Today at the Enterprise 2020 Summit, the European Commission and business leaders launched the 'European Pact for Youth' to improve partnerships between business and education to boost the chances of young people getting jobs.

The Pact, initiated by The European Business Network for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR Europe), is an appeal to

• all business, social partners,
• education and training providers
• other stakeholders

to develop or consolidate partnerships in support of youth employability and inclusion.

Together we will support the creation of 10,000 quality business-education partnerships, with the shared target to establish together at least 100,000 new good quality apprenticeships, traineeships or entry-level jobs.

The European Commission will provide technical support to the Pact and assist the participating stakeholders in its implementation. The outcomes of this joint work will be presented at the 1st Enterprise-Education Summit in December 2017.

The Pact aims to help build a pro-youth and pro-innovation Europe by creating a fair and equitable culture of partnerships between business, education and young people. These partnerships are designed to enhance the quality of training and skills that young people can acquire, including transversal digital, entrepreneurial, green and soft skills.

Examples:

• initiatives that support non-formal and informal learning,
• projects that boost apprenticeships or
• projects that aim to make learning science and technology more attractive.

Finally, they will support Europe’s teachers and particularly, equip young teachers with the necessary skills to become leaders in the classroom.