OUR STORY

The Pact for Youth evolved from the collaboration between the European corporate, government and civil society sectors to assess the situation of the youth labor market. The main goal of the association is to improve the situation of the youth on the labor market and to increase the quality employment of young people.

• Learn more about the European Pact
• Learn more about the Hungarian Pact

In 2016, CSR Europe and the European Commission set up the ‘European Pact4Youth’ initiative, along which the business, government and civil society sectors came together to develop a continental action plan to increase youth employment rates and to reduce the number of young NEETs (young people not in education, employment or training). Its main instructions were:

• Vocational trainings and internships should be of comprehensive value for young people
• Corporate and educational collaborations should be the new European norm
• Entrepreneurship education should be mandatory

According to the vision of CSR Europe, the initiators of Pact4Youth Hungary also believe that it is vital for the competitiveness of Europe and Hungary that young people possess the appropriate competencies. To this end, the collaboration between government, corporate and civil sectors needs to be strengthened – also in line with the recommendation of our partner organizations. In this spirit, we organized the country’s first truly CSR-themed conference in 2017, which focused on the development of corporate sustainability as well as on the civil sector’s necessary change of perspective in order to bring them closer to corporate cooperations. The executive member of CSR Europe and ENGIE as well as the Ambassador of Sweden to Hungary, representing the Swedish corporations, served as guest speakers.

After the event, we established an active working relationship with the European initiators and we created the Pact4Youth Hungary round table series which was joined by experts from various fields. Our first supporting partner and also one of our strongest partners since the beginning has been the Ministry of Human Capacities represented by dr. Boglárka Illés and currently Zsófia Rácz of the Prime Ministry’s Office Deputy-Secretary for youth. That was also the point where we were invited to be permanent members of the Forum of the National Round Table for Youth. The members of the Pact4Youth round table (later the working group) include high-level experts from several ministries, administrative bodies, business representatives as well as the most prominent youth advocacy and scientific organizations.

Our collaboration enabled us to develop the Hungarian Youth Action Plan and write our ‘Collection of Best Practices’ publication, proposed by our delegation to the Committee in Brussels in 2017. Although in most countries the round tables formed for the initiative have ceased to exist, the Hungarian branch has been operating to this day. Moreover, it was reformed as an association at the seat of the American Chamber of Commerce in the presence of Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner and René van Hell, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Hungary, which also indicates that prominent members of the Hungarian economy have been continuously inquiring about our activities despite the novelty of the initiative. Our round table also continued to operate as a working group with its foundations laid in the Hall of Mirrors of the Ministry of Human Resources. Thus, the most significant youth and governmental organizations remained active members of our proposal processes. After a comprehensive social consultation, our current goal is to promote our Internship 2.0 platform, designed with the help of youth and corporate forums, to those entering the labor market as well as to enterprises. This is complemented by online and fully automated processes due to the changed circumstances.

The current situation requires innovative solutions from our organization too, for the implementation of which we use European funds (European Solidarity Corps) as well as the support of the National Office for Research, Development and Innovation which enabled our Association to launch the Pact4Work and Internship 2.0 programmes. We make a point of facilitating the creation of quality internship programs and entry-level jobs. To this end, we wish to create an integrated education – job search – platform that helps young people in finding long-term jobs in the labor market and supports companies in finding young people with adequate competencies.

OUR OBJECTIVES

In line with the European program, Pact4Youth Hungary aims to integrate young workers and career entrants into the Hungarian labor market. Its efforts include providing quality entry-level and internship jobs that help young employees acquire all the necessary competencies demanded by companies. In addition, the advocacy organization also supports companies in employing talented trainees and career entrants to make the collaboration truly fruitful for both parties.

• Supporting young NEET individuals: We treat young people neither in education nor in employment or training (NEET) as a priority target group: we improve their employment opportunities and conditions in the Hungarian labor market, thus, we reduce the size of this group.
• Defining best practices: We map the educational situation of young people and the labor market situation of trainees and career entrants. At the same time, we pay special attention to the group of young NEETs.
• Assessing the labor market: In accordance with the seven priority areas of the European Pact For Youth, we identify and collect local best practices – from helping career entrants acquire essential skills to developing quality internship programs.
• Supporting the return of the youth: We support and facilitate the home-coming of young Hungarians after gaining experience abroad.
• Providing suggestions: We define and communicate our suggestions regarding governmental and corporate decisions directly to the decision makers.
• Furthering integration: We support the areas identified by the European Pact For Youth – especially those that, based on preliminary analysis, require the most action. We promote social integration as well as education through sport and we also support voluntary activities.

PARTNERS

Our partners come from the civil, corporate and government sectors and are key representatives of the interests of the Hungarian youth. They strive for goals such as improving the labor market situation of young unemployed people, promoting the social integration of NEETs, preparing young people for the job market and effectively representing the interests of young people in the international fora. With their knowledge, expertise and experience, they support our Association as an indispensable unit in achieving the goals of the Pact4Youth program.

PRESIDENCY