Could Erasmus-style work placements help solve youth unemployment?

2022 is the European Year of Youth, and in this episode Real Economy asks: what is being done to help young people, and especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, find jobs and training?

In the European Union young people aged 15-29 make up a sixth of the population. They have been some of the hardest hit by the economic effects of the pandemic, often the first to lose their jobs or to see a drop in income.

Although youth unemployment is coming down (14 % in February 2022 compared to 18.2% in the first quarter of 2021) young people are still twice as likely to be unemployed as the rest of the working-age population (where the average is 6.2 %.)

One in eight young adults in the EU are not in education, employment or training. They’re known as NEETs.

To help get young people into work, the EU’s Youth Guarantee guarantees that all young people under the age of 30 who sign up, will receive an offer of a job, apprenticeship, education, or training within four months.

Since it was adopted in 2013, more than 3 million young people have taken up an offer every year, with more than 36 million people helped so far.

EU Commissioner for Jobs and Social rights, Nicolas Schmit says that when countries implement the Youth Guarantee well it can have long-lasting results.

"When we look at the results, two years after entering the youth guarantee, we see around half of the young people are still engaged in a job or they are continuing their training or their professional education. So I would say overall, if well implemented, the Youth Guarantee is a very, very strong and helpful instrument."

One of the ways of helping implement the Youth Guarantee is offering young people from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance to gain new skills and