October 2021, the launch of the Cowork4YOUTH project. December 2021, the kick-off, in Athens, Greece. And now, two years later, the final event. Again in Athens, Greece. The circle is about to close.
The agenda was filled with 3 days worth of presentations; discussions with stakeholders, academics, and policy makers; workshops of different kinds; and a study visit! The Final Event was made up of two major parts: the two-day Cowork4YOUTH workshop organised by ELARD, titled “Cowork4YOUTH: What are the good practices?”, and the CoworkYOUTH Conference, organised by the Rhodes Project, with the title “Youth Employment in Transition: Regional perspectives within successive crises”.
The Cowork4YOUTH Workshop, held at the Romantso venue in the historic centre of Athens, brought together researchers from the project and practitioners in coworking spaces and similar alternative institutions working with young people. There were 47 participants in total and 23 organizations representing 7 countries.
The first part of the workshop comprised the presentation of each organization’s operations and best practices. This provided a broad snapshot of the varied ideas and methods put into practice across Europe to combat youth unemployment. This exchange of best practices was then complemented by the presentation of Cowork4YOUTH researchers of their findings, providing a great mix and comparison of academic and practical points of view.
A similar approach was followed on the second day, only this time the order was reversed: the day began with presentations by Cowork4YOUTH researchers. In the afternoon, the workshop participants went on an informative visit to the POP-Machina Pireaus makerspace. Continuing the exchange of best practices in this new space in Pireaus, provided a great opportunity for discussion, reflection, networking and inspiration.
The 3rd day was dedicated to the Cowork4YOUTH Conference “Youth Employment in Transition: Regional perspectives within successive crises”. It started with addresses by the deputy Governor of the Region of the South Aegean Chara Giasirani, and Antonios Rovolis, director of the Institute of Urban Environment and Human Resources, which is the lead partner of the Cowork4YOUTH project. The next session included addresses by Georgia Tzika, the Head of National Focal Point of the EEA Financial Mechanism, and Francesca Bombarda on behalf of the FO and the Regional Funds Magazine.
The next session was about Meeting the projects, where Cowork4YOUTH P.I. Professor Vassilis Avdikos talked about the targets and objectives of the project. In the framework of our synergies policy, two more FYE projects were presented: Eleni Bletsa presented the YES! project and Georgia Lesiova presented YENESIS.
The session “Cowork4YOUTH Outputs 1: Contemporary issues in youth employment” included presentations about “Determinants of Youth Employment: Transnational report on employment potential for young people through alternative sectors” by Adele Whelan (ESRI)· the conclusions highlighted that young people “are more likely to be exposed to higher rates of employment” when there are “greater shares of tertiary educated individuals” and that “regional labour markets have higher shares of employees in ‘brown’ sectors” where young people are more likely to “be exposed to lower rates of employment”. The session continued with a presentation on “The long-lasting scar of bad jobs in the Spanish labour market” by Ainhoa Oses Arranz (ISEAK), followed by Kostas Gourzis and Vassiliki Krommyda (NTUA) who presented a paper about “Youth labour in energy in energy regions through successive crises”.
At the following session “Cowork4YOUTH Outputs 2: Impact of alternative sectors on youth employment”, Dimitris Psarologos (NTUA) made a presentation about “Conducting research based on comprehensise visualisation and analysis platforms: presenting the Cowork4YOUTH Employment Observatory”, Antigoni Papageorgiou (UEHR) talked about the pilot study, its targets, methodology and findings, and Dimitris Manoukas (UEHR) made a presentation on “Youth employment and engagement policies and collaborative workspaces: case studies from Spain, Denmark, Italy and Ireland”.
The session “Recommendations for Youth Employment in a changing environment” included a presentationof recommendations on skills gap by Manolis Boniatis (RP) and a presentation of recommendations on alternative sectors by Sophia Kanaouti (RP).
The Cowork4YOUTH Conference concluded with a round table discussion on the issues raised by the findings presented earlier during the day. The round table comprised: Dr. Aggelos Panayiotopoulos, Senior Lecturer in International Tourism Management at Liverpool John Moores University; Dr. Maria Karamessini, Professor of Labour Economics and Economics of the Welfare State at Panteion University; and Nikolaos Ntavos, Manager of Bioeconomy and Environment Cluster of Western Macedonia.
Stay connected with us through our social media:
facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn: @Cowork4YOUTH, and visit our website https://www.cowork4youth.org/
