Employment: solutions for the future
Why is it so hard to find a job? With more than 26 million Europeans out of work, unemployment is one of the biggest issues that Europe is facing today. New approaches are needed and many were discussed at the ReACT conference organised by Parliament in Paris on 15 October.
Young, promising and out of work.
Young people are twice as likely as adults to be unemployed and the chance of finding a job is low. Many young Europeans have even given up on finding work due to the challenges they face. Jobs are usually only temporary or beneath their education level, national education systems often don’t meet companies’ needs and it can be difficult to work or train abroad.
New initiatives
The European Union would like to see 75% of people between 20 and 64 in employment and to achieve this it has developed different initiatives:
-
The youth guarantee
-
A standard framework to ensure the quality of traineeships
-
The Erasmus exchange programme
-
Language learning
-
Recognition of professional qualifications
The European Parliament launched the firs ReAct event in Paris on 15 October to discuss possible ways for creating employment. It is the first in a series of five interactive conferences taking place in different European cities with experts sharing their ideas for tackling the challenges we face.
ReAct Paris conference sparks debate over how to create more jobs
From the creative to the controversial: experts came up with many strategies to boost employment in Europe at the ReAct Paris event on 15 October. The conference organised by the European Parliament was dedicated to how to create jobs for Europeans. Watch what experts suggested and join the debate on our LinkedIn page.
The Paris event is the first in a series of five interactive conferences taking place in different European cities with experts sharing their ideas for tackling the challenges we face in the run up to the European elections in 2014. The next one in Warsaw on 14 November will be about the EU’s role in the world.
ReAct: business leaders speak out in favour of a different approach to employment
Be proactive, be social, be different. Employment can be boosted in a variety of ways and some of the more innovative approaches were explored during the ReAct Paris event, dedicated to how to get Europe working again. During the conference on 15 October, experts and business leaders shared their ideas for creating jobs at a time of lethargic growth.
Pervenche Bérès, a French member of the S&D group and chair of the EP’s employment committee, who participated in the discussion, said: “There is growing support at the European level for doing more to help people.”
Speakers all recommended a different approach to the problem. Alexandre Malsch, the 28-year-old founder and director general of the youth-oriented Melty media group, spoke out in favour of young people creating their own chances. He gave the example of his own company, which after years of hard work now employs 70 people in three European countries.
Jean-Marc Borello, the founder of Groupe SOS, one of the first social enterprises in Europe, believed the private sector approach should be applied to serve general interests.
Meanwhile professor Pierre Cahuc argued in favour of a differentiated approach. He said a “one size fits all” approach to creating employment would not work in Europe.
The ReAct Paris event is the first in a series of five interactive conferences on subjects vital to the EU. They take place in different European cities where opinion leaders will share their ideas about today’s issues.