EC-ILO Action on the Youth Guarantee


In preparation for the establishment of the Youth Guarantee at country level, the International Labour Organization (ILO) supported EU member States to review their youth employment policies (Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain) and design their Youth Guarantee Implementation Plans (Cyprus and Portugal).

EC-ILO Joint Action on the Youth Guarantee

The ILO and the European Commission (EC) are working together with EU countries to improve the implementation of national Youth Guarantee (YG) schemes and to develop quality apprenticeship systems and programmes in key sectors through tripartite social dialogue.

This joint EC-ILO Action (2015-2017) component on the YG is implemented through two main areas of focus. The first area revolves around direct support to three EU countries (Latvia, Portugal and Spain) through advisory services, technical support and capacity building in key areas relating to the implementation of the YG schemes. The second area relates to the development of policy benchmarks, guidance tools and learning resources for the use of all countries that are implementing the YG.

More specifically, ILO’s support on the first area includes the development of outreach strategies targeting young NEETs (young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training), the design of comprehensive performance monitoring systems and the planning of impact evaluation exercises. Furthermore, the three target member States received advisory services on how to enhance inter-institutional cooperation, social dialogue and partnerships; share knowledge on the implementation of the YG between national and local actors and among implementing partners; define what constitutes a quality offer of employment and traineeship. ILO’s activities focused also on the development of a methodology to analyze the social and economic costs and benefits related to the implementation of the YG. Based on the lessons learned and on the country-level application of a series of methodologies and tools, the ILO has developed a number of key resources, mostly focused on performance monitoring of youth employment policy, that can be used by countries while implementing their YG schemes or similar youth employment interventions.


Key resources