NEWS

PM Attends Conference about Youth Employment in Europe

Slovenian Prime Minister,  Ms Alenka Bratušek, and the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Ms Anja Kopač Mrak, attended the Conference about Youth Employment in Europe organised in Paris.

 

The conference about youth employment in Europe, which was one of the topics at the last European Council Meeting, was organised following the invitation of French President François Hollande and attended by a large majority of heads of state and government from EU countries, their ministers competent for labour, heads of key EU institutions as well as representatives of European institutions and associations in the field. The first such conference was held last June in Berlin, while the next will be organised in Italy in spring.

 

The conference was organised with the aim of providing additional incentives for youth employment, especially with European and national measures in the field of education, training, labour market and financial instruments for the start-up or support to small and medium-sized enterprises. Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek and Minister Anja Kopač Mrak attended the conference because youth employment is one of the main priorities of the Slovenian Government, too. The ministers present at the conference examined the tools (guarantees for young, start-up capital for entrepreneurship, development of apprenticeship, financial incentives for mobility) that member states use in returning the young (also those who are not in education, training or in a job) to the labour market or further training. Slovenia's delegation has focused on long-term systemic measures, such as the strengthening of the link between the education system and the economy, the provision of correct and systematic forecast (short-term and long-term) of profession deficit, the establishment of a system of high-quality internships that provide the necessary experience to perform a profession, and the reform of student work by the principle "any work counts". The Prime Minister stressed in her speech that the young themselves should be actively included in the process of seeking solutions to the greatest extent possible.

 

After the conclusion of the conference, the Prime Minister underlined that such meetings, and especially the exchange of best practice that they include, can importantly contribute to the youth employment in individual member states, including Slovenia.