Thematic Group on Rural Youth Employment: First meeting

Our Thematic Group on Rural Youth Employment: the Voice of Rural Youth met earlier this month to start sharing personal experience and exchanging on the needs and opportunities in efforts to help better foster young peoples’ financial independence and future livelihoods in rural areas.

The Thematic Group members, a broad mix of young people and support bodies from EU and Member State levels, focused on networking their knowhow. The aim: to explore enabling environments for employment among rural youth - in and outside the agri-food sector.

Many different success factors and opportunities were identified during the online event. Key among these was a sense of belonging to a rural area, which is a very positive asset for motivating young people to seek work in their home area despite possible challenges and comparably better jobs in urban settings. This can be reinforced by local networking opportunities and better provision of information targeted not only at local youth but also at newcomers and youth returning from cities or abroad.

Young people were seen as beneficial agents of change for rural Europe due to their inclination to embrace and drive employment innovations and new developments. However, the youth expertise that we gathered told us that entrepreneurial capacity and confidence are not always widespread in all rural communities. Therefore dedicated support here can be tailored to achieve useful results. Empowering young people so that they get involved in rural decision-making (in terms of community governance and business management) was considered another common ingredient of success in terms of strengthening youth employment conditions.

More awareness about remote working options is also now helping rural areas increase their appeal as locations for quality employment. Information campaigns promoting such possibilities were identified by the Thematic Group. It was noted that outreach work should proactively seek to support vulnerable groups who may not have an adequate appreciation of rural Europe’s full potential as an attractive place to work, live and visit for young people.

Funding from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was recognised as providing valuable prospects within its remit. The importance of other sources of support was underlined as being vital for essential enabling factors such as adequate transport and broadband connections as well as facilitating a thriving social fabric within rural communities. Assistance with access to land, credit, skills and other resources for younger generations were also highlighted by the Thematic Group as priority topics for policy-makers and practitioners to help with.

See the event webpage for more information about the Thematic Group’s first meeting.