Education and Science, Employment, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation

According to recent statistics, youth unemployment in Estonia was the third highest in the European Union, after Spain and Latvia.

E3 asserted that the State, education institutions, the private sector and representatives of youth need to draft a 4-year action plan to avoid a ‘lost generation’ from emerging in Estonia.

“Youth unemployment is a very big problem across the world, having reached the record high number of 18 million. Estonian youth are in a particularly difficult position in comparison to the other EU countries as here the youth unemployment rate is among the highest,” state the youth umbrella organisations.

E3 noted that beside reducing the general unemployment rate, the Government should pay special attention to decreasing youth unemployment and proposed to draft an action plan that would use the EU structural funds’ resources to the maximum degree.

The organisations also pointed out the need for better co-operation between different representative organisations and the necessity to develop programmes and support systems so that unemployed young persons would find as diverse activities as possible – either as volunteers, interns, participants in youth projects, community service or in supplementary education.

The three umbrella organisations proposed a variety of measures – creating a programme for supporting volunteer activities in Estonia, increasing career counselling in comprehensive education schools and restoring obligatory youth programmes and youth projects as before the State budget cuts in April 2009 so that young persons would be able to acquire valuable experiences in different fields and reduce risks of long-term unemployment.