GRTU Director General representing UEAPME at Youth Negotiations

GRTU Director General Vincent
Farrugia has this week represented UEAPME, the European Association of Crafts,
Small and Medium Enterprises, in the negotiations for a Framework of Actions
for Youth Employment. Leading discussions on behalf of employers are UEAPME and
Business Europe.

In his address Mr Farrugia said that
"it is extremely important to define first what kind of jobs youths in Europe
today really want. A lot of the proposals that are being made are top down and
not enough consideration is given to bottom up proposals from youth
representatives that in their majority seek jobs that relate to the kind of
professional  courses they are following
in university and technical collages of specialization. The end result is that
jobs are created that do not reflect the kind of jobs that youths are seeking.
Jobs that youths are seeking are also being created in areas and regions where
supply is bigger than demand and Europe has not taken sufficient cognizance of
the removal of obstacles that slow down the mobility of youths willing to move
from zones of poor employment prospects to areas where jobs are more abundant".

It is becoming easier for immigrants
outside the EU to take up the jobs being created than for youth within the EU
to move out of their region and seek the jobs that are being made available
elsewhere within the EU. Vince Farrugia appealed to employers` associations and
trade unions to work together and assist more micro and small enterprises to
create the jobs that the youth of today are seeking.

He continued citing the case of Malta
where the development of new courses and studies in the establishment of MCAST
work hand in hand with the new policies of Malta Enterprise and of Government
to create the new jobs in IT technologies, financial institutions and a wide
cross section of services to enterprise such as -gaming and services related to
tourism and internationalization. The end result is that Malta has one of the
lowest levels of youth unemployment. Statistics also show that where economic
policies are geared to create the jobs that youths really prefer, including the
promotion of entrepreneurship in support of new initiatives by newly qualified
young persons, and when the educational establishments operate in close
cooperation with organizations representing business, the level of unemployment
remains low.