Presenting the benefits of EURES to disadvantaged youth

As part of its work on the Mind the Gap project, the organisation International EduCenter asked EURES Member AJOFM Gorj to present the benefits of EURES to the project participants. We talked to Adina Vladu from International EduCenter to learn more.

Could you first tell us about the Mind the Gap project?

Mind the Gap is an international project funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme. It aimed to support disadvantaged youth and young people who were not in education, employment or training, and to help them embark on career paths either through further education or work.

The target groups of this project were youth workers and young people from Italy, North Macedonia, Romania and the UK.

How did the idea of this collaboration originate?

As a Public Employment Service and EURES Member, AJOFM Gorj was a great partner to collaborate with, because their experience matched perfectly the main objective of Mind the Gap.

Also, as the project involved young people from around Europe, we thought it would be very relevant for them to learn more about EURES. And we were right – they were very interested and asked a lot of questions about it!

This was actually our second collaboration with EURES. In 2018, 40 young people from 8 European countries (Georgia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Turkey) got together in Gorj County, Romania, to participate in activities designed to develop their life skills, employability and entrepreneurship.

What information did project participants receive?

Local EURES Adviser Diana Vaduva gave an overview of EURES, including statistics. She also explained how the service works and gave real-life examples of people benefiting from it. Diana also answered project participants’ questions about how they can join EURES, what countries the service covers, eligibility requirements and others.

In addition, AJOFM Gorj presented what support measures young jobseekers can receive from local Public Employment Services to ease the transition from school to work.

“I was glad to see that the participants were very interested in our presentation and asked insightful questions, such as what the most in-demand jobs are, and how long it takes to find a job through EURES. They even asked about the meaning of the EURES logo.”

Diana Vaduva, EURES Adviser

Are you planning other collaborations?

Yes, we are. We are planning to collaborate with AJOFM Gorj again in our next project related to employment and the labour market.