Cowork4YOUTH’s Open Event on May 11th at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin, themed “Employment Opportunities for Young People”, turned to be a very successful event; not only in terms of outcomes regarding the discussions around important research findings on the main subject, but also regarding the publicity and consequently the public interest it attracted.
The event included presentations from academics who are involved in youth unemployment research, organizations that work with youths towards fulfilling their job aspirations and a panel that consisted of representatives of relevant government departments and state agencies. Also, in line with Cowork4YOUTH’s synergy policy, aiming to promote exchange of knowledge and good practices, the StayOn project, also funded by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment participated in the event.
Mr Massimiliano Mascherini, Head of the Social Policies Unit of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), a tripartite European Union Agency, talked about “NEETs in Europe and the Impact of the Pandemic”, where in his conclusions he underlined the fact that the future depends upon its young population and that the effects of the pandemic were indeed more severe on young people but they were rather effectively “reversed”, in contrast to the 2008-2013 economic crisis. He also concluded that the consequences of the NEETs phenomenon are dramatic not only for the individuals themselves, but also for the society as a whole; and last but not least, that the EU member states are indeed in the correct position to lower the NEET rates, but they need to customise their policies according to the needs of each sub-group (eg women and living in rural areas).
Dr Adele Whelan, Senior Research Officer at the ESRI, at her presentation “Determinants of Youth Employment” talked about youth employment rates facing a drop due to COVID-19 but recovering now, that youth employment has been growing slower in regions where it was initially lowest (slow divergence) and that young people involved in “brown” (high carbon-emmitting) sectors experience lower employment rates than the ones in “green” and “coworking” sectors. The key research questions for that study were about providing a descriptive assessment of trends in youth employment across regions of Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain, measuring the degree of convergence/ divergence in the evolution of youth employment in NUTS2 regions and identifying some of the underlying drivers of youth employment.
Relevant subjects also presented at the Open Event were “Youth Work Ireland Tipperary: Youth Employment Initiative” by Moira Merrigan (Youth Work Ireland Tipperary), “SICAP Social Inclusion Programme: A Youth Perspective” by Martin Quingley (Pobal) and “Young Adults and Labour Market Scarring: Consequences and the Policy Response” by Barra Roantre (ESRI).
The panel discussion “Employment Opportunities for Young People: Challenges and Opportunities ahead” was followed by fruitful discussion and it also marked the conclusion of the Open Event.
—————-
Stay connected with us through our social media:
facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn: @Cowork4YOUTH, and visit our website https://www.cowork4youth.org/
