On May 27th the Open Event of the YOUTHShare project took place at the Polo BiBlioteca in Potenza, Italy. A large online and physically present crowd attended the meeting, including the managers and researchers of the project, local policy makers, stakeholders and beneficiaries. The project was honoured also by the attendance and intervention by Mr Gian Luca Bombarda, Fund Director of the EEA & Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment. The event was organized by the Regional Agency for Employment and Training (ARLAB), beneficiary partner of YOUTHShare, and moderated by Mr Francesco Paolo di Ginosa, General Director of ARLAB.
Mr Canio Alfieri Sabia, DG of Economic Development of the Basilicata Region, addressed the event. He stressed the need to discuss ideas and new methods to involve the young in the employment process. Mr Sabia noted the experience of a former programme implemented by the Region, regarding the motivation to businesses to hire young people supported by public institutions for a period of 3 years. “Sometimes a company needs a person but can’t afford one”, Mr Sabia concluded.
Professor Stelios Gialis, project manager and principal invetsogator of the YOUTHShare project, stressed that many interventions are needed in the area of Basilicata since many people are inactive -not just unemployed- and without any motivation. The data already collected in the framework of the project showed that almost 25% of people aged 15-29 are NEETs. Dr Gialis noted that we need to motivate young people not only to find a job, but also to stay within the labour market and the region. Turning to the project itself, Dr Gialis said that YOUTHShare is currently in a very productive phase, still delivering results. More specifically, he mentioned the activities of the Transnational Employment Centre which offered training, internships, job matching and career support to more than 600 young people. He concluded by mentioning that projects like YOUTHShare of course don’t change the world, butthey give some brilliant ideas on how to start making this change.
The open event was also the opportunity to present some success stories of beneficiaries and mentors. The current Key Account Manager (KAM) of the Italian branch of the Employment Centre, Ms Claudia Caggiano, started as a beneficiary and after completing the training, she found herself given the unique opportunity to become the next KAM. Now, in the framework of YOUTΗShare, Ms Caggiano said that tailored engagement, targeted counselling and staying in touch with the beneficiaries, in tandem with vigorous outreaching, is a key to the success of the project goals. Ms Caggiano concluded by giving some interesting numbers. Currently more than 30 people are in contact with the project.
Mr Constantino Kounas, local management at ARLAB, took the floor, and talked about the support to social enterprises. He presented the Join2Share platform and the opportunities that provides to NEETs, mentors and social enterprises alike and supports all parties that consider starting a social enterprise. From seminars and webinars for NEETs to funding, legal and accounting support, the interested young unemployed people make use of a multiplicity of available tools and services to make their ideas come true.
Dr Ioannis Papageorgiou, Communication Manager of YOUTHShare, talked about the path for the future of the project. He started by realizing that, despite successes, there’s no room for relaxation. Youth unemployment is still here with us and people need structured social and political intervention our help in the sense of a structural social and political intervention to address the phenomenon. In the future the YOUTHShare project will establish the Youth Employment Monitor, anobservatory for youth unemployment in South Europe. In that framework, the YOUTHShare project will train young NEETs as data analysts to staff the Monitor and produce policy recommendations for local and regional policy makers and more focused scientific papers.
The Open Event was concluded by Mr Gian Luca Bombarda, who noted the importance of clustering between projects of the Fund for Youth Employment for the benefit of the NEETs, as well as the hard work that needs to be done in the future!
