Youth Guarantee must be part of a holistic response to youth unemployment – Senator Kathryn Reilly
Speaking from Brussels today Senator Kathryn Reilly stated that the Youth Guarantee must be part of a holistic response to youth unemployment.
Senator Reilly made the comments after attending ‘Youth Guarantee: Making it Happen’- a high level conference on the youth guarantee organized by the European Commission.
"The overwhelming theme from this conference was the need for quality and making sure young people were facilitated into appropriate education, training or apprenticeships relevant to their own needs. While the government may talk about increases in jobs, the fact remains there is still a jobs crisis and this is particularly evident in high levels of working poverty amongst young people.
"The youth guarantee cannot be a short term solution or a quick fix to the youth unemployment problem. The Government need to take holistic actions to make sure that all young people are catered for in securing a job in the future- not just investment in the guarantee, but also to ensure jobs are being created and that young people are not being exploited. We cannot have a revolving door of low paid jobs or placements that do not go anywhere.
"Young people should have a critical role in the design, implementation and indeed evaluation of the guarantee itself. Without the feedback and opinions of those at the centre of the process, there is an inherent danger that we will end up back at square one.
"Listening to contributions from the ILO, the OECD and the G20, it became clear that the benefits of investing in the guarantee outweigh the costs of inaction. The Irish government needs to move to reassess the funding it has earmarked for the guarantee with a view to further funding so that more young people can be targeted earlier. Similarly, youth organisations need to play a central role in the guarantee and I would urge the minister to detail the partnership approach she intends to pursue with these groups in the achievement of the guarantee"