PARTNERSHIPS FOR YOUTH
Getting the young into jobs and business for successful working life

 

In co-operation with the German Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States, the Senate of Berlin Department for Labour, Integration and Women’s Issues, the German Federal Employment Agency, the European Youth Forum and gsub mbH - Social Business Consultancy Corporation

 

20-21 March 2012, Berlin, Germany 

  

What / Who / How / Contact

 

What

The transition from education to work is not easy for many young people, particularly when it comes to finding sustainable employment with progression opportunities. While many OECD countries have recently put in place new national policies to support youth, they will be more effective if they are implemented in a coordinated way at local level. Providing jobs for youth requires place specific cross sectoral responses involving different local players (schools, VET, universities, employment services, employers, not-for-profit organisations, regional and local authorities, and social partners) as part of wider local development strategies.

 

At the same time, it will be important for industry groups, colleges and employment agencies to work together to ensure that young people have the right skills and accurate careers guidance as to opportunities in the local economy, and career ladders to support employment progression. Many localities are putting in place programmes to attract and retain talented and skilled youth to support the growth of emerging or existing competitive advantage sectors. Skills utilisation in the workplace is a particular issue for young people – if talents are not spotted young, long term career trajectories can suffer.

 

For some young people, starting up their own business (including social enterprises) can be a viable alternative to dependent labour. Success here requires investment in entrepreneurship skills, creation of entrepreneurial attitudes as well as start-up and early-stage business development support.

 

The impact of demographic change and the ageing of societies in OECD countries put further pressure on labour markets to integrate the diminishing youth cohort. As industries and organisations age different job conditions are required for older workers and a better utilisation of in-house knowledge intensive activities between younger and older workers is required.

 

Who

The 8th Annual Meeting of the OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance brought together more than 200 representatives of local partnerships, government officials, local leaders, youth organisations, social entrepreneurs, business representatives, trade unions and academics to review how local development actors are adapting to this new reality and the innovations emerging on the ground to respond to these new challenges.

Look at some photos in this .

 

How

DAY 1. The high-level plenary sessions reviewed the current trends and issues in youth (un)employment and provided an opportunity to learn from the German experience in getting the young into jobs and supporting youth entrepreneurship. This set the context and objectives for the intensive 1.5 day agenda.

Several concurrent thematic workshops hosted by Berlin youth projects were organised around the following themes:

	YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP					SUPPORTING SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITION
		BUILDING FUTURES FOR YOUTH IN POVERTY					BUILDING SKILLS: THE ROLE OF DUAL TRAINING SYSTEM
JOINED UP APPROACHES TO YOUTH EMPLOYMENT					MANAGING DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE

A networking session on "Local initiatives for jobs, inclusion and business development" provided an excellent opportunity for all Forum members to exchange knowledge with peers and establish professional networks and contacts.

 

DAY 2. Four concurrent thematic workshops distilled policy lessons based on the results of day 1 project workshops, to respond to the following questions:

• What should social economy organisations be focusing on?
• What should local partnership organisations do?
• What should labour market and training institutions be focusing on?
• What should businesses do?

 Download the agenda

 Download the detailed agenda of concurrent workshops

 

Working language: English.

 

Contacts

For further information about the event, please contact Ekaterina Travkina and Elisa Campestrin at the OECD Secretariat.

 

Partners