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Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology, Julie James, yesterday visited Brussels where she told an international audience how European funding has helped Wales play its part in increasing the number of young people in employment.

The Deputy Minister spoke at a seminar entitled “Getting Young People into Work: Comparative approaches in the EU and beyond” which was chaired by Welsh MEP Derek Vaughan.  

Representatives from a range of EU Member States compared their experiences of youth employment approaches, sharing best practice and learning from each other on how to improve future delivery of youth employment programmes.

The Deputy Minister spoke about the success of Welsh Government policies that have benefitted from the European Social Fund (ESF).  These include Traineeships, Apprenticeships and the Welsh Government’s flagship youth employment scheme, Jobs Growth Wales.

Ministers recently announced Jobs Growth Wales will receive a new round of EU funds for a further three years. The programme has been streamlined and all employers need to go through a new validation check process, managed by Business Wales. New vacancies are now on Careers Wales’ website.

The Deputy Minister said yesterday:  

“Wales benefits hugely from being in the EU and no single group benefits more than our young people. Continued membership is vitally important for our prosperity.

“Last year, sixty-eight per cent of learners progressed into employment or learning after completing a Traineeship programme while our Apprenticeship programme has maintained a success rate of over eighty per cent.  

“Meanwhile, Jobs Growth Wales has beaten its targets in every year of operation with more than 15,000 young people finding a meaningful job opportunity. Indeed 8 out of 10 of the jobs created by Jobs Growth Wales have been in the Private Sector.

“Thanks to programmes like Traineeships, Apprenticeships and Jobs Growth Wales, all of which have benefited from EU funds, in addition to our Youth Engagement and Progression Framework, youth unemployment in Wales is falling. Recent data showed that 8.1 per cent of 16-18 year olds were estimated to be NEET, compared with 11.9 per cent over the same quarter the previous year.”

“But we will not be complacent. That’s why I’m here today. I want to share our successful approach to youth employment with our European partners but also, and equally importantly, to learn from them. I want to find out if there is anything we can be doing in Wales to further improve or refine our approach.”

Live updates from the seminar will be tweeted from the Twitter account @WalesinEU