One in four young people in Europe today is unable to find a job. And in Italy the emergency is even stronger. Europe has launched the Youth Guarantee which from 2014, for six years, will receive a total of six billion euros (one a year), destined for all EU countries and which is part of the Europe 2020 strategy programme. The initiative requires each State to ensure that every person under the age of 25 has a good-quality offer of work, further education, an apprenticeship or traineeship within a period of four months after becoming unemployed or leaving the education system formal.
Ma institutional solutions, although necessary, are not enough on their own. To provide answers to a social problem that gets worse the more time passes in a context of recession or stagnant growth, new recipes are needed that involve all of society's stakeholders. Part of the answers can also come from the private sector which can leverage skills, excellence and vision and find new innovative answers. An example came from food giant Nestle which has decided to launch the Youth Employment project, presented today at a meeting in Rome at the CNEL headquarters in the presence of the social partners, including the Ministry of Labour, the trade unions and the young entrepreneurs of Confindustria.
Nestlé is committed to creating 20 new professional positions in Europe over the next three years. An initiative that was born with a European dimension and which for Italy, the group's eighth world market where around 5.400 employees are employed in 18 plants with a turnover of 2,2 billion, this translates into 1.000 job opportunities nin the three-year period 2014-2016 equally divided between apprenticeship (internships/internships) and fixed-term and permanent contracts. In France there will be 3.000 opportunities, in Germany 2.420, in Spain 1.250. “We believe it is the duty of a large company to make commitments, even challenging ones, to contribute to the solution of a problem that concerns the host society and which cannot be left only to the institutions” said Leo Wencel, Market Head of the Nestlé Group in Italy , presenting the Nestlé needs YOUth project this morning at the Cnel in Rome.
“The plan presented today – added Giacomo Piantoni, Human Resources Director of the Nestlé Group in Italy – has the primary purpose of strengthening the skills of young people to facilitate their entry into the world of work. In fact, the plan is very articulated and will see us engaged in many activities in all phases of that path which starts from orientation, to employability, to the offer of traineeships, internships and apprenticeships, up to a job placement in the company, compatibly with the opportunities that will be created in our various businesses.”
The project is based on four types of actions: by 2016, the group will hire 10.000 young people under 30 in Europe at Nestlé's European plants in all the various functions (production, administration, sales, marketing, finance, design, research and development); also by 2016 it will open 10.000 internship and apprenticeship positions for young people under 30 in Nestlé's European plants in all the various functions; create a career guidance program in schools and universities across Europe (interview training, CV writing, labor market advice, etc.); will form a “Youth Alliance” with key suppliers across Europe to join the initiative and create further opportunities for young people. Employment opportunities will concern all business sectors: production, administration, human resources, sales, marketing, financial, technical and research & development departments. With a North-South alliance at European level: in fact, a selected group of positions is envisaged specifically designed to offer young people from southern Europe, the area most affected by youth unemployment, the possibility of carrying out important work experiences abroad in Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom, less affected by the crisis.
“Think about what the impact would be on our society if we left these young people on the margins, leaving them without a source of income, without a future, without hope,” said Laurent Freixe, Executive Vice-President of Nestlé and Zone Director for Europe , illustrating the Nestlé needs YOUth project during the launch event held (not surprisingly) in Athens, the capital of the country where over half of young people under 25 are currently unemployed. According to the European Commissioner for Education, Androulla Vassiliou, the project “demonstrates that the private sector can clearly make a difference in tackling the problem of unemployment. We expect actions of this kind to trigger similar initiatives from other stakeholders”.
