Hampshire (UK), 02 April 2012 

Hampshire County Council (UK) was the fourth and the last partner to host an AER Peer Review within the framework of the Promoting Youth Employment (PYE) project last week, finishing an intensive cycle of four peer reviews held across Europe since September 2011. During the three-day fact-finding peer review, delegates from Vojvodina (SRB), the Azores (P) and Krapina-Zagorje (HR) visited post-16 education providers to experience first hand some of the initiatives available in Hampshire to prepare youth for the world of work. There was a particular focus on support for vulnerable young people who may face additional barriers to gaining employment.

Commenting on the visit Councillor Roy Perry, Hampshire County Council’s Deputy Leader and Executive Lead member for Children’s Services: “This visit by the European delegation is timely and important for the UK as we move towards ensuring all young people are participating in education or employment with training up to the age of 18 by 2015. We all have something to learn from each other and sharing experiences and information about projects and initiatives to help young people access employment can only be helpful. The County Council recognises that in these challenging times young people are finding it especially hard to secure their first job and in particular young care leavers often require higher levels of support. We aim to build on our current work and we are committed to doing all we can to help young people, especially vulnerable groups take the first steps into employment.” 

Some of the good practice examples include:

The Internship Plus scheme for vulnerable care leavers launched in Summer 2011 offering employment placements with the County Council with support from the University of Winchester’s lifelong learning team and training providers Catch 22, a charity working with young people and their families within England and Wales.
The Work Trial programme, which offers young people aged 16-18 who are not in education, employment or training, a three to six months work placement with a daily training allowance. Working with local employers the Council pays the first £250 of the £10 daily training allowance. As part of the project young people get workplace support and training which meet both their needs and those of the employer.

Good practices from Hampshire and other PYE partner regions will be presented during the PYE Closing Conference “Why regions are best positioned to tackle youth unemployment?” held on 26 June in Brussels. More information about the event will be available shortly.

This press release is supported by the Community Programme
for Employment and Social Solidarity – PROGRESS (2007-2013).

The Assembly of European Regions (AER – aer.eu) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together more than 250 regions from 35 countries and 16 interregional organisations, AER is the political voice of its members and a forum for interregional co-operation. 

For more information: [email protected]