1. Youth Guarantee 2013 Public-Private-People-Partnerships: the Finnish approach

2. Origin of the initiative
PES Offices in Finland have utilised a social guarantee for youth operating model for preventing the long-term unemployment of young jobseekers since 2005.
In accordance with this operating model, young people under 25 must be offered a measure that supports their employability and suits their situation in life within three months of uninterrupted unemployment at the latest.
As a result, periods of unemployment among young age groups have been shorter than those of the older age groups.

3. Youth unemployment in 2012
Number of registered young job seekers was on the average
Youth unemployment is relatively short-term: 19.4 % of the unemployment spells of young job seekers were longer than three months
However, young people between have completed only basic education
young people are not employed, in education and training or in activation measures (NEETs)
Activation rate among young job seekers is 37 % (all age groups 31 %)

4. Target groups The Youth Guarantee from 2013 onwards:
Target group and the aims of the revised Youth Guarantee:
Each young person under 25 and recently graduated under 30 will be offered a job, on-the-job training, a study place, or a period in a workshop or rehabilitation within three months of becoming unemployed.
Education guarantee: each comprehensive school graduate will be guaranteed a place in further education, workshop activity, rehabilitation or otherwise.

5. Duration and funding
Youth employment has a high priority on the Government agenda. Government’s framework budget decision for :
Youth guarantee: EUR 60 million annually (30 million to the Ministry of Employment and 30 million to the Ministry of Education)
Temporary “Skill programme” for young adults:
EUR 27 million for 2013,
EUR 52 million annually for

6. Envisaged role of different partners involved
The Finnish model:
PUBLIC-PRIVATE-PEOPLE-PARTNERSHIP
The Youth guarantee will be based on cooperation of
Officials,
Business,
Associations, where
Young themselves are active creators of their own future.
Open-minded changes to working methods are needed.

7. Youth Guarantee in Finland, 2013
Ministries: employment, education, social and health
Enterprises and other employers
Social partners
Youth organisations, student organisations
Third sector
Municipalities, education institutions, other service providers
Comprehensive model

8. How will it work? Employment services and active inclusion
Additional resources for young job seekers in the PES:
More career counselling opportunities in the employment offices
Permanent establishment of the so called Sanssi card (wage subsidy card) for lowering the employers’ threshold for hiring young people and supporting active job seeking
More training and language courses and counselling for young immigrants
Local youth work networks:
Municipal responsibility will be increased in counselling comprehensive school graduates
Outreach youth work will be widened to the whole country
Youth workshops will be widened to the whole country

9. How will it work? More training opportunities:
More study places in vocational education
Regional re-distribution of the study places according to the changes in the age groups
Changes of the acceptance criteria for vocational education and training
Higher training compensation (800 € per month) for employers for apprenticeships
Temporary “Skill programme” for young adults in 2013–2016: additional places will be targeted for those year olds who have performed only comprehensive school

10. Evaluation of the Youth Guarantee
Labour administration:
1. The flow of young people to more than 3 months unemployment
Result-oriented goal to regions: Young persons under 25:
the flow should not exceed 10% in 2013 (on average).
b) Result-oriented goal to regions for recently graduated persons 25-29:
the flow should not exceed 13% in 2013 (on average).
2) The quality and quantity of employment plans
3) Activation degree of young people
4) How many jobseekers under 25 years are in different measures
5) Customer feedback
6) Evaluation researchs, surveys

11. Evaluation of the Youth Guarantee
Ministry of Education and Culture:
During or after the selection of upper secondary education options, “drop outs” should be contacted in a manner agreed by the municipality’s youth network actors. If the transition from basic to further education fails, the situation should be addressed immediately in order to prevent the young person from being excluded from the education system and working life. The responsibility to support young people in the transition phases of their life needs to be clearly defined. (This is still under preparation.) Responsibility would shift smoothly from one actor to the next in line.
Municipalities:
Under the Basic Education Act, municipalities are obliged to organise basic education for all persons of compulsory school age residing within the borders of the municipality. Municipalities monitor the immediate placement of young people after finishing basic education, and ensure that those left without a place receive the information, counselling and guidance they need. The responsibility (related to basic education) of municipalities to provide guidance for pupils ends once a pupil has received his or her comprehensive school leaving certificate. In practice, however, many school counsellors handle the follow-up guidance just after completed basic education.

12. Starting date
Implementation of the renewed Youth Guarantee started from the beginning of 2013
The educational guarantee will apply to graduates who complete basic education in 2013 and after. The enforcement of the educational guarantee involves creating genuine opportunities for all basic education graduates to transition straight on to further education. As before, all young people must apply for education or training as part of the normal process for deciding where to study.
The educational guarantee will be supplemented with the skills programme for young adults aimed at providing people without an upper secondary level qualification the opportunity to complete a vocational qualification. The programme will be implemented on a temporary basis in 2013–2016.

13. Challenges of working in partnership and how to overcome these
Any single organization or authority cannot solve the challenge of youth unemployment alone. There is a need for broad co-operation at all levels.
The preparation of the new Youth guarantee has been carried out with partners: ministries, social partners incl. municipalities, youth associations and also youths themselves
All partners are involved in information campaign (Road Show) which takes place in September and October 2012
New ways to employ young people and to provide on-the-job training are under investigation. The labour market organizations have also requested their member unions to examine youth employment at the sectoral level and to take this target into account in the sectoral agreements. The employer organizations have launched recruitment campaigns to employ young workers.

14. Further information
The Finnish Youth Guarantee has been prepared in a working group which consisted of ministries, social partners and youth organisations.
Report - Youth Guarantee 2013 – is available in the Internet:
THANK YOU!