The local implementation of the Reinforced Youth Guarantee

Contracting Party: The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) (under the Framework Contract No. CDR/TL2/59/2017/1) 

Period: 2021-2022 

URL: The local implementation of the Reinforced Youth Guarantee  

Description: 

This study, co-authored with Progress Consulting S.r.l., is centred around the implementation of the 2020 Council Recommendation on Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee, whose objective is to support youth employment across the EU in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which generated a high youth unemployment rate and increased the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs).  

Against this backdrop, it analyses the implementation of the Recommendation at local level considering cooperation between local or regional authorities (LRAs) and relevant stakeholders, quality of offers, mobility, territoriality, evidence-based policy-making and sustainability of postings through upskilling and re-skilling.  

After defining the state of play of the key features of Youth Guarantee (YG) schemes at local level, an inventory of local and regional youth guarantee schemes implemented across the EU has been presented, referring to the phases of mapping, outreach, preparation and offer and to the above-mentioned core elements of the CoR Opinion.  

Ten case studies have also been developed in order to look in a more detailed way into specific implementation areas (i.e., ways to identify NEETs, type of approach for NEETs’ engagement, type of individualised actions, type of partnership, cooperation with LRAs and quality of offers). These cases provide a better understanding of how different approaches are used in different local and regional realities, showing some innovative ways to implement YG schemes at local level.  

In addition to case study development, foresight considerations regarding youth unemployment – also considering the challenges faced during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic -  and concrete recommendations to LRAs, Member States and the EU regarding the implementation of Reinforced Youth Guarantee schemes at local level have been provided.