“We want it to be a learning process building on experiences from
the many different [ESF] projects. It’s too easy to loose such
knowledge, and we don’t want to do that,” says Susanne Zander, who is
project coordinator for “Young Workers” at the Swedish National Board
for Youth Affairs.
One in four Swedish youths are unemployed – the young are
particularly hard hit during an economic downturn. A 2007 survey by the
Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs also showed young people cope
less well with being unemployed, compared to other age groups. Young
people who end up outside the labour market are vulnerable and find it
harder to get back on their feet.
Young outsiders will be a priority during the ESF’s current term.
There will be some 1,000 projects aimed at this group between now and
2013. The “Young Workers” project will spend 20 million Kronor (€2
million) on a knowledge bank so as not to loose the experiences
harnessed from the ESF projects. The ESF will contribute 16 million
Kronor (€1.6 million) of this money. The project officially kicked off
in January, but practical work started in the autumn.
The “Young Workers” project is a collaboration between the Swedish
National Board for Youth Affairs, the Employment Service, Communicare
(a non-profit youth organisation working for young entrepreneurship),
Social Insurance in Sweden, The Swedish National Agency for Education,
The National Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Association of
Local Authorities and Regions. The group will focus on challenges
affecting certain groups of young people, like ill health, drop-outs,
disability, outsiders and youth of foreign heritage. It will also
gather information on what makes an individual employable, e.g. how
young people can get labour market experience, the competition to
secure apprenticeships, how to develop a contact network, how to
motivate the young, entrepreneurship and what constitutes social
competence. The group will identify strategies for helping young people
and then spread that information further.
“We’re so happy with the composition of this group. It means we have
very good channels for spreading the knowledge we gather, and we will
use our own networks for exchanging knowledge. We will also work to
exchange knowledge within the EU and with other Nordic countries,” says
Susanne Zander.
