Policies Supporting Youth Transition to Work in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine

The European Training Foundation (ETF) has been providing regular input to the European Commission in implementing the work programme of the Eastern Partnership, a joint policy initiative aimed at deepening and strengthening relations between the EU, its Member States and its six Eastern Neighbours -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In this context, in 2017 the ETF carried out a mapping of policies supporting youth transition to work in these countries, further promoting exchange of experiences throughout the countries in the region and fostering evidence-based policy making. This synthesis report builds on the information compiled in the six country reports and focuses on policy aspects related to youth education, skills development and employment. Mutual learning may contribute to the design of more effective policy measures and policymakers may be inspired by good practice experiences. This report provides a list of four main challenges affecting youth transition to work in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries with a list of proposed policy directions that could help facilitate youth transition to work. The four main challenges are: (1) Lack of job opportunities -- supporting youth entrepreneurship; (2) Skills mismatches in the labour market -- improving education quality and its relevance to labour market needs; (3) Lengthy and uncertain youth transition to work -- improving the framework for transition support by providing career guidance and opportunities to gain first work experience; and (4) Disadvantaged young people facing particular problems in entering the labour market -- improving provision and better targeting of active labour market programmes.