WP8 deals with the co-ordination of policy measures and strategies to strengthen young people`s negotiating position in the transition to the labour market. Central to this is the development and coordination of policy efforts within systems of multi-level governance. The first stage is to develop a framework and a common template for national chapters concerning the mode of governance and policy measures and strategies applied in each of the participating country to combat youth unemployment and long-term job insecurity.

Irene Dingeldey and Lisa Steinberg, University of Bremen (UB), Germany, have produced the working paper “Strategies to improve labour market integration of young people: Analyzing linkages between horizontal and vertical policy coordination” (D8.1).

The paper aims to provide a basis for country chapters on the implementation of European initiatives, a comparative report on strengths and weaknesses of policy coordination and policy outcomes in a Multi-Level Governance (MLG) system as well as policy recommendations on how actors might improve coordination across governance levels. Empirical information of this working paper will be based on secondary country-based literature, official documents, existing national policy/program evaluations, and expert interviews with 4–5 key officials from agencies involved in the implementation of these programs in each country.

The Youth Guarantee is a new approach for takling youth unemployment and long-term job insecurity, which ensure that all young people under 25 receive a concrete offer within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. To identify patterns of vertical and horizontal coordination that work best with respect to the integration of different groups of young people into the labour market, case studies will be used. Further details can be found in NEGOTIATE working paper D8.1 (pdf).