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A broad political majority has entered into an agreement to allocate over 1.3 billion kroner until 2035 to get more young people into jobs or education.
The SVM government as well as SF, the Conservatives and the Radicals are behind the agreement, where part of the money must go to strengthen efforts for young people with mental or social problems, among other things.
“It is with humility that we address this group. There is great potential, but there is a reason why no one has succeeded in breaking the curve”, says Employment Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen (S) at a press conference.
“We have, among other things, looked down at this group and seen that almost half have a psychiatric diagnosis. Therefore, a large part of this agreement is about building a bridge between psychiatry and the labor market,’ she says.
The Labor Movement’s Business Council published an analysis in May this year which showed that 42,800 young people aged 15-24 were without a job or education in September last year. The group includes young people who have no education other than primary school, and this corresponds to 6.3 per cent of young people in the age group.
That number must be seen in relation to the fact that a majority in the Folketing in 2017 agreed that the proportion of 15-24-year-olds who are without a job or education must be brought down to 3.5 percent by 2030.
Question: Does that objective still exist?
“Yes, so, as far as I know, it was made a few years ago”, says Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen.
“I actually feel that I hope that each and every one of these people gets a potential to be lifted further from where they are, where they are neither in education nor work”.
There is no target for how many young people will get a job or education as a result of Tuesday’s agreement.
“I hope for as many as possible”, says the minister.
Back in 2016, around 48,000 young people were neither in a job nor in education, but after they managed to bring the number down to below 43,000 in 2021, the curve has since stagnated.
The 15-24-year-olds who are not in education or have a job are also known as the potential group.
There is no quick-fix solution on the way, it appears from the text of the agreement. Here it is stated that the parties to the agreement will establish a so-called national partnership called the Youth Promise.
Here, ‘central social actors’, including municipalities and companies, must cooperate to get more young people to be integrated into jobs in the future.
It is the ambition of the parties to the agreement that the local partnerships are rolled out during 2025, the text of the agreement states.
At Dansk Industri, deputy director and head of labor market policy Steen Nielsen is positive about the agreement, which he expects that many of DI’s 20,000 member companies will participate in getting concrete in the workplaces.
“The companies need the young people in the workplace”, he says in a written comment.
“But they employ them to a large extent also because the companies find that it makes sense for both employees and managers to help vulnerable young people, just as there is of course a gain for the young people themselves,” he says.
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Source: politiken.dk
