News / Events

01/10/2014

The European Commission has published on 24 September a report evaluating Your first EURES job, a mobility scheme to help young Europeans between 18 and 30 to find a job, traineeship or apprenticeship in other EU countries implemented by the Commission between 2011 and 2013.

The aim of the evaluation (read the executive summary) was to take stock of the results achieved over the first two years of the scheme and of the main challenges to be addressed in the future.

Main findings

The study has put Your first EURES job into perspective on the basis of the following evaluation criteria:

• Relevance: it responds to the labour market needs by focusing on youth unemployment, skills mismatches and mobility obstacles.
• Complementarity: it complements the EURES network, other EU mobility schemes as well as other national cross border schemes and initiatives.
• Added value: it adds value to youth labour mobility, given its package of recruitment, matching and placement activities combined with financial support incentives.
• Organisation and governance: it can better perform if driven by experienced organisations over longer periods of time, with enhanced quality standards and risk containment procedures.
• Effectiveness: it can better deliver with sound partnership networks and longer project implementation periods.
• Efficiency: it operates more efficiently over time; not being part of the EURES network means significantly higher start-up costs, but there may also be significant hidden costs, particularly in public organisations.

Recommendations

Based on evidence-based findings and experience of other EU mobility schemes, the evaluation report called on the Commission to:

• continue managing Your first EURES job at EU level;
• embed Your first EURES job within the EURES services;
• ensure a balance of project types and geographical coverage;
• avoid administrative burdens on all actors;
• invest more in visibility at centralised level;
• extend the duration of projects and strengthen public-private partnership networks;
• continue providing implementation guidelines and monitoring the progress made.

Other specific recommendations cover all the criteria used for the evaluation of the scheme (see above).

Policy options for the future

The evaluation report also contains a toolbox of policy options to develop Your first EURES job beyond 2014, with an overview of pros and cons per option:

1. The continuation of Your first EURES job under direct management of the European Commission.
2. The integration of Your first EURES job services in Member States’ programmes under shared management (e.g. ESF) or with national budgets.
3. The creation of an entirely new EU financial and legal instrument in support of an EU youth mobility programme.

Some of these options (1 & 2) could possibly co-exist over time.

During the period 2014-2020, Your first EURES job can be continued as a Targeted Mobility Scheme (TMS) financed by the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) (option 1).