Youths find jobs after EU-funded course

Forty-five per cent of the 367 youths benefitting from EU-funded training have successfully completed their course and found employment.

The Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) had been allocated €224,199 through the European Social Fund to train youths aged between 16 and 24 with limited work experience.

Each young person was placed on a scheme of 13 20-hour weeks while the ETC was responsible for finding them a place in companies in either the private or the public sector.

Employers were not obliged to pay the participants but were bound to offer them practical training and experience on the workplace.

The aim behind the scheme was to break the vicious circle of "no job, no experience; no experience, no job".