EU publications

The youth guarantee partnerships on the ground

Case study: effective outreach strategies to identify and reach out to NEETs

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The Council Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee underscores the importance of developing effective outreach strategies towards young people and it is highlighted as an essential ingredient in the ‘early activation’ approach. The Recommendation encourages Member States to ‘develop outreach strategies and introduce mechanisms to identify and activate those furthest away from the labour market’, ‘with a view to catchment and registration with employment services. This is also emphasised by the European Public Employment Services (PES) network; the PES concept paper for the delivery... of the Youth Guarantee recommends PES to increase their capacity to undertake outreach work as a way of securing a high coverage of the Youth Guarantee. Outreach as a concept is a broad one and one for which many definitions exist, depending on the country and policy context. Within the field of youth employment, outreach tends to consist of: a) identifying and engaging inactive and disfranchised youth, and b) labour market integration services being taken out of their standard settings, and then tailoring and providing them ‘closer’ to the young people i.e., in local community, school, one-stop-shop or mobile settings. Having said this, some countries, authorities and organisations also regard broader marketing and information dissemination services related to youth employment as a form of outreach.