Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added31. Deplores the fact that, despite an emphasis on aligning quality criteria on EU frameworks, the quality of offers has seen very limited material improvement since the introduction of the RYG; is concerned about feedback from some stakeholders indicating a reliance on subsidised employment offers leading to fixed-term contracts without pathways to genuine employment, traineeships without clear learning objectives, the mismatches between available opportunities and the profiles and skills of beneficiaries and a lack of connection between individual needs and available services; recalls that the Recommendation emphasises that the quality of the offer should be ensured through post-placement support and feedback; emphasises that improving the quality of RYG offers must be prioritised and stresses the need to detect and combat practices that circumvent the purpose of traineeships, and the use of standard employment relationships disguised as traineeships within RYG schemes;

Added32. Underlines that young people need concrete and quality RYG opportunities, particularly work-based learning such as VET, apprenticeships, traineeships and first employment experiences; underlines the importance for RYG offers to continuously adapt curricula to labour market needs as well as the interests and well-being of beneficiaries in order to develop transferrable and cross-cutting skills, reduce skills shortages and prevent skills mismatches;

Added33. Stresses that the RYG has failed to actively tackle age discrimination and the prevalence of precarious work, leaving NEETs, and in particular vulnerable NEETs, at risk of exploitation and in-work poverty through low wages, a lack of social protection, a lack of employment security and unequal treatment; is concerned that this may contribute to the normalisation of precarious and low-quality employment in the labour market, whereby stable and decent jobs become replaced by traineeships and insecure and non-standard forms of work; stresses, in this regard, the need to detect and combat practices that circumvent the purpose of traineeships, and the use of standard employment relationships disguised as traineeships;

Added34. Stresses that mobility support measures are essential to ensure equal access to quality VET across regions; recognises the innovative potential of the Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve (ALMA) initiative in providing disadvantaged and vulnerable NEETs with additional support and work-based learning experiences abroad under RYG schemes; stresses that initial feedback on this initiative points to difficulties in its operability and a considerable number of participants dropping out, indicating the need for increased support for the organisations implementing, or wishing to implement, ALMA projects, as well as targeted support for beneficiaries;

Added35. Regrets that the implementation of the RYG remains insufficiently linked to social protection systems, resulting in cases where participation in RYG schemes may result in reduced or withdrawn social benefits for both individual NEETs and their households;

Added36. Welcomes the fact that RYG stakeholders generally consider the EU funds available for its financing to be adequate; notes, however, the tendency in some Member States to rely almost entirely on the ESF+ to finance RYG schemes, which raises questions about the sustainability of these programmes, or on the use of EU funds to replace pre-existing national funds, thereby limiting the capacity of programmes to expand in response to demand; notes with concern that national authorities can face significant difficulties in effectively accessing and utilising available EU funds for RYG implementation; is concerned about feedback indicating that problems with accessing EU funds stem from a persistent lack of human resources in national authorities, poor coordination between authorities in some Member States, or between authorities at national and EU level, as well as unclear application procedures, which prevent the effective absorption and use of available EU funds;

Added37. Welcomes the EMCO indicator framework for monitoring the RYG and its annual assessment of the implementation of the instrument, and highlights the robustness and comparability of the indicator data aggregated at EU level; regrets, however, that the direct monitoring and follow-up indicator framework containing data reported by Member States is of lower quality in terms of data collection, the monitoring system and the high proportion of unknown situations in the YG results; points out, in particular, that national monitoring frameworks often exclude inactive NEETs who are not registered with public services, rendering a large part of the RYG target group invisible; is concerned that follow-up indicators are completely absent in several Member States and do not take into account the quality of the offers;

Added38. Emphasises the transformative potential of the RYG to reduce youth unemployment, underemployment and social exclusion; stresses that while the RYG addresses some of the shortcomings of the initial instrument, persistent operational challenges, a lack of defined objectives and the evaluation of schemes continue to hamper implementation; regrets that the potential and objectives of the RYG have not yet been fully achieved by the Member States, since most of the challenges lie at this level; emphasises, in this regard, the importance of the EU continuing to play its full role in supporting the Member States, promoting best practice and providing technical assistance where necessary; regrets that the European Court of Auditors’ 2017 conclusion that the YG progress falls short of expectations is still partially true almost 10 years later; stresses the urgent need for reform and further improvements to bridge the gap between the ambition of this instrument and its practical implementation;

Recommendations

Change 9

Removed15. Calls on the Member States to deliver targeted improvements of the specific administrative capacities of PES and other national entities responsible for the RYG implementation;

Added39. Underlines the importance of an enabling policy framework for the implementation of the RYG and the successful labour market integration of NEETs; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that RYG offers are supported by quality standards for employment, working conditions, education, traineeships and apprenticeships, flexible learning and working arrangements to unlock the potential of carers, especially young mothers, inclusion policies and appropriate skilling opportunities, as well as by effective access to social protection and services such as additional childcare and care facilities, effective transport systems, adequate healthcare, affordable and available housing for young people, and regional development;

Removed16. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide comprehensive support to address the complex barriers faced by NEETs, in order to tackle the root causes of social exclusion prior to addressing the employment situation for NEETs;

Added40. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to deliver targeted improvements to strengthen capacities of PES and other relevant national entities responsible for RYG implementation, including by strengthening the administrative and human resources specialised in supporting youth employment and by allocating dedicated resources in a manner that is commensurate with current challenges; highlights the fact that the modernisation and digitalisation of PES must be accompanied by investment in training and capacity-building programmes for relevant regional and local authorities in order to improve effective outreach, personalised and inclusive support within the four-month intervention period, and sustained follow-up support; calls on the Member States to ensure that PES are better equipped to reach out to and support all NEETs, particularly those in vulnerable situations, by enabling PES to provide NEETs with structured training and access to physical and digital infrastructure; highlights the potential for cooperation between PES and private employment agencies, as well as the potential of the European Network of PES to promote the exchange of best practice, foster peer learning and support convergence of performance across Member States;

Removed17. Stresses that a collaborative approach is essential to ensure the successful implementation of the RYG; calls on the Member States to strengthen cooperation between ministries, PES, social partners, labour market actors, national youth councils and civil society at central and local level to ensure that everyone works within an integrated network of services for NEETs;

Added41. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide comprehensive and, where possible, individualised support to address the structural and often complex barriers faced by vulnerable NEETs, in order to tackle the root causes of social exclusion and address their labour market situation; stresses that this support must be provided in the form of a package of measures delivered by PES and other relevant social services aimed at helping with childcare and care, increasing access to family planning services, supporting access to affordable housing, healthy nutrition, healthcare and mental health services, combating addiction, and developing confidence and empowerment; points, furthermore, to integrated, low-threshold approaches, such as one-stop shops, as appropriate means of delivering such support; further calls on the Member States with a positive and timely exit rate or a coverage rate below the EU average to conduct a comprehensive assessment of their RYG schemes in order to identify the reasons for these shortcomings and rectify them by reshaping these schemes based on the results;

Removed18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to include in RYG schemes a set of preventive measures focusing on early school leaving in order to avoid later impacts on young people’s lives;

Added42. Stresses the need to bolster RYG governance through a collaborative and community-based approach in all its phases; calls on the Member States to strengthen coordination between ministries, public authorities, PES, social partners, relevant labour market actors, education and training providers, social and healthcare services, national youth councils, civil society, including grassroots and youth organisations, and cultural and sports actors at national, regional and local level to ensure that everyone works within integrated networks of services for NEETs;

Removed19. Calls on the Member States to strengthen their VET offer and modernise their lifelong learning systems, in particular by exploring options for individual training accounts or training funds in line with national models;

Added43. Calls, in this context, for the establishment of formal partnerships through, inter alia, tripartite commissions, cooperation agreements, or protocols at national or regional level between relevant public authorities and these partners; stresses the necessity of building trust between RYG providers and local communities, for example by aligning educational and training RYG offers with labour market needs, involving social partners and other stakeholders in the design, monitoring and enforcement of quality RYG offers and offering additional preparatory training or bridging programmes to early school leavers; encourages the Member States to disseminate best practices, such as sectoral partnerships and training initiatives in direct partnership with employers aimed at securing recruitment at the end of training, job fairs, information days or other employer-youth matching events;

Removed20. Calls for, at both EU and national level, greater synergy between the Youth Guarantee and the Child Guarantee instruments, in particular to provide continuous support to children in need, from the ages of 15 to 18 and when they become young adults; stresses that this integrated approach must aim to prevent the ‘care cliff’ phenomenon;

Added44. Calls on the Member States to adopt a regional approach to implementing the RYG, with substantial and prioritised investments and measures in regions with the highest NEET, youth unemployment and inactivity rates where structural disadvantages are greater; stresses that this regional approach must benefit from national supervision in order to ensure equal standards for support and delivery throughout every Member State and reduce regional inequalities; stresses, furthermore, that this approach should foster tailored measures for vulnerable NEETs whether they live in urban, rural or remote areas, such as transport and digital connectivity support, specific training for rural NEETs, and targeted improvements in the administrative outreach of PES and in the delivery capacity of PES to offer in-person as well as digital and mobile support, in turn supporting local employment and preventing the outflow of young people; further calls on the Member States to involve local authorities more closely in the design of RYG schemes in order to increase their sense of ownership;

Removed21. Calls on the Member States to strengthen outreach measures targeting vulnerable NEETs at national and local level and to make the activation of this group the top priority of their RYG implementation;

Added45. Commends the Youth Guarantee Knowledge Centre and calls on the Commission to update this database, focusing on past initiatives that have proven successful in supporting NEETs and integrating them sustainably into the labour market; believes that this Knowledge Centre should serve as a basis for more frequent exchanges of best practice between Member States and regions, particularly with regard to monitoring, reporting, governance and cooperation; encourages peer reviews between Member States as well as the organisation of cross-border projects on the implementation of the RYG to promote the adoption of proven models, including in regions facing implementation challenges; calls on the Commission to ensure greater transparency regarding the YG coordinators’ meetings and to broaden their participation to include other stakeholders such as civil society, where appropriate; considers that this cooperation at European level should be coupled with closer interparliamentary relations;

Removed22. Calls on the Member States, in line with the 2012 Council recommendation, to strengthen their systems for the validation of non-formal and informal learning; encourages the adaptation of these systems to reach vulnerable NEETs by enhancing the capacities of those responsible for validation, or by offering specific arrangements, while ensuring the quality of these procedures;

Added46. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to include in RYG schemes a set of preventive measures and early warning systems focusing on early school leaving in order to improve the school-to-work transition and avoid long-term impacts on young people’s lives; suggests that these measures should have educational and early intervention dimensions, with a particular focus on low levels of basic, digital and soft skills, and should include mechanisms for schools to identify and report young people at risk of becoming NEETs to the services responsible for the RYG; calls, in particular, for improved mapping of RYG beneficiaries, coaching measures, mentoring programmes involving professionals, cooperation to strengthen family capacity to support children in their learning, learning opportunities in both formal as well as non-formal and informal environments, civic education programmes, and career and vocational guidance and for skills assessments to be developed;

Removed23. Calls on the Member States to rebalance the offers provided under the RYG schemes towards skills development by reducing reliance on employment and subsidised jobs as a default measure;

Added47. Calls on the Member States to invest in the training of education and training providers to enable them to identify learners at risk of early leaving from education and training and to support them effectively; urges the Member States to prioritise upskilling of teachers and VET trainers in strategic sectors, in particular digital and emerging technologies; suggests a requirement for schools to conduct exit interviews with early school leavers on advancing on an individual pathway into employment through further learning or work in order to support informed decision-making;

Removed24. Recommends the creation of a fifth strand for RYG schemes, focusing on volunteering opportunities; emphasises that volunteering has the potential to improve the skills and employability of NEETs and to accommodate vulnerable young people in a more flexible manner;

Added48. Calls on the Member States to build on potential synergies between the RYG and the Council Recommendation of 28 November 2022 on pathways to school success, by including concrete links between the two schemes in their national strategies towards school success, with specific actions such as offering routes back into mainstream education and training, or ensuring access to quality second-chance programmes for all those who have prematurely left education or training;

Removed25. Calls on the Commission to launch an open method of coordination on the quality of RYG offers;

Added49. Calls on the Member States to invest in and strengthen their VET offers and modernise their lifelong learning systems, in close cooperation with social partners, as well as education and training providers, local enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in particular by exploring options for individual training accounts or training funds in line with national models; stresses the need to ensure the inclusiveness and quality of training offered under RYG schemes and their recognised qualifications; urges the Commission and the Member States to harmonise EU-wide qualification frameworks and promote cross-border recognition; calls, in particular, on the Member States to recognise the individual right to training and lifelong learning for all young people; calls on the Commission to build on the Herning Declaration in the forthcoming EU VET strategy to improve the attractiveness, quality, portability and inclusiveness of these opportunities for young people; highlights the importance of concretely demonstrating the career opportunities created by VET, particularly in the context of the green and digital transitions and evolving labour market demands; welcomes, in this context, the announcement of the creation of a European Skills Intelligence Observatory, which will aim to increase skills capacity and foresight, using where appropriate advanced technologies, and to ensure a skilled and resilient workforce;

Removed26. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to allocate adequate funding for the RYG in the next MFF, in particular by maintaining the earmarking of EU funds;

Added50. Calls for the promotion of quality apprenticeships and dual education systems, such as by combining classroom learning and practical work experience, especially for vulnerable young people, to make it an appealing pathway; stresses the need to ensure the equal recognition and integration of apprenticeships within education systems in line with the European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships; calls, furthermore, for upskilling and reskilling opportunities, in particular in local SMEs and social enterprises, in order to ensure the continuity and relevance of training pathways; recognises the efforts made by Member States with regard to upskilling and reskilling programmes and recalls that Directive (EU) 2019/1152 establishes that where an employer is required to provide training to a worker to carry out the work for which they are employed, such training must be provided to the worker free of cost, must count as working time and, where possible, should take place during working hours;

Removed27. Urges the Member States to significantly strengthen their systems for monitoring the implementation of the RYG in terms of the quality and completeness of the data collected;

Added51. Stresses the need to ensure synergies with existing national skilling programmes by creating dedicated opportunities for RYG beneficiaries and to improve the quality and inclusiveness of education; calls, furthermore, for the participation of RYG beneficiaries in Erasmus+ to be prioritised, including through simplified and accessible application procedures and mobility support for participants from Member States with higher rates of young people in vulnerable situations;

Removed28. Notes that the results of the implementation of the RYG are uneven and that the challenges identified remain relevant today; calls on the Commission to adopt decisions following the ordinary legislative procedure directed at Member States whose youth unemployment and NEET rates are higher than the EU average;

Added52. Underlines the importance of social entrepreneurship as a tool for promoting youth employment, particularly for young people who are in vulnerable situations and for NEETs; stresses that social enterprises can contribute to the development of skills, social integration and the creation of sustainable jobs with a local impact; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen their support for social enterprises in the context of the RYG, including through appropriate funding, training, guidance and access to cooperation networks;

Added53. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take coordinated action to close persistent gaps in functional numeracy, literacy and digital skills, which hinder young people’s access to quality education, training and employment; calls for the upskilling of low-skilled NEETs with tailored, flexible and labour-market relevant offers, such as online and in-person courses or a modular learning format on STEM, digital skills and AI, languages, basic skills and entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, cultural education and creative skills, certified by micro-credentials; stresses that micro-credentials must comply with verifiable quality standards, provide for explicit employer recognition mechanisms and be integrated into national skills identification, validation and certification systems;

Added54. Calls for a life cycle approach and greater synergy between the RYG and the Child Guarantee instruments at both EU and national level, in particular to provide continuous support to children and young people in need, especially from the ages of 15 to 18, and to support all children, parents, families and carers, which should lead to stronger families of all kinds; stresses that this integrated approach must aim to prevent the ‘care cliff’ phenomenon, whereby young people leaving care experience a sudden loss of housing and social, educational and employment support upon reaching adulthood; emphasises the potential for synergies between the YG and other programmes, such as ALMA, Erasmus+, the Centres of Vocational Excellence, the Digital Europe Programme, AgoraEU, European Employment Services and the EU Roma strategic framework, to provide integrated pathways for young people and support learning mobility across the EU, including through mobility grants;

Added55. Reiterates the need to urgently increase the funding of the European Child Guarantee, which should have a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion; insists that this dedicated budget be anchored in the next MFF and implemented through a stand-alone and separate ESF, with an obligation on all Member States to earmark at least 5 % of their national ESF allocation to tackling child poverty and to the implementation of the Child Guarantee;

Added56. Underlines the importance of improving the collection and availability of disaggregated and reliable data on children in care and those approaching care-leaving age, in order to strengthen targeted policies, including the RYG; calls on the Member States and PES to extend outreach measures, support services and cooperation to all care settings and to establish a dedicated pathway for care leavers in need as part of the implementation of the RYG, including early identification, coordinated case management between social services and PES services, and the continuity of access to employment support, social protection, housing support and other services required to guarantee equal access and a smooth transition to education, training and future employment opportunities;

Added57. Believes that greater interoperability between EU programmes and action plans would strengthen the overall action of the Member States, while ensuring the added value of each programme and their targeted efforts in a complementary manner; calls on the Member States to strengthen the links between their RYG schemes and other national youth programmes, setting priorities for RYG beneficiaries; calls on the Member States, in this regard, to develop a national youth cooperation plan and to regularly evaluate and report on their integrated and cross-cutting approaches in support of young people;

Added58. Calls on the Member States to strengthen national, regional and local outreach measures targeting vulnerable NEETs and to make the activation of this group the top priority of their RYG implementation, acknowledging that they require different engagement strategies; calls, in particular, for dedicated resources to be invested in proactive, decentralised and community-based outreach approaches, which should be combined with integrated service delivery to overcome any specific barriers to social inclusion, and to move away from a traditional model that relies solely on a registration system; stresses that many measures have proven effective in reaching hard-to-reach NEETs and should now be scaled up at national level, including by hiring employment activation specialists from PES and Roma mediators, organising mobile PES units, youth work, mentorship programmes, direct outreach in sports clubs, leisure venues and shopping centres, and ambassador programmes, and optimising the use of digital services and social media;

Added59. Stresses that stepping up these outreach efforts must make it easier to reach out to vulnerable young people who have so far been invisible to RYG schemes; emphasises that consultation with vulnerable NEETs ensures that their lived experiences contribute directly to more effective awareness-raising, outreach and delivery, particularly for those furthest from the labour market; notes that vulnerable young people do not necessarily identify themselves with the ‘NEET category’, and calls, in this regard, on RYG providers to extend outreach beyond this categorisation in order to raise awareness among as many potential beneficiaries as possible; believes that the involvement of peer-to-peer intermediaries, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local community organisations is essential in order to reach NEETs directly in their communities; notes that for young people in vulnerable situations, the approach must be low threshold, without the need for registration or documentation;

Added60. Regrets that, despite efforts, no Member State is currently close to achieving the EU-level targets set out in the EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation, in particular the objective to halve by 2030 the gap in NEET rates between Roma young people and the general population; stresses that identifying Roma and Traveller young people, particularly those who are nomadic or from rural and isolated areas, as a priority target group under the RYG, and coordinating these two instruments in synergy, can deliver measurable improvements in education, training and employment outcomes;

Added61. Calls on the Member States to provide training and awareness programmes on unconscious bias and non-discrimination to public officials, RYG providers, in particular PES workers, employers, and educational and training providers participating in RYG schemes, including on ethnicity, gender, cultural and social sensitivity, physical and intellectual developmental disabilities, sexual orientation and socio-economic background;

Added62. Calls on the Member States to ensure a structural link between RYG schemes and social protection systems, ensuring equal access to adequate individual income support and other forms of financial assistance for eligible young people in need before, during and after RYG offers in order to prevent gaps in coverage, reduce poverty risks during transitions, and ensure that vulnerable NEETs can meaningfully participate in employment, education and training;

Added63. Calls on the Member States to explore measures to ensure continuity of coverage and support under the YG for young people engaged in seasonal or temporary work abroad, taking into account the fact that many spend only part of the year working abroad and return home without income for the remainder of the year; stresses the importance of ensuring recognition of skills acquired abroad and rapid re-engagement with employment services upon return; further calls on the Member States to systematically collect and update data on the number of young people undertaking seasonal or temporary work abroad on an annual basis to better inform policy responses and ensure tailored support;

Added64. Suggests systematically referencing the RYG in national and local schemes in order to improve visibility and strengthen awareness of the available support services among administrations, local authorities, businesses and target groups; stresses that it is essential for beneficiaries to be aware that they are part of an RYG scheme in order to understand the overall support available to them and calls, in this regard, for national or EU-wide RYG awareness campaigns; calls on the Commission to develop, together with the Member States, a set of visibility rules for RYG schemes, including a recognisable visual identity and clear communications indicating that EU funding is being used;

Added65. Emphasises the need for additional mapping efforts to identify current gaps, adapt outreach strategies, and propose targeted measures and investments for different NEET subgroups; calls, in particular, on the Member States to carry out a comprehensive and regional analysis of the characteristics of NEET populations, as well as the criteria that increase the chances of becoming a NEET, such as gender, age, disability, or level of education, in order to ensure that measures are tailored to the needs of these young people; suggests that this analysis should include consultation with target groups and relevant stakeholders such as civil society and social partners;

Added66. Calls on the Commission to provide targeted technical assistance to the Member States to improve profiling and screening tools, and for the development of digital tools aimed at identifying the needs of RYG beneficiaries based on best practice in individualised support; recommends that Member States provide automated self-assessment tools that evaluate the factors determining the support available, noting that online channels may be easier for some young people to use for initial contact; highlights, in this regard, the promising use of profiling tools in some Member States, including AI-based tools, but stresses the need for human oversight and gender-sensitive approaches to avoid misclassification, discrimination or bias;

Added67. Calls on the Commission to carefully consider the situation of young workers in any upcoming initiative on AI at the workplace, paying particular attention to entry-level positions, as well as working and employment conditions; underlines the need to include AI, digital literacy, creativity and media skills in education and training curricula in order to equip young people with basic operational skills to use digital tools and AI systems and the critical faculties to evaluate their risks and ethical implications, especially for the labour market; calls for the development of synergies with other EU programmes and funds in order to support inclusive digital upskilling;

Added68. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, in line with the 2012 Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning, to strengthen and further develop their systems for the validation of non-formal and informal learning and skills acquired by young people; calls for these systems to be adapted to reach NEETs, in particular those who are vulnerable or hard to reach, by increasing the awareness and accessibility of procedures, improving cross-border recognition, enhancing the capacities of those responsible for validation, diversifying the types of certification that can be obtained through validation to include, for example, informal caregiving, volunteering and youth work, or by offering specific arrangements, while ensuring the quality of these procedures; highlights the good validation practices identified in the European inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning, in particular the link with the European Qualifications Framework and the involvement of employer organisations in these procedures to ensure the recognition of certified qualifications;

Added69. Calls on the Member States to balance the offers provided under the RYG schemes to promote sustainable skills development, continuing education, apprenticeships and training opportunities in combination with employment and subsidised jobs; recalls that the choice between the four main categories of offers must be based on the individual aspirations and needs of beneficiaries; calls for the promotion of RYG offers of quality and fairly remunerated traineeships, apprenticeships and vocational pathways, compliant with EU law and requirements, which equip young people with adequate skills, in particular those in demand in the labour market and in sectors where skills shortages persist across many Member States; stresses that quality education offers under RYG schemes should be extended beyond the 15-18 age group;

Added70. Stresses the value of targeted and monitored employer incentives, such as wage subsidies or tax credits, in boosting the labour market participation of vulnerable NEETs; recommends an ex ante and ex post analysis of financial incentives granted to employers in order to avoid subsidising companies who do not require public assistance, to ensure that short-term placements under RYG schemes do not act as a substitute for permanent contracts and to prevent precarious, non-standard and involuntary part-time offers;

Added71. Emphasises the corporate social responsibility of companies, which should include targeted measures for NEETs, in particular vulnerable NEETs, and partnerships with education and training providers to introduce young people to a variety of career opportunities; stresses the need to assist SMEs, which require more information and support in order to participate in RYG schemes; welcomes the programmes developed under the RYG schemes in certain Member States aimed at developing youth entrepreneurship and incentives for start-ups; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support young people in becoming self-employed or running micro-businesses by providing enhanced and specialised support in developing a viable business; calls on the Member States to develop support under the RYG for heritage-related economic activities, including traditional crafts, particularly in rural and depopulated areas;

Added72. Calls on the Member States to ensure that traineeship offers under the RYG guarantee equal treatment in working conditions, including pay and social protection, and are accessible and adapted to the individual needs of NEETs, including those in vulnerable situations facing additional barriers such as disability, health conditions or care responsibilities; stresses the need to ensure that no traineeship under the RYG contributes to social dumping, wage dumping or in-work poverty among young people, and that all offers are designed and implemented to ensure accessibility and inclusivity;

Added73. Encourages the Member States to introduce ‘fiscal completion bonuses’ for young people who successfully complete apprenticeships, traineeships or certified VET programmes, as an incentive to reduce dropout rates and promote qualification attainment;

Added74. Calls for the development of gradual reintegration pathways for young people with fewer opportunities as explicit intermediate outcomes within the RYG, to help them acquire soft skills, work habits, confidence and recognised learning outcomes before transitioning into formal education, training or quality employment; stresses the need for the inclusion in such pathways of structured volunteering, civic engagement and participation opportunities, youth work, sports, social enterprises and community placements, tailored to individual needs and linked to follow-up pathways;

Added75. Recommends the promotion of volunteering opportunities within RYG schemes and the creation of a European quality framework for volunteering; emphasises that volunteering has the potential to improve the skills and employability of NEETs and to accommodate vulnerable young people in a supportive and solidarity-focused environment; considers that the integration of volunteering opportunities into RYG schemes could be achieved by creating synergies with Erasmus+ and its European Solidarity Corps volunteering strand and by ensuring that young people engaged with, or seeking to engage with, RYG schemes are also aware of available volunteering opportunities funded under different schemes; takes the view that RYG providers from the volunteering sector should be supported by adequate resources for the delivery of volunteering opportunities and other RYG offers, ensuring that existing funds for employment and training opportunities are not reallocated;