Investing in tomorrow's workers

During this week's plenary sitting in Strasbourg a very important and interesting report regarding the promotion of youth access to the labour market, the strengthening of trainee internship and apprenticeship status will be voted upon. This much waited for report was drafted by Emilie Turunen and I was entrusted by the EPP Group to be the shadow rapporteur of the report that is aimed to open more avenues for youths seeking their first employment and to those who want to continue learning while working. All this is in line with the EU 2020 strategy that is promoting growth in jobs especially targeted for the youth sector.

This report aims to help integrate youths in the labour market and cater for their needs, especially in view of the economic crisis that has caused so much turmoil throughout Europe over the past couple of years. It is important to note that, as an effect of the economic problem, both directly and indirectly, more than 5.5 million persons below the age of 25 were unemployed as at December 2009. This translates to a staggering 21.5 per cent of all people under 25 living in the European Union. Needless to say, a solution had to be sought and this report suggests various ways to soften the blow that youth employment has suffered.

Preparing youths to enter the labour world is not as simple as it may sound, especially when considering the fact that of the 80 million new jobs projected for the upcoming decade in Europe the vast majority will need a highly-skilled workforce, so unless something is done fast we will risk having more than 50 per cent of low-skilled workers finding it practically impossible to find adequate employment. This figure is sure to cause national governments a big headache, hence, the importance to address this problem as soon as humanly possible.

The Turunen report is therefore suggesting that the transition from the school benches to the labour world should be as smooth as possible and, in addition, during the transition the learning process should continue being combined with work whenever possible. Large companies and government entities will be encouraged to put into practice trainee, internship and apprenticeship schemes that, first of all, will automatically help to lower the level of discrimination that people of a young age face when entering the labour market for the first time and, secondly, will provide these entities with trained personnel who will certainly turn out to be an asset.

These schemes will also help ease discrimination between the sexes as, at present, it has been proved that young women find it even more difficult than young men to find suitable employment at the same conditions. It is EU policy to eliminate any kind of discrimination and this would be a welcome step forward in the right direction.

Providing employment to the people in the young age bracket is not enough, though. We have to ensure they are given the right conditions of work and that these conditions are enforced: traineeships and apprenticeships have sometimes in the past been the cover for abuse and we must be careful that this will not happen again. We have to keep in mind that first-time workers will be shifting from being dependent on their parents or the state to a situation where they will become economically independent and nothing should impede this from happening.

The report also calls on member states themselves to ensure that all jobs on offer are of a decent standard and that nobody fools about with statutory rights such as sick leave and other entitlements. It also highlights the worrying fact that benchmarks in relation to youth as listed in the Lisbon Strategy have not as yet been met.

We, as members of the European Parliament, the Commission and the national governments of all the 27 member states have to keep in mind the fact that these first-time workers will in no time at all become the backbone of the working force of the European Union and, as such, it is our duty to have them well prepared for the tasks that lie ahead. At least, now there is much more awareness on the subject than there was 10 years ago but I feel that the most important thing at this stage is to put the plan into action for the good of our younger generations and the generations to come.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.