as necessary to secure future employment;

Need for quality standards v #young interns are, to an increasing extent, acting as extensions of, or replacements for, regular staff. # It remains highly discutable about who has access to internships, what function internships have, and how they affect the chances of finding employment. # quality framework is needed to ensure that when coupled with formal education, internships serve as a pathway into the labour market rather than constitute another unstable aspect of it. # internships need to be addressed and labelled, either as vehicles to bring youth into employment or as an integral part of studies, and treated accordingly. # Internships should not become yet another sub labour market for young people and overall the existing labour legislation should be enforced.

Need for quality standards: Show your support to the European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships For individuals: For organisations:

PRESENTATION The European Youth Forum: working towards youth entrepreneurship to become a viable option for every young person

Position Paper on Youth Entrepreneurship *European Youth Forum Position Paper on Youth Entrepreneurship one of the latest policy documents of the Forum that was adopted at the Council of Members, which took place in November 2011 in Braga, Portugal. *The Position Paper on Youth Entrepreneurship addresses the main issues affecting young people's ability to enter into the world of entrepreneurship and reaffirms the need for stable, enabling, and supportive environments through which youth can enter the field of entrepreneurship, and adds its voice to those affirming the innovative and impactive nature of the entrepreneurship, and believes that this will only be made stronger through a higher representation of young people within the entrepreneurial field.

European Youth Forum believes... * One way in which Europe can impact positively on young people, in a reinforcing and supportive manner is via entrepreneurship * Young people deserve the chance to impact on society, as well as to create stable futures for themselves, via the means of enterprise * It is essential to look beyond achieving profit and seek to ensure that business has a positive social or environmental impact, also considering various business organisation forms, for example. co-operatives However: * In order to earn a living and become independent most young people seek to become employees without exploring the possibilities of becoming an entrepreneur - only 4 % of young people aged and 9 % of those aged in Europe were self-employed in 2009 * Unfortunately young people often find entrepreneurship a sector simply too difficult, risky or even impossible to break into

Main Obstacles People in Europe are less likely to engage in entrepreneurial activities and the levels of entrepreneurship among young people are the lowest. The main reasons for that are: * Insufficient knowledge, inspiration and skills --->15-39 year olds name lack of business ideas and opportunities but also lack of skills as the main reasons for not becoming entrepreneurs * Insufficient start-up support and help in maintaining and expanding --->Access to finance is the most significant obstacle to starting up a business, as mentioned by 26.5% of year olds and 41.3% of year olds. * Lack of stability and security --->The need for young people to feel stable and secure with regard to their income, social protection, health insurance, and the ability to reconcile work and family life are usually underestimated as reasons not to choose entrepreneurship

Main EU activities in the area of youth employment and entrepreneurship: Europe 2020 Strategy and beyond * Europe 2020 Strategy and its targets: employment and job creation at the core * Europe 2020 Strategy and its governance process: National Reform Programmes and stakeholder involvement * “Youth Opportunities Initiative”

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