Since the new Action Agenda Coordination Committee started working after Agora Patra, one of the main aims of the body has become spreading knowledge about the strategic work of AEGEE-Europe. This means giving a lot of attention to promoting the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan, and a good way to do it is, why not, rewarding the antennae fulfilling the objectives set in the Action Agenda.

The Strategic Plan and Action Agenda are two of the main documents of our organization, written and approved by the AEGEEans, which give us a path to follow regarding our thematic work. The first document, the Strategic Plan, contains four Focus Areas (namely Spreading Europtimism, Youth Employment, Youth Mobility, Civic Education) and gives us a general approach to the topics we will be working on in the upcoming three years (Strategic Plan 2014/17); while the second, drafted during the EPM gives us an insight of the specific aims and objectives we should be fulfilling within a year (Action Agenda 2014/15).

These two documents are one of AEGEE’s biggest achievements on structured thematic work, because they unite AEGEEans in the work they do. Without these documents, every member would follow their own way and our work would not have so much impact. Besides that, the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan also unify the Vision and Mission of AEGEE, because at the end, they are based on them.

The Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) helps the antennae implement the Action Agenda. It promotes the document, tracks its fulfillment and exists to connect bodies and locals; and more than that, they’re a team of people (the ACTies!) always willing to lend a hand and help with what sometimes has been called one of the less understandable documents of our organization. To do this, they presented the Guidelines to the Action Agenda after Agora Cagliari, which is a set of guidelines with examples to every aim and objective of the Action Agenda, easing the transition of a merely vague sentence in a document to a speech, a set of conferences, or even a whole event (Guidelines to the Action Agenda 2014/15).

And of course, with the will to reward those who put an effort to the fulfillment of the Action Agenda, ACT, in cooperation with the AEGEEan, has created the Active Local of the Month award! With this new award, ACT intends to spread awareness about the Action Agenda, as well as increase the implementation of it and motivate people to organize more thematic events. And even more, with the example of good practices, they want to show other antennae that great thematic events can be easily organized! It’s not hard to organize something implementing the Action Agenda. You can find a lot of examples in the Guidelines for the Action Agenda and you can also, of course, use your imagination. If you’re still doubting about it you can also ask our first Active Local of the Month, AEGEE-Heraklio, who organized a conference on the rights for deaf people and sign language in Greece.

Do you want to organize something related to the Action Agenda but you don’t know how? You can ask ACT to help you! See who is your responsible at ACT’s About Page and make sure you include your activity in your next monthly report!

Will your local be the next Active Local of the Month?

Written by Ruben Navarro, AEGEE-Tarragona

As every year, the European Charlemagne Youth Prize (ECYP) took place in the city of Aachen, under its 7th edition. After Europe on Track’s major success last year, some AEGEE members gathered in Charlemagne’s city in order to know which project would be its successor. Youth unemployment, selfies, remarkable guests, journalism and the situation in Ukraine have just been some of the major highlights of this event that took place in late May.

1. Our Europe takes the legacy of its predecessor, Europe on Track

Peter Laugesen (Our Europe), with VP of the European Parliament, Anni Podimata

Denmark was the winner of this year’s edition of the Charlemagne Youth Prize, with the project Vores Europa (‘Our Europe’). This project consisted of a 12-month long journey taken by Peter Laugesen and Elena Askløf, who travelled through 24 European countries and interviewed young people about their expectations and wishes for Europe. They published radio podcasts, films, articles, interviews and pictures on their website, and even took up a experimental Skype session in collaboration with 21 Danish schools, involving 2,800 young students whom the creators talked to. It was a truly outstanding project, self-funded by its own creators and it was certainly one of the ‘favourite ones’ to achieve the biggest prize.

The story of Our Europe might seem familiar to many of you… yes! Many of us recalled the Europe on Track project of AEGEE-Europe, which won last year’s Charlemagne Youth Prize. Looks like the recipe for success in a ECYP candidature is very simple: involve young people from several countries, talk about their concerns and reach the policy-makers with audiovisual material and social media.

2. Youth (un)employment, the hottest topic

The three winners: Denmark, the Netherlands and Cyprus

One of the biggest topics addressed by the Danish Our Europe project was with no doubts youth unemployment, which has reached staggering figures in countries such as Spain or Italy. However, this topic was the main issue by several of the 28 projects presented. Both the second and third place winners of the ECYP, the Netherlands and Cyprus, had youth unemployment as their focus.

On the one hand, JouwDelft & Co., the Dutch national winner, hosted a European youth congress in November 2012 which aimed to find local-scale solutions to reduce youth unemployment in Europe and brought young active citizens and policy advisors from several countries together. The outcome of the conference was a resolution on these recommendations, which was issued to the European Parliament in November 2013. On the other hand, Youth Dynamics is a Cypriot youth organisation that hosted a training course in April 2013 that involved seminars, presentations, workshops and discussions based on the same topic, gathering 26 participants from nine EU countries.

3. EBM Valleta, our AEGEE Representative

Mariella getting the award in Aachen

Mariella Rapa (AEGEE-Valletta) was the representative of AEGEE in the list of nominees for the final Youth Prize, representing the European Boards’ Meeting that took place in Valletta in February 2013, which gathered around two hundred AEGEEans under the topic of ‘the future of Europe’.

Previously interviewed by our journalist Cosmina Bisboaca (AEGEE-Torino), AEGEE-Valletta stated that it was “a very big honour” to be the National winner in Malta, especially taking into account that other strong organisations such as JEF Malta submitted their projects too.

Chucky Bartolo told Cosmina the reasons why EBM Valletta decided to run for the Charlemagne Youth Prize: “The organising team that worked on the EBM spent a lot of their time and energy to make the event as great as it could be. Knowing that we had worked so hard to make an event like this meant that we were able to recognise that the EBM was worth submitting. Inspired by the success of “Europe on Track”, we submitted the project for the Charlemagne Youth Prize”. Despite not making it to the ‘final three’, Mariella got the National Award out of the hands of Anni Podimata (vice-president of the European Parliament), and showed the pride of the whole local for being among the 28 finalists.

4. Youth at the back… but not afraid to ask

The 28 national winners of the Charlemagne Youth Prize were afterwards invited at the Charlemagne Forum, which gathered several ‘top’ guests. Unfortunately, the young representatives were forced to be sitting in the back, whereas the jury and guests were right on the front, sitting comfortably and having snacks and drinks next to them. For many, that was the vivid image that young people were merely playing a secondary role in this Charlemagne Prize, but we were not afraid to take the driver’s seat, ask questions and confront the opinion of the older experts… even if we had to stand up and there was no microphone available for us at first.

Especially significant was the speech given by Luis Alvarado Martínez, president of AEGEE-Europe and representative of Europe on Track as the ECYP winner of 2013, who encouraged the organisers of the Charlemagne Youth Prize to involve young people more actively: “It’s them who should be sitting on the front”. Moreover, he suggested the idea of them selecting the winners of the ECYP – after all, what is a ‘youth prize’ if it is not selected by youth representatives?

5. ‘Top’ guests… taking AEGEEan’s selfies

“A selfie is the picture you take yourself, right?”

Besides Ms. Podimata, who was replacing the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, there were other remarkable guests among the visitors in Aachen. One of them was the former president of the European Central Bank, mr. Jean-Claude Trichet, who was taking part at the panel discussion of the Charlemagne Forum. But specially striking was the appearance in the middle of the Forum of Herman van Rompuy, president of the European Council. During the question round, two AEGEE members (Anna, from AEGEE-Barcelona, and Erik, from AEGEE-Bratislava) were sending their questions to the pannelists, when all of a sudden people started to applause. Van Rompuy arrived, the question round was interrupted and he gave his speech where several topics such as the previous Sunday’s EP elections were tackled.

In fact, Mr. Van Rompuy embarked in a small inter-generational dialogue with our AEGEEans Luis and Mariella, when they asked to take a selfie with him. “You mean, the picture that you take yourself, right?”, rumour has it that he asked.

6. The situation in Ukraine in the Charlemagne Youth Prize

Once Herman Van Rompuy had arrived at the Forum, Luis asked him about the situation in Ukraine, and he gave an answer paraphrasing Tolstoy (“we, Europe and Russia, have one thing in common – Christianity”), that our member of AEGEE-Bratislava, Erik Redli, reported perfecty in his article at Foreign Students.

Those were not the only remarkable guests of the week – in the Charlemagne Prize ceremony, there were the prime ministers of Moldova and Ukraine, Iurie Leanca and Arseniy Yatseniuk, right on the aftermath of the Ukrainian elections. In fact, the event gathered a few hundreds of protesters from Ukraine and Russia in the main square of Aachen, protesting against the war – but from different sides. Both were divided into two blocks and the police had to intervene, as reported by our friend from OneEurope Yuliya Kosharevska, even though there were no major incidents.

7. AEGEE-Aachen and OneEurope, a top cooperation for a ‘top event’

A journalists’ “newsroom” moment

Under the special request of the city council of Aachen, AEGEE-Aachen organised a ‘side event’ for journalists who would cover the Charlemagne Youth Prize for their national media and other internet platforms, in order to give more visibility to a prize which has proven to be of a major importance. Our ‘polar bears’ seeked the cooperation with the OneEurope magazine, who also reported actively about the happenings in Aachen and brought their expertise in journalism.

The atmosphere between AEGEE and OneEurope members was great and it truly felt like a real newsroom sometimes. Moreover, AEGEE-Aachen provided a wonderful social programme with a city tour around the city, a party with the national winners of the ECYP… and the members of OneEurope could experience for the first time what a European Night was. Congratulations, AEGEE-Aachen, and thank you for such an effort!

And next year… it can be you! This year’s Charlemagne Youth Prize event has proven that a project that gathers young people from several European countries, that deals with some of the ‘hot’ topics in European youth and also involves policy-makers and advisors can be eligible to win. It is acknowledged that we have taken part in many AEGEE projects with a big potential that comply with these same characteristics. So, what are you waiting for? Maybe the next Charlemagne Prize could be in AEGEE’s hands again!

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona

Last time The AEGEEan spoke about the Europe on Track (EoT) project was in October, when the open call for the project manager was issued. Réka Salamon (AEGEE-Aachen/AEGEE-Debrecen) was choosen for the second time to be the coordinator of the project, together with Rocío Leza (AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles) and Turgut Tosun (AEGEE-Ankara). Last year the project won the European Charlemagne Youth Prize, so the AEGEEan was interested to learn more about the second edition starting this April.

EoT progress meeting in Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar 2013

Europe on track was the most successful project of AEGEE-Europe in 2012. Six young ambassadors travelled around the European continent by train: from Belgium to Spain, Italy and the Balkans. The ambassadors were divided in two teams, each of them following their own route. There were three topics on which the ambassadors interviewed the young people they met: youth participation, sustainability and enterpreneurship.

Last October Réka Salamon was chosen for the second time to be the project manager. “EoT is probably one of the greatest achievement of my life. It is like my baby, I hope I don’t sound too emotional.” – she said. “I saw all the potential and the success it achieved, but I also saw all the flaws, so I will do my best to correct them in this edition with the rest of the Coordination Team.”

Topics of EoT 2014

This year the topics are going to be very different. “While choosing the main topics of this year’s edition, we wanted to take into account not only general youth issues, but also current events so one of the main topics is going to be ‘Mobility’.” – explains Réka. “We believe the newly ratified ‘Erasmus+’ program is going to have a great impact on youth for the upcoming years, so with the coordinators and Comité Directeur (CD) we decided this would be one of the topics. We also want to focus on the active involvement of young people in the decision-making processes on a higher level and help the Y-Vote project to spread the word about the European Parliamentary Elections. Thus we decided to choose this as the second main topic of the project.”

Next to these topics the ambassadors will also touch upon other topics on which AEGEE will be working according to the new Strategic Plan, like ‘youth mobility, youth employment, civic education and even EU neighborhood policy’.

EoT Route 2014

The draft routes of the travellers

These are not the only changes in the program. Of course the routes won’t be the same, even if a lot of locals who hosted the project last time applied again. The responses and the final route showed that the Network is interested in the project and wants to participate.

Germany, Italy and Greece were the three countries with most applications from locals. With three applications from Greece, the plan is to bring one of the team straight to Spring Agora Patra, and because Greece is starting its semester of Presidency of European Council, ending in Patra will be even more meaningful. This year the plan is to send a team of ambassadors to Riga and to Kyiv as well, due to the great interest from the locals and to the possible impact an EoTconference can have in these cities.

However, there were also surprises as well, Réka tells us: “We didn’t receive any application from France”.  The teams still need to cross it though, since there are stops planned in Spain.

The biggest Challenge

When asked about the biggest challenge of the previous EoT she replied: “The most pressing issue last edition was time. There wasn’t much time available to plan and implement the idea we had for the project. In this edition it is definitely an advantage that we had almost half a year to plan and arrange everything. Also the locals won’t have the pressure to organize someting on a very short notice.”

Apart from the timing, the last time, the project lacked external financial support to cover the costs of ambassadors for taking nighttrains and making reservations. This year the CD and the Coordination Team found a solution. “Last time we had the InterRail passes and we relied upon the network” (for food and accommodation ed.) Réka explains. “This time we have applied to the Open Society Foundation for grants. Now we can also financially support the locals and travellers for the costs of their accommodation.”

Selection of Ambassadors

A thing that raised some controversy last time was the fact that there was an opportunity for non-AEGEEans to participate in the project. Réka explains the reasons for this decision as follows: “in AEGEE we tend to live in our own ‘bubble’, seeing things from one certain perspective. These people can bring a fresh new insight and a different kind of approach to the project and the discussions.”

“But because after all, the ambassadors who, at the time, were not members of any  local eventually joined AEGEE, the Coordinators and CD decided to again open the applications for non-AEGEEans in this year’s edition.” (However the downside is that you know less about these participants and it has been proven difficult to check the skills and experience they put forward in their application, Ed.). You can meet the ambassadors of the project in the following link.

Réka Salamon is known to be involved in many projects and committees and she’s never hid her plans to run for the Comité Directeur during Spring Agora Patra. Being so involved in AEGEE and at the same time preparing her candidature could be difficult but Réka is sure she can manage. “I have learned how to manage my time effectively and even if April is going to be the most intense month for the project, I believe that if everything is going to be ready on time, I don’t see any obstacles in the way of my candidature for President of AEGEE-Europe.”

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

From November 11th to the 13th, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD or OCDE in French) headquarters in Paris hosted the Youth Summit on Youth Employment, which took place parallel to the Paris Intergovernmental Summit of the EU Members States on the same issue.

As member of the Comité Directeur of AEGEE-Europe, I was able to represent our organization at this summit thanks to the invitation issued by the European Youth Forum (YFJ). Unfortunately, no members from our Youth (un)Employment project could come, because at the same time, preparations for the Y-Vote convention on Youth Employment were taking place in Agrigento.

The Youth Summit in Paris was special since, for the first time, it brought the two main non-governmental actors in the field of employment for young people together: trade unions and national youth councils. Why they had not managed to sit down to draft a common strategy, when the destruction of jobs in Europe is a problem for several years already, is still a mystery to me.

The discussions covered different fields, among which a big highlight was an update on implementation of the Youth Guarantee Scheme established by the European Union. The Youth Guarantee aims to provide all young Europeans with a job, a traineeship or an education opportunity within the next four months after ending studies or finishing their contract. Even if far from the estimation of 21 billion Euros that are needed for the scheme, the 6 billion Euros provided by the EU can have a big impact as a first step. Therefore, it was quite disheartening to see that the preparations are quite behind schedule in many member states, specially among those with higher youth unemployment rates. They are supposed to be ready by the end of December.

When implementing the Scheme, we saw how some countries clearly modify the target groups and risk to subvert the actual spirit of the proposal. The youth organisation has always claimed a role in deciding and monitoring the implementation of the Youth Guarantee; but this co-decision power has seldom been granted, and in many countries the implementation plan will be prepared last-minute, in a closed office without input from the affected groups.

The French minister of Employment, addressing the participants of the Youth Summit.

Another issue of the summit was the importance of focusing attention on inclusion of the NEETs (people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training) which is a population in great risk of social exclusion. The percentage of NEETs in society vary enormously from country to country, but because most countries do not include them in Unemployment statistics, they are a hidden group in big risk of exclusion.

At the same time at the summit, the presidents of most EU-countries met in Paris receiving huge media coverage, but little results. The fact that this extraordinary meeting had been called, seems a very effective way to present to the public opinion how “much” the governments care about one of the most pressing problems in Europe. But the participants at the summit would have liked to see more tangible results than front-page pictures of shaking hands, press releases, and the scheduling of a next meeting in Rome for Spring. A call for less talk and more action was the common message of almost all interventions and during the street action that was held on Tuesday.

EU Commissioner László Andor updated the participants on the outcome of the Intergovernmental Summit.

At least our Youth Summit is the start of a new period of collaboration among youth stakeholders. And we will keep ourselves working to improve the problem of youth employment. At the same time we will try to ensure that from now until the next Summit in Rome, advancements are made and no more time is lost. The next summit will take place in Spring, in the middle of the campaign for the EU elections. Political leaders will definitely plan to stage themselves carefully to the media, in order to take political advantage. But we will also make sure to use the media coverage to make our voices heard and denounce any failure in using all the available resources to fight the Youth Unemployment crisis.

Once I was back in Brussels, I went to the European Parliament to attend a Round Table Discussion on the quality of internships, which is a very relevant issue in Europe and especially in Brussels, which has a big population of interns. The issue of unpaid internships (which is an opportunity only available to those who have enough money to cover some months without income), and the intern positions that don’t provide enough learning and training (just providing employers with low-waged workers), were among the most mentioned problems of the current situation.

Both events’ information was sent regularly to Agrigento, where it fed into the discussions of the Y-Vote convention, and where they were transformed into recommendations that will be passed to the new European Parliament to be elected in May 2014. Moreover, it gave me some ideas to reboot our Youth (un)Employment project that has been dormant in the last few months. If you are motivated to contribute to solving one of the biggest challenges in Europe nowadays, why not join the project? Please contact the team at yue@aegee.org, or answer to the Open Call that will be launched soon on the ANNOUNCE-L mailing list.

Written by: Miguel Gallardo Albajar, member of the Comité Directeur

Youth unemployment is on the main agenda in many EU member states, particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal, where an alarming number of young people are unemployed. The YVote2014 Convention in Agrigento addressed this topic with 25 people from different EU contries.

Youth unemployment is on the agenda of all European governments, and also of the European Union. In order to discuss this situation and to contribute with new ideas and concepts to fight youth unemployment, 25 people from France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy met in the lovely town of Agrigento, in southern Sicily, to tackle these big issues.

The convention on Youth (Un)Employment was the third one of the YVote2014 Project and the second one focusing on one specific thematic, right after Las Palmas’ convention about the democratic gap in the EU.

The days were filled with brainstorming, discussions and workshops on topics like how to bridge the skills mismatch between what young people learn and what is demanded in the job marked, what is the added value and the role of youth organizations like AEGEE in being involved in the fight against youth unemployment, which obstacles prevent young people to start their own business and what kind of help young people need to be able to find a job. Some other specific topics were the implemention of the newly decided youth guarantee, which seeks to provide every young person with either a job, education, training or apprenticeship within four months after finishing school and what should be done about helping persons in special need (NEETs, acronym for Not in Employment, Education or Training).

During the conference, many projects and initiatives on how to fight unemployment among young people in Europe were presented. At the same time, the participants had the possibility to discuss with the mayor of Agrigento as well as with the local state attorney, Ramondo Alaimo.

Special mention was given to the task of encouraging small businesses and start-ups as well as social businesses as means to fight youth unemployment. During these workshops, the participants developed themselves concepts on how to start a social businesses in their environment.

Despite of creating business plans, everyone discussed and developed measures and objectives to fight unemployment. These ideas were used to formulate recommendations towards Members of European Parliaments in the last two days.

Focusing on the upcoming European elections, participants simulated a discussion between supporters and opponents of voting in the EU elections in 2014. In this workshop, group works and discussion circles were formed in order to find arguments and explanations why to vote and what are the concerns that people who refuse to take part in the elections have.

All of the participants enjoyed the unexpected comfort and luxury of staying in a 4-star hotel with very decent working facilities. Special thanks go to the organisers from AEGEE-Agrigento who made all this possible and provided everyone with a great and very informative convention in beautiful Sicily.

Written by Holger Schmitt, AEGEE-Berlin

Two weeks before the Agora I attended a Round Table organised by the European Youth Forum in the European Parliament, focused on the repercussion of youth unemployment for social inclusion.

The high unemployment rates among the youth is not fresh news anymore; we have heard the figures so many times they do not scare us anymore. But I was shocked when the representative of the medical students highlighted the strong link between unemployment and health. Unemployment is a risk factor for drug addiction, depression and other psychological and physical problems. This point of view adds a new human dimension to the economic aspects of the unemployment crisis in Europe, and highlights how devastating can it be for a person to feel disconnected to society for some months, to have no hope of changing its situation, and how this can lead to social exclusion.

I always knew that unemployment has a bigger impact on the collectives that are excluded from society. What I could not assess clearly before is how steadily this unemployment crisis is increasing the number of people in risk of exclusion in Europe. If the situation continues this way for a long time, we will be dangerously coming closer to the no-return point of having a lost generation in Europe. Something that did not happen since the World War II.

NEET is a complex term which was created in the UK to give a name to the people who are trapped in the situation of Not in Employment, Education or Training for a certain period of time. The term has since the 90s become widespread in the world, with even translation to local languages (in Spain they are called the Ni-Nis (NI estudian NI trabajan). This group is the one highly exposed to the risk of exclusion. These young people are in the spotlight of the European policymakers as they are aware of the risks this situation poses for the European society in the future. They are looking to address this problem with decision, and they will adapt a system which is already working in Europe (e.g. Finland) with positive results, the so-called Youth Guarantee. What does this Youth Guarantee mean?

The Youth Guarantee is a compromise to offer every young person in Europe a job, further education, or a training, four months after leaving education or becoming unemployed the latest. The idea sounds great, and if implemented Europe-wide, it may help to reduce drastically the risk of a lost generation. However, the costs of its implementation will be high (although the economical studies determine that the pay-off is assured on the long term); and I sometimes wonder where those politicians are who were capable of thinking in the long run…

You can find more information on the Youth Guarantee here and here.

A curious case: According to their definition, as a volunteer working for AEGEE for one year I am formally a NEET (I asked and they confirmed this point). Strange enough, because in spite of the term I can say with no doubt that this year I am working as hell, learning everyday and putting into practice all my skills and knowledge into my tasks. In my case, I am a NEET by choice, and the same for my fellow CD mates, we took a break of one year from our lives to become members of the Comité Directeur. However, I bring another conclusion out of the fact that I am a NEET. Volunteering can be a great help for NEETs to avoid isolation, depression, and other negative consequences of being disconnected from society. They will be active and feel useful, they will learn a lot, they will gain skills that will increase their employability. Together with the Youth Guarantee, supporting the youth organisations can provide great results in reducing the risk of exclusion of a whole generation.

Written by Miguel Gallardo Albajar, member of the Comité Directeur 2012-2013

It is the time of summer holidays but the Youth UnEmployment Project has still managed to do some interesting things. Here is a good chance to have a look at what Youth UnEmployment Project is about and what we have been up to lately. Check out our fourth newsletter for the year! The main topic is the upcoming European School of Entrepreneurship taking place in Santander which you do not want to miss.

The economy is not exactly good-looking in Spain these days, but no matter this fact it was chosen last week that AEGEE-Santander will be the host of the upcoming European School of Entrepreneurship this autumn. The AEGEEan had a talk with the President of AEGEE-Santander Fernando Campo about preparations to the event. 

So what is the theme? The answer to that would be “Sustainable employment.” When can you attend it? The answer to that would be around end of September, start of October but keep in mind that nothing is sure about the date, yet! However it does seem that this autumn will create the setting for an event in which the participants will learn how to create and run their respective firm while taking care of the nature.

Heading to the North of Spain

Santander is a small city with 200.000 habitants in the north of Spain between Gijón and Bilbao. It is a beautiful coastal city with calm and friendly people who, obviously, also enjoy creating life in the street. The region is famous for their gastronomy and the precious views one can enjoy of the sea and mountains that they have, and then “Bank of Santander” (Banco Santander). The third greatest bank in the world was born in this little city and it is one of the examples to set for the young Europeans, proving that if you want to do something big – you can!

Red numbers, red alert?

The economic crisis has obviously affected the decision that made AEGEE-Santander to apply to become host of this event. Actually, they did have many doubts about how to keep the numbers in green for the event since it is a small antenna without loads of money in the bank. However, motivated AEGEEans and an eager to turn Europe upside down and organise a European event (that was not a Summer University) drew AEGEE-Santander closer to pressing “send the application” to the Youth UnEmployment Projet. In the end, AEGEE-Santander discussed this issue with friends in the Network Commission with Youth In Action experience, they talked with the principal of the university and the local government of Santander and chose in the end to dedicate their effort to this project because of the interest shown by all parties.

The idea is to ask for Youth In Action for financing but they also search for opportunities how to do fundraising. AEGEE-Santander has experience in this field through organisation of previous Summer Universities and the President Fernando Campo was a member of the fundraising team and organiser of last year’s “yellow spirit” Agora in Alicante.

Right now AEGEE-Santander is searching for a way to finance it. “We have more or less planned where to do each and every thing and we do have a plan B if we do not receive the Youth In Action grant,” President Fernando Campo responds to the question regarding how far in the process AEGEE-Santander is. The university of Cantabria is providing facilities for the workshops, the local government is helping with transportation and the “social program”, so AEGEE-Santander is already well on the way to organise a memorable event. However it is not only AEGEE-Santander who is working on the event, they are also in contact with Turgut Tosun, European School of Entrepreneurship Manager in order to make everything go down perfectly. If possible AEGEE-Santander also expects to surprise the Agora participants with a promo video.

How to set an example

“People in my antenna are very motivated about this event. We are few active members, but when a small team works well this does not matter much. They are giving their all to the project since the beginning, demonstrating a tremendous initiative. I am thrilled! Because of this, because of them, we are going to organise an event that will surprise many people, proving that a small antenna that is developing step by step is able to do something big.”

Due to the world economic situation this event could not be more interesting! In Spain the situation is more unpleasant than in the rest of Europe and an event with these characteristics can be encouraging for many and it can be an important key for courage. These are not times for tears but rather time to tough it out and find the way towards a brighter future. “Life is for survivors and maybe it is the task of AEGEE to say this loud and clear and be the ones that lead the social pack,” Fernando ends the interview.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Prof.Dr. Gül Turan, Head of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of Okan University, Istanbul, opened the panel discussion of Saturday at EBM Izmir about “Non-Formal Education as a solution to (youth) unemployment”.

The professor talked about the reasons of youth unemployment, its connection with education and the current situation in Turkey. Particularly, she pointed out that Turkey performed poorly in terms of continuous education and trainings for adults. She proposed two solutions: focus on vocational schools matching the market needs and free e-learning systems.

Gül brought a lot of inspiration and fresh ideas and showed how maturity is not an obstacle to open-mindedness and innovation. The AEGEEan interviewed her, in order to give all of you who could not participate in the discussion a cue for reflection:

Dear Prof.Dr. Turan, during your presentation you showed all the steps that brought you from the idea of becoming a ballerina to actually being an economist. However, what made you focus exactly on the themes of youth unemployment and non-formal education?
Having lived and studied in Algeria and Egypt and travelled in remote areas of my home country Turkey, I felt it necessary to understand better the dual lifestyle of these societies, to know what economic development implied, to see how things could be changed and improved. I then thought that economics would be the answer. Becoming aware that it was politics that determined the type of economic policies applied in a country  led me to work more and more on political economy issues.  Politics determine economics and vice versa. Besides teaching I also have administrative responsibilities. This allows me to be in close contacts with students, young people graduating and wishing to find decent jobs. So when Gizem Karslı asked me to participate in your event I accepted readily, although my main specialty is banking and international finance.

You have been working in Turkey mostly. Do you think that the motives of unemployment here are the same as in the rest of Europe?
I have taken sabbatical leaves more than once to spend time abroad, namely in France and the US. Moreover, I have travelled all around the world to attend conferences and through these opportunities I could learn about and compare different economies. Unemployment is a general disease and one can find multiple reasons for it. Some are the same as in the developed countries and some are specific to developing ones. In developing countries creating new jobs at the same rate of  population increase becomes problematic, especially because unskilled people living in rural areas decide to move to cities and they need a job.
When the level of GDP (gross domestic product) of the country is low, the income per capita is not high and the government is not able to allocate enough funds to education.

Non-formal education can, therefore, be a solution. What are the valuable skills that can be acquired through it?
Working within a youth organisation can be viewed as one form of non-formal education. It enables you and your friends to acquire skills such as the ability to communicate with others, to express yourself intelligently and use words effectively. Discussions held during these meeting make you realise the importance of knowledge and creativity. Travelling to different places, meeting people of different nationalities and culture enhances you imagination. Curiosity about what surrounds you makes you more knowledgeable. Training in the right place will also lead to the same results.

You talked about the necessity to understand the required positions from market and match with individual competences. Does this mean that people have to stop following their dreams if they do not match the market?
The choice will always be personal. What I meant is that your dreams may not correspond with the reality, with what the market wants. Job creation is today concentrated in high skilled areas, and if you want to avoid unemployment or low income or job insecurity you will have to behave accordingly. If you insist on pursuing your dreams that will be your choice and you could still be happy doing what you like best.

You told us during the panel that the university you work at, Okan University, like other universities in Turkey tries to promote youth employment. Can you tell us how this is done? And what is Kobime?
High school graduates wishing to enter the university system must pass a two-stage university entrance exam. Those students who fail the second exam are allowed to enroll in either a 2 year vocational school or a 4 year vocational school. This is a second chance opportunity for them to obtain a diploma that will allow them to secure a good job. This year starting from March 2012 an e- learning center called Kobime will start to train around 1000 young people working in the IT sector of Istanbul free of charge. These students will be able to increase their skills in management, accounting and different programmes such as web application, Ajax application and server communication. This is a good example of cooperation among business associations, the government, a university and two large companies to put together a vocational programme.

Are there similar initiatives abroad?
Vocational schools exist almost everywhere: their names may differ (for example in the US they are called community colleges) but they all have the same goals. Moreover, foundations such as CARE try to promote specialised  programmes. Fortunately we are not alone!

Did you know AEGEE before this conference? What is your impression?
I did! I have met your president in Brussels and I invited Gizem Karslı to Okan and learned about AEGEE. I am very impressed by your organisation. I find it dynamic, full of life. All the people I met made me feel proud and full of confidence for the future.  If this generation can be so conscientious of what needs to be done to improve Life (with a capital L), think of what the next generation will be able to do… So please continue doing what you seem to do so well!

Higher education days and European School of Entrepreneurship are some of AEGEE’s initiatives concerning promotion of non-formal education. How do you think we can contribute more?
I think it would be a good idea if you could invite well-known CEOs to your meetings. Get them to give talks, see how you organise those meetings, even take them to the gym to see how you live and what you are ready to do for the goals you strive for.

She suggested, now it is time for us to talk (as we are doing by publishing this interview) and to act!

Written by Martina Zanero, AEGEE-Torino