YOUTH on the Move comes to Italy At the Festival d’Europa in Florence Opportunities and prospects for European young people
28-04-2011YOUTH on the Move comes to Italy At the Festival d’Europa in Florence Opportunities and prospects for European young people
The European Commission, in cooperation with the LLP National Agencies and the National Youth Agency, will organize an important event on Youth on the Move, the EU initiative aimed at encouraging young people to study abroad in order to improve their employment prospects. The event falls within the ambit of the educational and cultural activities of the Festival d’Europa, organized for the first time in Florence. The five-day programme will include presentations of projects, testimonies and exchange of experiences accomplished thanks to programmes such as Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo, Youth in Action. The objective is to provide young people with the opportunity to gather information on mobility and on the way by which to acquire the skills necessary to the labour market. It will focus on learning, volunteering, working abroad and the resources available from the EU.
The Festival d'Europa will celebrate the European integration and will represent a great initiative to communicate the advantages of Europe for Italian citizens. Youth on the Move will be a central element of the Festival and will present a programme based on the experiences of the young Italians who received EU funding to study or to serve an apprenticeship abroad. For this reason, in Piazza della Signoria, it will be arranged the Padiglione delle Nazioni, a specific area where to know experiences and opportunities within the ambit of Youth on the Move.
Youth on the Move is one of the seven flagship initiatives of the EU 2020 Strategy, aimed at reaching high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion by 2020. In addition to mobility, Youth on the Move promotes the modernisation of the education systems – to enhance their effectiveness – and supports non-formal learning.
“The measures we present aim at increasing quality of education and training in Europe in order to provide our young people with the qualifications necessary for the current labour market”, said Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. “We want to reduce early school leaving and increase the number of young people within the ambit of high school education in order to allow them to fully develop their potentials. To succeed in future, the EU needs more and more highly specialized, aware and innovative young people”.
The Florence event will represent the Italian launch of the pan-European communication campaign of Youth on the Move, which has already involved thousands of boys and girls in positive debates in Hungary, France, Germany and Poland. The Festival will raise young people’s awareness of the advantages resulting from the European integration for society and, in particular, themselves; it will provide them with the opportunity of a direct contact with the European Union and information on the outcomes of the mobility projects financed by the EU.
The event will be supported by the two Italian ambassadors of Youth on the Move – Paola Romagnani, a talented biomedicine researcher, and Selene Biffi, founder of Youth Action for Change.
The public will be mainly formed by boys and girls (high school and university students), as well as teachers, educators, trainers, tutors, job consultants, Italian and European journalists. The programme will also include entertainment activities.
The communication campaign associated with the Youth on the Move initiative highlights how mobility can help to improve the employment prospects, providing young people with the opportunity of acquiring skills abroad. Thanks to the experience gained in foreign countries, young people can learn other languages or improve their language skills, as well as their awareness of other cultures, the capacity to adapt and interpersonal abilities. The campaign also strengthens the commitment of young people as active citizens.
The latest developments of Youth on the Move actions:
The flagship initiative Youth on the Move (launched on 15th September 2010) proposes an integrated strategy to help young people, by focusing on education, training and support in the transition to the labour world. Each of the four main action lines – a) education and training systems; b) higher education; c) mobility and d) youth unemployment – provides for specific monioring measures. Various monitoring activities have already been launched, in particular:
· September 2010: Proposal of Council Recommendation on the promotion of learning mobility of young people: currently under discussion at the Council, with implementation by the Commission scheduled by the end of the Hungarian Presidency (May 2011).
· January 2011: Proposal of Council Recommendation on policies to reduce early leaving school: currently under discussion at the Council, with implementation by the Commission scheduled by the end of the Hungarian Presidency (May 2011).
· February 2011: Launch of the group of high-level experts on literacy: the group will have 18 months to realize the final product: a short report with recommendations on how to improve children’s reading skills (half of 2012).
· February 2011: Adoption of the new Communication “Early Childhood Education and Care: providing all our children with the best start for the world of tomorrow”.
The adoption of a new Communication on modernisation of higher education – establishing a modern strategy for this sector for the next decade - is planned for this year, in autumn.
Further information
Youth on the Move website:
http://europa.eu/youthonthemove
Youth on the Move is on Facebook:
Video interview of the Commissioners Vassiliou and Andor:
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/video_prod_en.cfm?type=details&prodid=17479&src=1
Youth on the Move Communication:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
Youth on the Move: Citizens' summary:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/cs_en.pdf
Website of the LLP Agencies for the Lifelong Learning Programme:
http://www.programmaleonardo.net/llp/seminari.asp
Youth in Action website:
Proposal of Council Recommendation on learning mobility:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/rec_en.pdf
Green paper of the Commission services: Results of the public Consultation of 2009 on learning mobility:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/wpconsult_en.pdf
Also refer to: Domande frequenti MEMO/10/408.
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