The ”Investing in young people, investing in our future” project was designed following the adoption by the Government of Romania of a Memorandum regarding the implementation of a pilot Youth Guarantee scheme aimed at improving the access of young persons to the labour market. According to the Memorandum, the term ‘Youth Guarantee’ refers to a situation in which young people receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. Youth Guarantee schemes prevent early school leaving, increase the chances to get a job and dismantle practical barriers to entering the labour market.

Since our project is a pilot project, its implementation will also allow for the identification of an efficient set of locally adapted measures and solutions, which will be the foundation on which the subsequent 2014-2020 Youth Guarantee scheme will be built.

The main project activities are briefly described in the following section:

1. Project management.
2. Set-up and running of five Regional Houses of Active Youth in the cities of Alba-Iulia, Baia Mare, Brasov, Hunedoara and Iasi. These will host the information, counselling and training activities, as well as numerous meetings and round tables involving young persons, employers, civil society representatives and local public authorities.
3. Delivery of integrated information, counselling and vocational guidance programmes for 2,500 young persons: organisation of 100 information sessions, drafting of 2,500 individual profiles and customised action plans, organisation of 100 collective job counselling and guidance workshops, etc.
4. Drafting and delivery of training programmes for 2,000 young persons: level 1 training courses (360 hours) – 1,000 students, level 2 training courses (720 hours) – 800 students, apprenticeship – 200 persons, and granting subsidies to facilitate the participation to these programmes.
5. Consulting and assistance services to set up an independent business for 500 young persons.
6. Job prospection, labour market intermediation and job placement services based on the need analysis of the labour market: 2,400 persons.
7. Promotion, motivation and activation of the target group: drafting and dissemination of information and promotional materials, organisation of employment caravans, media campaigns to promote the opportunities opened-up by the project, raising awareness of the newly introduced concept of ‘Youth Guarantee’, and the organisation of conferences and other local media events.