Conference

Youth Employment in Transition:
Regional Perspectives within Succesive Crises

Conference & Workshop article & photos

Venue: Impact Hub Athens, Greece

Address: Karaiskaki 28, 10554, Athens

Dates: 07 December 2023

In the framework of a series of events between 5-8 December 2023, marking the conclusion of the Cowork4YOUTH project, the conference will open the discussion between the project’s researchers, policy-makers and the public on the outputs of our research.

Successive crises, including the 2008 financial one, the subsequent decade-long recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic, have shaped a new environment in employment. On the one hand, existing issues took on a new urgency. For example regions of the South of Europe with a predominantly tourism-dependent economy have presented different levels of resilience and vulnerability to different crises. Yet, the effect of structural issues of their economies, such as seasonality or low-skilled workforce, has been exacerbated during these turbulent periods. On the other hand, regions in transition, and more importantly regions undergoing a decarbonisation process, have always been scoring low in the employment rates. It is in those cases that the employment of youth has been severely affected by the changing economic environment of the successive crises since 2008.

Cowork4YOUTH, an analysis and research project, has assessed the transformation potential of alternative economic sectors on youth employment, having first shed light on the complex impact of the crises. The project adopts a transnational/ regional perspective by focusing on a binary of non-metropolitan regions across all study countries, especially Greece, Italy, Spain, and Ireland: tourism-dependent, island or remote coastal regions, on the one hand, and regions facing energy transition, decarbonisation or intense industrial decline on the other. In that framework, it has produced policy recommendations.

The conference will seek to address these issues, map the structural and socio-spatial parameters of youth unemployment and explore the opportunities for change through policy recommendations.

Programme

“Youth Employment in Transition: Regional Perspectives within Successive Crises”

Impact Hub Athens, Greece

Karaiskaki 28
10554, Athens
Greece

10:00-17:00 EET

Thursday 7th of December

09:30-10:00 Registration and welcome coffee

Addresses [10:00-10:20]

  • Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Labour and Social Security
  • Hara Giasirani, Deputy Governor of the Region of the South Aegean
  • Antonios Rovolis, Director of the Institute of Urban Environment and Human Resources

Meeting the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment [10:20-10:50]

  • Ioanna Tzika, Head of National Focal Point of the EEA Financial Mechanism, Ministry of National Economy and Finance
  • Gian Luca Bombarda, Fund Director for the Fund for Youth Employment
  • Francesca Bombarda, Youth Employment Magazine

Meet the projects [10:50-11:10]

  • The Cowork4YOUTH project: Targets and objectives, Vasilis Avdikos, Cowork4YOUTH P.I.
  • Presenting the YES! project, Yorgos Alexopoulos and Eleni Bletsa
  • Presenting the YENESIS project, Georgia Lesiova

Break [11:10-11:30]

Cowork4YOUTH Outputs 1: Contemporary issues in youth employment [11:30-12:30]

Chair: Elish Kelly (ESRI)

  • Adele Wheelan (ESRI), Determinants of Regional Youth Employment in Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain
  • Ainhoa Oseas Arranz (ISEAK), Presentation on living/ minimum wage, income schemes, and skills gap from the project’s deliverables
  • Kostas Gourzis and Vassiliki Krommyda (NTUA), Youth labour in energy regions through successive crises
  • Discussion/ Q&A

Cowork4YOUTH Outputs 2: Impact of alternative sectors on youth employment [12:30-13:30]

Chair: Conor Judge (ELARD)

  • Dimitris Psarologos (NTUA), Conducting research based on comprehensise visualisation and analysis platforms: presenting the Cowork4YOUTH Employment Observatory
  • Antigoni Papageorgiou (UEHR), Presentation of the pilot study: Targets, methodology, findings
  • Dimitris Manoukas (UEHR), Youth employment and engagement policies and collaborative workspaces: case studies from Spain, Denmark, Italy and Ireland
  • Discussion/ Q&A

Lunch Break [13:30-15:20]

Recommendations for Youth Employment in a changing environment [15:20-16:00]

Chair: Nicola Vita (Exeolab)

  • Manolis Boniatis (RP), Presentation of recommendations on skills gap
  • Sophia Kanaouti (RP), Presentation of recommendations on alternative sectors

Round Table [16:00-17:00]

Coordinator: Ioannis Papageorgiou (RP)

  • Nikolaos Ntavos, Manager of Bioeconomy & Environment Cluster of Western Macedonia
  • Maria Karamessini, Professor of Labour Economics and Economics of the Welfare State, Panteion University
  • Aggelos Panayiotopoulos, Senior Lecturer in International Tourism Management, Liverpool John Moores University
  • Q&A

–End of conference–