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Description
Cowork4YOUTH is a research project aiming to increase knowledge on the impact of existing policies and offer policy suggestions to enhance youth employment opportunities in less-developed EEA regions. The direct target groups are the, usually ignored, NEETs aged 25-29, with particular emphasis put on young mothers and the long-term unemployed. From July 2022 until its completion in January 2024, Cowork4YOUTH will deliver 14 outputs, including a Research Network, an Observatory, papers, and policy suggestions. Through an integrated multi-scalar methodology, these outputs will help accomplish 5 outcomes.
Unemployment is a multi-faceted problem, with personal, social, and financial repercussions. If we are to overcome the issue, it is important to assess the effectiveness of European employment policies, such as the Youth Guarantee which in recent years has been the EU’s main instrument to tackle youth unemployment. It is also important to provide informed recommendations for improvement. To provide more targeted solutions, the project adopts a regional perspective across the study countries, focusing on tourism-dependent regions and regions in energy transition or industrial decline. Cowork4YOUTH, however, also explores the potential of alternative practices such as a socially-oriented platform economy and collaborative working spaces to contribute to the effectiveness of employment policies. The pandemic and its repercussions have forced stakeholders to look into alternative ways of invigorating the economy, and the time is right to investigate these practices.
Cowork4YOUTH will expand its impact beyond the funding duration following an integrated sustainability and scalability plan.
Summary of project results
Cowork4YOUTH is an Analysis and Research project aiming to increase knowledge on the impact of existing policies and offer policy suggestions to enhance youth employment opportunities in less developed EEA regions. The project adopted a transnational/ regional perspective by focusing on a binary of non-metropolitan regions across all study countries, especially Greece, Italy, Spain, and Ireland: tourism-dependent, island or remote coastal regions, on the one hand, and regions facing energy transition, decarbonisation or intense industrial decline on the other. This binary suffers from relatively high NEET rates and its comparative study allowed for a deeper understanding of the impact of employment policies on youth and for designing more effective policies through socially-oriented platform economy and collaborative work practices.
The Cowork4YOUTH completed a series of deliverables including pilot & baseline studies, PhD scholarships, transnational reports, impact studies, scientific publications and policy recommendations. All can be reached through the website (https://bit.ly/3UglHOO). The baseline study set the ground of current youth employment status and has found that even though the countries examined share similar issues, there is considerable variation in the composition of these challenges both within and between countries. The research also highlights that differences run between men and women, while no country had returned to pre-recession levels of youth employment by 2019. The transnational observatory (https://bit.ly/4aXKooL) visualizes via maps and figures socio-economic and socio-environmental data, related to youth employment. The pilot study mapped the relationship between NEETs and collaborative working spaces in rural areas and showed good practices for engaging young people in creative and entrepreneurial ways.
The most significant findings from the project research:
- The results show that NEETs with work experience account for two-thirds of total NEETs in Spain and around 40% in Greece, Italy and Ireland.
- Elementary occupations are highly connected with the NEET situation; thus a skills development policy is needed.
- While policies can have an impact, their success in boosting youth employment can vary based on the unique economic conditions of each area.
- Successive crises (economic recession, COVID-19, etc) have significantly impacted youth employment in many ways within the different countries'' contexts.