Youth Policies

General background and the role of Region and Local Authorities

Among European countries, regional and local authorities play a crucial role in youth policies. Many competences are delocalised, and regions act as primary providers of policies, especially in the framework of setting out the tools for young people to enter the labour market.

Purposes of the Working Group

The aim of the working group is to establish a constant exchange of best practices between members. As “youth” is a concept as broad as possible, the WG concentrates its activities on the following areas:

Youth mobility in VET
Apprenticeships
Youth entrepreneurship

Ongoing initiatives

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YES – Youth Entrepreneurial Spirit

The youth unemployment rate is still very high in many European countries. This dramatic situation represents a waste of potential and competences of young people who do not find accomplishment in a fair and recognised job.

Regional and local governments are working hard on this field and are implementing measures to improve training, employment and self-employment of your people. Indeed, entrepreneurship and self-employment are seen as one of the ways to fight unemployment and our regions and municipalities support measures to foster entrepreneurship.

EARLALL’s Working Group on Youth Policies would like to boost the topic at

European level. Therefore, throughout 2017, it was particularly active on the issue of young entrepreneurship, collecting existing best practices at local level, which were presented at a conference in Brussels. “YES – Youth Entrepreneurial Spirit” aims to systematize the best practices regarding resourcefulness and self-entrepreneurship, from the experience gained in the education system to a proper support for business creation. The conference shared successful strategies that are improving the transition from education to employment and reducing the number of young people leaving school early. For example, possible pathways for work-linked training will be presented as they are considered extremely useful in supporting young people to find employment.

The focus was the analysis and possible exchange of best practices concerning the measures adopted by the different regional governments towards young professionals, young entrepreneurs and young managers. The aim was to discuss which policies and measures are promoted or should be promoted to help young professionals, entrepreneurs and managers to acquire the necessary skills and competences to best run their own business.