The fight against unemployment, and especially youth unemployment, is a crucial issue for the Commission and the member states. Many measures have been implemented to tackle this issue.

Youth Guarantee

The Youth Guarantee is an approach of the European Commission to tackling youth unemployment. The aim is to offer to all young people under 25 – whether registered with employment services or not – a good-quality, concrete offer within 4 months of them leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. This offer should be a job, an apprenticeship, a traineeship, or continued education.

Youth Employment Initiative (YEI)

The Youth Employment Initiative is one of the main EU financial resources to support the implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes. YEI aims to provide extra support to young people aged below 25 that are not in education, employment or training (also called NEETs) and that live in regions where youth unemployment rate was higher than 25% in 2012. YEI provides finance to apprenticeships, traineeships, job placements and further education leading to a qualification. The Youth Employment Initiative is complementary to other actions undertaken at national level with a view to setting up or implementing the youth guarantee schemes. The total budget of the YEI is €6.4 billion for the period 2014-2020.

YEI in France

France got an allocation of €310.2 for the YEI for the period 2014-2015. In France 13 regions are eligible: Aquitaine, Auvergne, Centre, Champagne Ardenne, Haute-Normandie, Languedoc-Roussillon, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardie, Guadeloupe, Guyane, La Réunion, Martinique et Mayotte. In addition, 3 departments are also eligible: la Seine-Saint-Denis, les Bouches-du-Rhône, and la Haute-Garonne.
The YEI implementation is organised by:
– state through the National Programme that manages 65% of the budget, especially in the field of employment and inclusion
– the eligible regions through the ERDF-ESF programme for 35% of the budget, especially in the field of training, apprenticeship and vocational orientation

Youth Guarantee and Guarantee for young people

France implements YEI in the framework of the Youth Guarantee but France has also created its own initiative entitled “Garantie jeunes”. This measure is directed by the Ministry of Employment through local job offices and is addressed to young people from 16 to 25, that are not or not highly qualified, not in training and with very few resources. This measure, that started in 2013 and was implemented in only 10 French departments, has been expanded in 93 departments. Thanks to this initiative, during one year young people benefit from an intensive collective support, regular periods spent in businesses and a monthly financial help.

More about Garantie jeunes