I got three degrees and speak five languages, but I couldn’t find a job! How well equipped is my generation when we leave school to enter professional life? Did we have the chance to meet professionals during our school education? If we did, did this help us choose the right career path? Today Europe has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. Whilst the European Commission has done much to help Member States face this challenge with progress towards pan-European recognition of diplomas, the New Jobs New Skills initiative, EURES, training appears to be the gist of the problem. During Employment Week 2009, Marko Curavic from DG Enterprise told an interesting story: “If you have a mouse in the kitchen, do you run after the mouse? Why do you actually let the mouse in the kitchen? And why keep food in the kitchen in the first place?’’
 What does this have to do with employment? It shows that we may not be addressing issues at the right level or tackling the problem head on. To find a long term solution, those who will be able to give jobs tomorrow must talk to their future workforce today. School education systems around the EU are ill-equipped to prepare their students for the world of enterprise, be it in the public or private sectors.  So why not encourage industry on school premises paving the communication channel that is missing between school life and work life? Why not join forces and prepare good educational material, usable by schools on a voluntary basis in addition to their national curriculum?
On the premise that young people cannot find the right employer and that employers do not find the right recruits, Generation Europe Foundation ran the Tomorrow’s Job Market survey for Employment Week 2008. The majority of the young people surveyed across Europe asked for companies to be more proactive and come meet them on university campuses for instance. One of the interviewees explained: Contest among the students can be another aspect of recruiting at universities. This could help to choose the most active and creative students and invite them to internship programmes,(…) so that the students would  get a better understanding of the work they will perform later on .… the close bond between universities and companies would benefit all: it will make universities change for better; students will have the experience, job offers, the feeling of being appreciated; companies will have smart, motivated, knowledgeable people, full of ideas!”
Should companies wait for young people to have reached higher education to approach them? The dialogue between future employers and their future workforce must be initiated way before the end of the school system. In the context of unprecedented high youth unemployment and of a financial crisis that is pushing for refreshing ideas to better face the 21st Century globalisation challenges, the Generation Europe Foundation will be launching the debate on the place and role of business in school education on November 9 at the French Senate in Paris. Those interested in taking part in the heated discussions ahead are welcome to join. Please contact us at marie-helene@generation-europe.eu.com
 

Marie-Hélène Cussac is Communication Manager at Generation Europe Foundation, a Brussels based non-for-profit organisation working as a two-way communication platform between young people and the private and public sectors to better engage tomorrow’s decision-makers, today