Commission and business leaders partner up to boost youth employment and inclusion in European

Today the European Commission together with companies launch the European Pact for Youth, a mutual engagement of business leaders and the EU to create a culture of business-education partnerships to improve the chances for young people of getting a job, at the Enterprise 2020 Summit.

Today the European Commission together with companies launch the European Pact for Youth, a mutual engagement of business leaders and the EU to create a culture of business-education partnerships to improve the chances for young people of getting a job, at the Enterprise 2020 Summit. The Pact, initiated by The European Business Network for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR Europe), is an appeal to all business, social partners, education and training providers and other stakeholders to develop or consolidate partnerships in support of youth employability and inclusion.

Together we will support the creation of 10,000 quality business-education partnerships, with the shared target to establish together at least 100,000 new good quality apprenticeships, traineeships or entry-level jobs.

Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, said:“Our top priority has been to get Europe growing again and to stimulate good quality job creation. I welcome these business-education partnerships leading to 100,000 new youth opportunities. It builds on the successful European Alliance for Apprenticeships. The Commission, together with business, is moving now towards one quarter million new opportunities for young people across Europe”. I look forward to many more businesses and associations joining this Pact to boost opportunities for young people in Europe.”

Etienne Davignon, President of CSR Europe said: “With the Pact, our ambition is to deliver a long standing impact for young people’s future jobs and Europe’s sustainable competitiveness. Business-education partnerships are a must! We are confident that this will be a game-changer, much like Erasmus has been over the past 28 years.”

The European Commission will provide technical support to the Pact and assist the participating stakeholders in its implementation. The outcomes of this joint work will be presented at the 1st Enterprise-Education Summit in December 2017.

This initiative has the endorsement of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and the Presidents of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the European Council, Donald Tusk.

The Pact aims to help build a pro-youth and pro-innovation Europe by creating a fair and equitable culture of partnerships between business, education and young people. These partnerships are designed to enhance the quality of training and skills that young people can acquire, including transversal digital, entrepreneurial, green and soft skills.

Examples are initiatives that support non-formal and informal learning, projects that boost apprenticeships or aim to make learning science and technology more attractive. Finally, they will support Europe’s teachers and particularly, equip young teachers with the necessary skills to become leaders in the classroom.

Courtesy of the European Commission