What is the reinforced Youth Guarantee?
The reinforced Youth Guarantee is a commitment by all Member States to ensure that all young people under the age of 30 receive a good quality offer of
- employment
- continued education
- apprenticeship
- traineeship
within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving education.
All EU countries have committed to the implementation of the reinforced Youth Guarantee in a Council Recommendation of October 2020. The Recommendation is based on a Commission proposal, part of the Youth Employment Support package.
How was the Youth Guarantee reinforced in 2020?
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an unprecedented crisis which affected young people disproportionally. In order to guarantee comprehensive and rapid support to young people, the Commission proposed to reinforce the Youth Guarantee, including by enlarging itstarget group to 15 to 29 year-olds.
The reinforced Youth Guarantee caters for the millions of youth at risk of unemployment unable to enter today’s labour market, without losing sight of activating the hardest-to-reach who may have been facing multiple obstacles for years. The tailored, individualised approaches are at the heart of the reinforced Youth Guarantee; providing young people with the appropriate levels of guidance and helping them find crash courses or boot camps training possibilities if upskilling proves to be necessary.
Such approaches take into account local labour market intelligence , acknowledging also the opportunities provided by the accelerating digital and green transitions.
What has been achieved so far?
The Youth Guarantee has created opportunities for young people and acted as a powerful driver for structural reforms and innovation. As a result, most public employment services (PES) have improved and expanded their services for young people.
Evidence suggests that the Youth Guarantee has had a major transformative effect. Both the number of NEETs and the youth unemployment have dropped significantly since the start of the Youth Guarantee in 2013. Altogether, about 50 million young people started an offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeships and traineeships thanks to the Youth Guarantee schemes. However, significant action is still necessary in order to reach all young people in need of support.
Member States implement the Youth Guarantee on the basis of their national Youth Guarantee implementation plans.
EU support
The Recommendation is backed up by significant EU financing under NextGenerationEU and the long-term EU budget, mainly through the European Social Fund Plus.
The EU provides policy support and mutual learning activities to help Member States strengthen the infrastructure and measures for the reinforced Youth Guarantee. The EU also monitors progress across Member States.
