Conference “INVESTING IN OUR YOUTH: EDUCATION IS KEY”

(Klagenfurt, Austria, 31 March – 1 April 2014)

Speech by Dr Herwig van Staa, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Council of Europe, Head of the Regional Parliament of Tyrol (Austria)

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Minister Heinisch-Hosek,
Landeshauptmann Kaiser,
President Rohr,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to open this conference on behalf of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. First and foremost, I would like to thank the organisers – Land Kärnten and the Austrian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers – for this timely initiative and the very relevant choice of the theme: investing in our youth through education.

This conference is timely indeed, as it is taking place at a time when young people in Europe are in a dire situation, having to cope with unemployment, social and economic exclusion and difficult transitions to adulthood. Both as a consequence of the economic crisis and austerity measures in response to the crisis, young Europeans today are struggling to begin their professional careers. Youth unemployment remains extremely high in many European countries – it was 23 % within the European Union in January this year – and it has passed a 50 per cent mark in some of them. Against this background, I am confident that we can learn some very good practices from our hosts and Austrian participants, because youth unemployment in this country is among the lowest in the European Union, at between 8 and 9 per cent.

The situation is even worse if we look at young people from vulnerable groups – youth from disadvantaged families in economic distress, young women, young migrants, young people with disabilities or youth from minorities such as, for example, Roma. They have great difficulties to have access to their basic social rights – not only employment but also decent housing, decent health care and, of course, education. Education is indeed a magic key that opens the door to a stable and prosperous future, because it gives young people the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the labour market – and, through wages earned, leads to better accommodation and health. 

In fact, according to the International Monetary Fund, high youth unemployment today is threatening to undermine prospects for long-term sustainable economic growth, exactly because it creates a generation of young people without the skills they need to take their place in the job market. Ensuring quality education for young people is therefore one key investment not only in their future, but also in Europe’s today. 

Why it is important? I think it is clear to everyone that engaging young people in society, in democracy building, in day-to-day governance and decision making is of crucial significance. They are an integral part of society and the ones that will carry our values, our democratic commitment forward. However, we – politicians, educators, youth workers – often see young people only through the prism of the future. We see them as future political and business leaders, future public figures, “citizens of tomorrow”.

Yet young people are young citizens already today, with their dreams and aspirations, their needs and concerns, their expectations and their drive for achievement. We need to change our paradigm of thinking about youth in future terms and to begin addressing their problems and engaging them in active life today. Young people must be allowed to live their lives and participate in society now. Only when public policies are grounded in the reality of their lives will young people be able to exercise their right to democratic citizenship and realise their full potential as active citizens of society.


I am convinced that working together with young people and engaging them in society is a crucial factor for passing on to them our democratic values, which is part and parcel of what the Council of Europe calls “education for democratic citizenship”. In today’s intercultural society, this kind of education must be the basis for any educational effort, as it fosters the understanding of one’s rights and civic duties and develops intercultural competences necessary to relate to each other in communities that are increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Council of Europe has been working with young people for more than 40 years through its unique co-decision making system that brings together representatives of both youth organisations and national governments within the Joint Council on Youth. Within this structure, government experts and young people draw up together Council of Europe youth policies and recommendations to national governments, and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has been long associated with this process.

In the Congress, we are convinced that public authorities at the grassroots, in our towns, cities and regions, have the primary responsibility for the well-being of young people, for involving them in community life and addressing their problems and concerns. Local and regional elected representatives are indeed the authorities closest to young people, working in physical proximity with them, and they have an excellent opportunity of engaging young people directly. This is why, in October 2012, in our resolution on “Youth and democracy: the changing face of youth political engagement”, the Congress recommended extending the co-decision making system to the local and regional level as well. We called on local and regional councils to set up joint structures with their youth councils and assemblies. Today, we are very pleased that some municipalities – for example, Vilnius in Lithuania – are already practicing this approach. Working side by side and leading by example is the best way to show the importance of values that we preach – and that we must practice as well.

However, the Congress itself had been engaged with young people long before that resolution. In 1992, the Congress drafted a European Charter on the participation of young people in municipal and regional life, which was adopted as a recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This Charter, which was further revised in 2003, sets out proposals for local and regional action to ensure youth participation, among others by setting up youth councils and assemblies – a practice that has become widespread across the continent today. In 2008, we updated our proposals in a resolution and recommendation on “Integration and participation of young people at local and regional level”.

The Congress took up youth issues further in 2010, in its resolution on integration of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, and we pursued the question of improving young people’s access to social rights within a joint project with the Council of Europe Youth Department – a project called ENTER!. We hope that the expert group, in which the Congress participates, will finish drafting a recommendation to national governments on this subject before the end of the year. Last but not least, the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress is currently preparing a new report, which will look at how local and regional authorities can practically use and benefit from new forms of youth participation in representative, direct, participatory, deliberative and counter democracy.

The Congress is also seeking to practice what we preach, and both Congress sessions this year will be devoted to the general theme of empowering young people as a shared responsibility for cities and regions. During our March session last week, we held thematic plenary debates on young people’s place in local and regional democracy today and on the practice of lowering the voting age to 16 – which is another measure to improve youth participation, made by both the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress. Also last week, the Congress Chamber of Regions organised a round table discussion on best regional practices in fostering youth employment through education and training – a theme which is of direct relevance to this conference. In fact, President Rohr took part in this round table.

Finally, in the spirit of engaging young people directly, we will be inviting representatives of youth organisations from 47 Council of Europe member states to join their national delegations and participate in the work of the next Congress session in October this year.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to return to the theme of today’s conference. Beyond education for democratic citizenship and the development of intercultural competences, of which I spoke at the outset, we clearly need what I would call “education for employment” – the kind of targeted professional and vocational education and training that not only provides young people with the necessary knowledge and skills, but also reflects the needs of the labour market, the needs of potential employers. A consultative firm McKinsey prepared two studies on the issue, in 2012 entitled “Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works”, and most recently this year, entitled “Education to employment: Getting Europe’s youth into work”.

These studies pointed out at least two major reasons for the current unemployment situation: first, European labour-market regulations that discourage hiring and firing, which calls for a new regulatory framework, including at local and regional level. However, the second reason is linked directly to education:  27 percent of employers report that a lack of skills is a major reason why they did not fill job vacancies. And a major reason for youth not receiving the skills that employers need is that education providers, young people, and employers do not work together and do not understand one another. According to these studies, 38 percent of young people and 35 percent of employers do not think that the necessary skills are provided through education. At the same time, 74 percent of education providers are confident that their graduates are prepared for work.

From these figures it is clear that there is certain “disconnect” between the job market and the education system, and there is a need to fill in this gap by creating stronger links and building synergies between educational and training institutions, on the one hand, and enterprises and firms on the other. There is also a need to improve the quality of education overall, and to ensure a better access to quality education for young people.

I’m sure our conference will look at these issues. I know my colleagues and Council of Europe experts will elaborate on them in greater details over these two days, and will present examples of good practices in this regard. I would just add that the Congress has addressed the question of youth employment, and measures to improve it, in a number of its recent reports, resolutions and recommendations on various aspects of the current economic and social situation in Europe. I’m sure my fellow Congress members speaking later today will also develop this point.

For my part, I would like now to put on my other hat, of the President of the Regional Parliament of Tyrol, and to present some examples and good practices of this work in my region.

Tirol hat 715.000 Einwohner, die Arbeitslosigkeit in Tirol beträgt 5,9%. 17,23% dieser Arbeitslosen, also rund 1/6, gehört der Altersgruppe der 15- bis 24-Jährigen an. Die Jugendarbeitslosigkeit ist also nicht höher als die Arbeitslosigkeit in den anderen Altersgruppen.

Dieses positive Resultat ist sicherlich auch auf die zahlreichen Initiativen des Landes zurückzuführen, von denen ich hier nur einige wenige besonders hervorheben möchte:

Tirol verfügt über ein hervorragendes Bildungsangebot mit 542 Pflichtschulen. Die topografische Lage Tirols und seine Siedlungsstruktur führt zu einem dichten Netz an (Klein)schulen. An der Verbesserungen dieser schulischen Infrastruktur wird seitens des Landes laufend gearbeitet:

·         Ein besonderes Anliegen ist die schulische Tagesbetreuung mit dem Ziel, Bildungs- und Chancengerechtigkeit zu stärken, die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf weiter zu steigern und ein lückenloses, qualitätsvolles Betreuungsangebot bis zum Abschluss der Pflichtschule zu schaffen. Stimmt der Schulerhalter zu, so kann bereits die Anmeldung von 7 Kindern zur Einrichtung einer Tagesbetreuung führen, ab 15 angemeldeten SchülerInnen ist dies zwingend. Für die Finanzierung und den Ausbau dieser schulischen Tagesbetreuung konnte mit dem Bund eine 15a-Vereinbarung geschlossen werden, auf deren Basis vom Bund jedes Jahr mehrere Millionen Euro nach Tirol fließen.

·         Weiteres zentrales Anliegen ist die Förderung von SchülerInnen mit Migrationshintergrund sowie die sogenannten Sprachstartklassen: In Tiroler Pflichtschulen werden ca. 18% Kinder mit nichtdeutscher Muttersprache unterrichtet, wobei besonders hohe Anteile in den Industriezentren und Ballungsräumen zu finden sind. Fast die Hälfte dieser Kinder wird vom Land mit zusätzlichen Unterrichtsstunden gefördert. Melden sich pro Standort mindestens 12 Kinder an, so wird auf freiwilliger Basis muttersprachlicher Unterricht angeboten. Auch der Einsatz von muttersprachlichen LehrerInnen wird durch das Land finanziert.

·         Maßnahmenpaket Lesen: Das Land investiert mehr als 1,2 Mio. Euro jährlich in Maßnahmen wie eigene Lesekompetenzteams sowie Schwerpunkte „sinnerfassendes Lesen“ im Deutschunterricht. Für teilnehmende Schulen wurde ein eigenes Gütesiegel „Leseschulen“ geschaffen.

II) Gestärkt wird weiters das duale Ausbildungssystem, die parallele Ausbildung im Betrieb als Lehrling und in der Fachberufsschule. 12.000 Lehrlinge machen davon in den 20 Tiroler Fachberufsschulen Gebrauch, ca. 1.000 weitere Jugendliche nehmen das Modell „Lehre und Matura“ in Anspruch. Das strenge Qualitätsmanagement an allen Tiroler Fachberufsschulen hat zur Folge, dass Tiroler Lehrlinge bei nationalen und internationalen Lehrlingswettbewerben regelmäßig ausgezeichnete Platzierungen einnehmen.

III) Die vorschulische Bildung und Betreuung ist ein weiterer Schwerpunkt Tirols. Durch das Tiroler Kinderbildungs- und Kinderbetreuungsgesetz aus 2010 wurden die Gemeinden verpflichtet, ein ganzjähriges und ganztägiges Angebot zu schaffen, kleinere Gruppengrößen vorzusehen (20 Kinder im Kindergarten, 12 in der Kinderkrippe), ein verpflichtendes und kostenfreies Kindergartenjahr für über 5-Jährige sowie ein kostenfreies Kindergartenjahr für über 4-Jährige eingeführt.

Derzeit besuchen 97% der fünfjährigen Kinder, 97,9% der vierjährigen Kinder und 78,6% der dreijährigen Kinder eine Kinderbetreuungseinrichtung.

IV) Im tertiären Bildungsbereich fördert das Land Tirol ganz gezielt Nachwuchswissenschaftler durch eigene Förderpakete an den heimischen Universitäten und Fachhochschulen.
Der Tiroler Wissenschaftsfonds hat bisher schon jährlich rund 800.000 Euro für ausgewählte Projekte junger Tiroler Wissenschaftler ausgeschüttet. Erst vor wenigen Wochen hat die Tiroler Landesregierung ein Zukunftspaket für den Forschungsstandort Tirol beschlossen und die bisherigen Mittel von 800.000 Euro jährlich auf vier Millionen Euro jährlich verfünffacht. Mit der Aufstockung dieser Landesmittel aus Mitteln der Nationalstiftung ergibt sich jetzt ein Gesamtfördervolumen von bis zu sieben Millionen Euro jährlich, mit denen junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler in ihren Karrieren in Tirol unterstützt werden!  

Die Tiroler Fachhochschulen werden vom Land als zukunftsweisende Instrumente der Bildungs-, Wirtschafts- und Regionalpolitik anerkannt und gefördert, auch sie sollen dazu beitragen, die gesellschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung des Landes zu stärken.

Auch der Tiroler Technologie-Ausbildungsscheck mit einem Gesamtvolumen von jährlich 200.000 Euro dient der Förderung von Lehrlingen und Studierenden.

Im Bildungsbereich – und insbesondere bei der Ausbildung unserer Kinder und Jugendlichen – ist das partnerschaftliche und koordinierte Zusammenwirken aller zuständigen Ebenen auf Augenhöhe ungemein wichtig, geht es doch hier um die Zukunft unserer Länder. Gerade hier zeigt sich ganz deutlich, dass nur dann, wenn sich die zuständigen politischen Ebenen partnerschaftlich und auf Augenhöhe begegnen, erfolgreich zum Wohle unserer Kinder und Jugendlichen gearbeitet werden kann. Nur eine solche gelebte und in die Praxis umgesetzte Multi-Level-Governance ermöglicht es, die erforderlichen Maßnahmen zweckdienlich koordinieren zu können. Die Jugend ist unsere Zukunft – schaffen wir für sie schon heute die Voraussetzungen, um ihnen die bestmögliche Ausbildung und Wahrnehmung ihrer Chancen zu ermöglichen!