Youth unemployment in Macedonia, as well as in all of Europe is a hot issue. As NGOs are getting more attention lately, the main topic of this article is to find out what they can do to help in solving the problem.

It’s been less than a year since the Youth Council in Kavadarci started actively working with the local youth, and yet it seems like their efforts don’t have an expected feedback.

Due to the global economical crisis the youth unemployment rate in Europe over the last years peeks historically high. Special care is taken of the youth unemployment rate, which is generally higher. In 2010, with the rate for the EU at 20.9 %, more than one on five young Europeans was not employed, but looking and available for a job.

Testimony of Elsa Bădănac, one of the only two women train drivers in Romania.

Thanks to role-gaming and educative programs, schools put the issues of gender discrimination for their students. Wearing a skirt still makes boys laugh… is it acceptable ?

Listen to this radio report of Justine Caurant: Perception of sexism at school.

2011 was declared as the European Year of the volunteer and therefore among others lately a lot of attention is given to the European Voluntary Service-program (EVS) from the European Commission. EVS is getting more and more known and strives to give youngsters the chance to develop themselves personally and professionally by volunteering abroad. Mostly participants in voluntary projects are well-educated and have a good socio-economical situation. What about those who are not?

They call themselves « schools » but they don’t look anything like. France’s sixty «Second Chance Schools » offer several months’ training to unemployed young people from ages 18 to 30 who have no qualifications. The origins of these unusual centers of training lie in a European initiative, driven forward by the French Edith Cresson.

As set up by the French government in 2006, the volunteer civil service might well become compulsory. But many people speak up denouncing a political takeover of this scheme and a massive way of precariousness for young people. This is where things stand in a debate opened about fifteen years ago and which is likely to start again.

Testimony of Heilin-Anne Leonard-Pugh, a young British student with an uncommon passion for bears which brought her to volunteer in the Romanian sanctuary Libearty.

2011 is the Year of Volunteering for the European Commission. But what really means to be volunteer? At least, in English there are two different definitions for the same term. The first stands for someone who gives his free time for an non-lucrative project or the public interest. The second one is a legal status for a limited time of work, not for free, not fully paid… On this dossier, we try to define more precisely what volunteering could bring to young Europeans