Annual Meeting PARTNERSHIPS FOR YOUTH - Economic Development ...

Plenary Session III – Lessons learnt and the way forward
The discussion panel included a number of representatives of European youth organisations and
focused very much on the concerns voiced by young people with regards to their employment
prospects in the current economic climate.
A common concern voiced by the youth organisation representatives was the lack of recognition for
informal education. The participants lamented employers’ primary focus on formal educational
qualifications at the expense of other educational informal experience such as voluntary work, social
activism or similar pursuits. It was suggested that as employers demand more and more flexibility of
their workforce, they in turn should adopt a more flexible approach in providing additional
opportunities for young people via quality internships, work placements or designated projects.
An important point of discussion was the lack of engagement with young people during the process
of policy formulation. Most policy-making bodies in labour market policy at a local, regional or
national level have no structured consultation process that approaches young people and takes onboard
their concerns. The panellists deemed that youth organisations have an important part to play
in feeding information to policy-makers and taking an active role in the process of policy-formulation
not only as a pressure-group, but as experts with unique insight.
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