News

EU seminar in Jordan to focus on employment, skills and youth

23-05-2012

The EU Delegation to Jordan has been holding a seminar on 'Employment, Skills and Youth' in Amman from 21 to 23 May. Youth, employment, education and skills development, women, regional cooperation and best practices were the main themes. The aim of the seminar was to share experiences regarding employment policies for young people facilitating their integration into the labour market, the role of economic and social partners in education and skills development (especially in vocational training), youth inclusion and the identification of good practices and ways of cooperation within the region.

 
EU Head of Delegation Ambassador Joanna Wronecka stressed the importance of employment and skills development in Jordan and the region: "The MENA region has currently more than 100 million young people between 15 and 29 years. Around 1 in 3 Arab young people is unemployed and in some countries this proportion is even higher. Half of the unemployed in the region are youth, most of them women. The cost of this exclusion is huge," explained Ms Wronecka.
 
"There is a big gap between the competencies acquired by young people in the region and those requested by the current economies and societies that need workers and citizens with the capacity to learn through their lives, to be able to think critically and to use technology," she added.
 
The Head of Delegation highlighted the EU contribution to the development of the Southern Mediterranean. "The European Union has reviewed its Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with its southern neighbours and substantially increased the funds for supporting interventions in the southern Mediterranean region (including Jordan). I hope this seminar contributes to foster this common endeavour to provide ideas and mechanisms to listen to youth claims, to improve and increase their involvement in key discussions, to fix their problems, this means, to better our future."
 
Participants from the EU Member states (UK, Bulgaria, Belgium), EU Cooperation Agencies (GIZ, Pole Emploi) as well as representatives of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), FEMISE (Euro-Mediterranean network of economic research institutes), European Investment Bank (EIB), European Training Foundation (ETF), representatives of EU Delegations in the region (Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan) among others participated in this seminar. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
 
Read more
 
Press release
 
EU Delegation – Jordan

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