Allianssi: The Finnish youth guarantee almost completely brought down

In spite of naming the youth guarantee as one of their flagship programs, the Government of Finland is cutting funding for it by more than a half in 2016 and by 96 percent in 2017 compared to what was allocated by the previous government.

Without resources, it will be impossible to provide young people with jobs or internships. While the previous government allocated 60 million euros per year to the youth guarantee, now the “From youth guarantee towards a community guarantee” –program will only get 10 million euros over the next three years.

Before the elections, all the Finnish political parties were strongly committed to supporting the youth guarantee. “The youth guarantee must be continued and further developed,” announced the party secretaries that took part in the election panel of Allianssi, the Finnish Youth Council and member of the European Youth Forum. Therefore, the decision to bring down the program is all the more shocking.

The youth guarantee was created to prevent social exclusion of young people with the promise of offering every person under the age of 25 and every recent graduate under the age of 30 a suitable measure to break their unemployment, such as a work try-out, a study place, or a place in a workshop or rehabilitation within three months from the start of the unemployment. In the future, only young people who finish comprehensive school will be guaranteed a place of study.

”Saving small amounts of money now will create unsustainable costs in the future,” warns the President of Allianssi Eero Rämö. “For more and more young people, unemployment will last past the critical point of three months after which the risk of social exclusion increases.”

“The costs of young people’s exclusion from employment exceed 600 million euros per year. It is unbelievably short-sighted to take away money to prevent that exclusion,” Rämö adds.

Youth guarantee has successfully increased youth social inclusion. For instance, outreach youth work has annually reached over 20,000 “lost” young people, 15,000 of whom have needed long-term guidance. Now the government plans to cut a great part of this funding as well.

The proposed budget also involves cuts to youth workshop activities and the funds allocated for youth employment, such as wage subsidies and work try-outs. In the education sector all levels of education are subject to cuts, as well as the apprenticeship training and the young adults’ skills program.

“The government is cutting a great amount especially from the most marginalized young people. What kind of a debt are we leaving for the young by taking away their chances to build a future?” Rämö asks.

Photo credit: Gisella Klein (Flickr)

More information:

Finnish Youth Co-operation Allianssi

Chair Eero Rämö, eero.ramo(at)alli.fi, +358 40 539 2737

Secretary General Olli Joensuu, olli.joensuu(at)alli.fi, +358 45 139 2350