Annual Meeting PARTNERSHIPS FOR YOUTH - Economic Development ...

The discussion also did not acknowledge the possibility that the ‘success’ of the German model, i.e. a
current relatively low youth unemployment rate, may primarily be due to the overall strength of the
German economy and does not necessarily specifically owe to the virtues of its educational system.
Workshop 5 – Joined up approaches to youth unemployment
The workshop attendees visited the site of an apprenticeship-run restaurant, which takes on
apprentices from difficult socio-economic backgrounds and with previous learning and behavioural
issues at school. Following an introduction to the project, the workshop attendees commenced a
discussion utilising the fish-bowl concept. The following pages represent the conclusions of the
discussion and reflect the key messages by the attending experts including the author of this report.
Host project
Project "grips" in Marzahn-Hellersdorf and Masterplan for youth employment of the District
Marzahn-Hellersdorf
(hosted by ABU - Akademie für Berufsförderung und Umschulung mbH/ Mayor of the district
Marzahn-Hellersdorf)
Experts
Randall Eberts, Executive Director, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, US
Denis Leamy, Chief Executive of Pobal, Ireland
Alison Partridge, Director, Aurora European Services Ltd, UK
Le Duy Binh, Managing Director, Economica, Viet Nam
Sascha Strupp, Policy Officer, Adopt an Intern Programme, Centre for Scottish Public Policy, UK
Rationale
Providing jobs for youth requires place specific responses involving different local players as part of
wider local development strategies. This workshop will look at the importance of a joined up
approach in both tackling entrenched barriers and generating new networks of opportunity for
young people. It will examine ways of joint working to ensure that young people have accurate
careers guidance as to opportunities in the local economy, and career ladders to support
employment progression. It will address the issue of skills utilisation in the workplace and the need
to work closely with employers in terms of delivering new opportunities to young people, but also as
policy co-creators and co-implementers. Putting in place a networked response can also create a
more integrated service which allows participants to access a number of different, follow-on
programmes, thereby aiding continuous learning and development. In a time of constrained
budgets, policy makers and practitioners need to come up with cost saving measures to ensure
greater diversity in their funding stream by seek a mixture of funding such as employers, state, and
philanthropy.
Q1: How can joined up approaches at local level improve young people`s job and skills
opportunities? What is the added value of collaborative approaches (schools, local authorities,
jobcentres, enterprises and NGOs et cetera) in comparison to working in silos?
Q2: How to involve – in particular – local employers?
Q3: How to reach those of the young people who are far away from the labour market?
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