Interview with Gian Luca Bombarda, Director of the Fund for Youth Employment of EEA & Norway Grants

1. What is the Fund for Youth Employment? Who are your donors and what are your objectives? The Fund for Youth Employment, launched in 2017, aims to contribute to sustainable and quality youth employment in Europe. Today, unfortunately, some 10 million young people in our territories are not in employment, education, or training. They are classified as “NEETs,” a concept that should evolve at the same pace as our society, as the profile of a person who is not studying, working, or training has changed in recent years. For example, perhaps the age range considered for this group, which is currently 15 to 24, should be extended to 30. Youth unemployment is, in other words, a shared European challenge, as its effects put young people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the chances of access to the labor market for young people, making some feel excluded from all employment channels and networks. This is why a European Fund for Youth Employment is needed, specifically one with a transnational approach—that is, one that helps entities across Europe join forces to find new ways to reduce youth unemployment. With this objective, the Fund for Youth Employment, funded with 60.6 million euros, complements the Youth Employment Initiative, which is the European Union’s main funding program to facilitate the roll-out of the Youth Guarantee. Two calls for proposals were opened: one in 2017 (Active Youth) and one in 2020 (Unlocking Youth Potential). From the first call, 25 projects from 25 different countries were selected. These projects cover three areas of support: innovation and exploration; knowledge transfer and best practices; and analysis and research. The second call, in 2020, was available for transnational projects with partners from the 15 beneficiary countries, as well as organizations from Ireland, Italy, and Spain. This fund was reserved for initiatives aimed at fostering access to employment, education, or training directed at two specific groups: young people not in employment, education, or training aged between 25 and 29 living in small towns, cities, or rural areas; and young people with functional diversity or mental health issues. The chosen projects are funded by the EEA & Norway Grants, for which Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway are the donors. This is a funding program that aims to reduce social and economic disparities in Europe, strengthening bilateral relations between donor and beneficiary countries. Not surprisingly, one of the main objectives is youth employment, which is also a shared European challenge affecting millions of young people who are not in work, education, or training. 2. What are the areas that have been funded? Which organizations had the opportunity to submit their proposals? The funded projects are developing innovative solutions for the target group they are aimed at: people aged 15 to 24. This audience includes the long-term unemployed, people who have stopped looking for work, women inactive due to childcare or adult care responsibilities, ethnic minorities, asylum seekers, low-skilled individuals, and people with functional diversity or mental health issues. It is important to note that any type of organization had the opportunity to submit a proposal to receive funding. The best proposals were awarded, but we recorded the participation of 424 entities. The measures implemented by the projects are many and diverse. Some are systemic in nature, such as developing formal educational modules or systematizing cooperation links with non-traditional actors. Others, however, are personal, such as addressing the individual needs of group members. In short, the Fund for Youth Employment has funded actions capable of creating efficient practices such as sustainable jobs, structural job training, digitalization and smart autonomy, the creation of innovative start-ups to support young learners, family learning, the blending of formal and non-formal spaces, and many others. In general, through these measures, the projects cover the three main support areas of the fund: innovation and exploration; knowledge transfer and best practices; and analysis and research.   3. Could you share an example of a successful intervention funded by the Fund? With almost 5 years of implementation, naming just one successful experience—what we would call “best practice”—is difficult. Over these years, I have seen and taken pride in various initiatives led by the projects, particularly those organized through the network and connections between projects (sometimes including the Fund for Regional Cooperation, the other fund we manage under the Regional Funds). Some of our projects have also won major external awards. Most of them continue to produce publications and conduct research activities. But why not talk about the project “YES! – Young Entrepreneurs Succeed,” where Autoocupació is among the beneficiary partners? I would like to mention the webinars for knowledge sharing, designed to involve stakeholders and train professionals and mentors working with NEETs who, therefore, need innovative tools and methodologies to support them. Additionally, special mention must be made of the innovative SOS Mentoring, a volunteer program in which experienced professionals helped entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 period to make the necessary decisions to face this emergency situation, thereby containing the impact of the crisis and ensuring the continuity of these businesses.   4. How do you measure the impact of the interventions? Some numbers can help us see the success of our projects. Considering that the main objectives of the Active Youth call were to enroll 15,000 young people in education or training, support 14,000 young people in active job searching, create 3,000 jobs, and help 1,800 young people start their own businesses… one only needs to look at the results as of December 31, 2022, with one year still remaining:

• 16,808 people engaged in active job searching (Regional Funds- Youth)
• 15,086 people enrolled in education and training, including labor market-based learning (Regional Funds- Youth)
• 2,526 people in the process of starting their own businesses
• 4,345 beneficiaries of services provided (Regional Funds-Cooperation)
• 25,111 people engaged in activities of civil society organizations (Regional Funds- Cooperation)

5. Do you believe the projects are sustainable? Will they have a future effect? Of course they are sustainable: the projects are working day by day to find innovative solutions that can create long-term effects. The hope for all Regional Funds, along with potential future forms of funding, is that the funded projects will be taken as a combination of lessons learned and best practices to emulate, thanks to a process of knowledge exchange, for future similar initiatives. 6. Autoocupació’s motto is “I am what I want to be.” And you, are you? JCP Srl Italy, which manages the Fund Operator together with Ecorys Polska, is a company with more than 30 years of history in international cooperation actions; thus, it has done different things and followed different paths. But, as Fund Director of this initiative, I can tell you that I am truly doing what I want to achieve, pursuing the challenges I want to overcome, and the Regional Funds are allowing me to help the cause of youth unemployment. I simply believe this can be perfectly summarized in my personal motto: “We need YOU(th)! We need you(th) because you(th) are our future.” And it is essential for us to continue working so that young people can shape a better society.