The Catalan Government to allocate €240 million until 2020 to help 300,000 young people find jobs

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan Government will invest €240 million until 2020 in a project designed to help find 300,000 young people find work.  The aim of the programme is to provide a work placement, professional training or an internship for all those aged between 16 and 24 (or under 30 in the case of people with a disability equal or greater that 33%) who have not worked or received any training in the last 30 days, and who also have not participated in any education programme in the last 90 days. The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment, Felip Puig, has estimated that there are 110,000 young Catalans who are currently eligible for the programme. At the initiative's presentation on Wednesday, he promised to make the fight against youth unemployment a priority within his department.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Puig recalled that young unemployed people must register in order to be eligible for the programme, as required by Spanish Government rules. However, "the aim is that all young people aged between 16 and 24 who register will receive an offer of employment, training or an internship" said the Minister, who announced that the Catalan Government will invest €165 million in the plan in its first two years of implementation (2014-2016).

"We will create new processes, new programmes and new action plans and will apply these resources to address the problem of youth unemployment" said the Catalan Minister. Puig has announced that the first two editions of the programme will focus on the use of information technology and communication, as well as emphasising the importance of mastering foreign languages. The Minister said that the plan "is part of a dynamic economic recovery, because there are no resources to artificially generate employment in the public sector".

As of last Wednesday, young people and businesses can find out about and enrol in the programme through the website, garantiajuvenil.gencat.cat. According to Puig, the plan will complement other initiatives that the Catalan Government has put in place to combat youth unemployment, such as the program Inserjove, implemented in 2013 to provide young people with support in the transition between school and work, as well as the young people's reservation of 25% of the work placements organised by the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC).

Combatting youth unemployment throughout Europe

The Youth Guarantee is a plan launched by the European Commission to combat unemployment among young workers (less than 25 years old). The plan shares €6 billion across Europe, with resources allocated to the countries depending on the characteristics of the labour market of each Member State. Some of these resources have been allocated to the Spanish and Catalan Governments, in order to implement the plan on both a community and a state level.