Youth employment

At the European Union level, Member States have agreed on the Youth Guarantee. The goal of the youth guarantee is to ensure that all young people under the age of 30 receive a good-quality job offer, continued education, an apprenticeship, or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.

In a broader sense, the Youth Guarantee is implemented through activities that aim to:

• reduce the overall risk of social exclusion among young people
• prevent early exit from the labour market and/or education system
• ensure a smooth and timely return to education or the labour market for those not in employment, education, or training (NEETs)

The Youth Guarantee was reinforced in 2020 through the EU initiative “A Bridge to Jobs – Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee”. This Council Recommendation commits all EU Member States to offering Youth Guarantee opportunities to all young people under 30.

Each Member State has a national implementation plan for the Youth Guarantee. In Estonia, the implementation is coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Education and Research.

Since support for NEET youth in Estonia is divided across different sectors, a national cooperation framework has been established to improve coordination. This framework harmonizes cross-sectoral activities, facilitates service transitions, and enables local governments to develop flexible, region-specific models.

The core of Estonia’s Youth Guarantee Action Plan focuses on proactive and preventive measures for young people aged 15–29. These include:

• a youth monitoring system to provide necessary data
• ensuring access to youth work opportunities (e.g., mobile youth work)
• supporting minors in gaining work experience through employers
• aligning vocational and higher education with labour market needs
• preventing early school leaving
• inclusive education and the necessary educational counselling
• creation of job shadowing programmes and elective courses
• supportive labour market services (e.g., wage subsidies, career services, skills development)
• and support for local governments

Learn more:

• Estonian National Youth Guarantee Action Plan 2022–2027.pdf | 435.37 KB | pdf
• European Youth Guarantee

Since 2016, the Youth Guarantee Support System (YGSS) has enabled local governments to identify and proactively support young people who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET). The support system consists of an information system and case management for young people aged 16–29.

Through the IT system, queries are made to national registries, allowing local authorities to receive a list of 16–26-year-olds in their area who are not reflected in the relevant databases. Using the contact information obtained, the young person is informed about available opportunities and offered support if needed.

Since 2022, the national coordination of the YGSS has been the responsibility of the Social Insurance Board. An analysis of the earlier effectiveness of the Youth Guarantee Support System is available here.

The implementation of the cooperation framework and the Youth Guarantee Support System is supported through open calls for proposals under the State Shared Service Centre's programme "Achieving and Maintaining High Youth Employment."