Skip to main content

Bridging the Knowledge Gap for the European Youth

Active

The European Student Think Tank (EST), a Europe-wide youth network, strives to empower the young by giving them a voice in today’s changing world of work. Bringing together academic expertise from complementary disciplines, its dedicated Working Group on Youth Employment commits to develop accessible and low-threshold knowledge products and to disseminate them to organizations and platforms in Europe. As a think tank by the youth for the youth, the EST capitalizes on its overarching structure, institutional network, and unique position between students and policy-oriented research to inform youth participation and support young people’s independence in working life.

Entity

Youth organization, civil society, non-governmental, non-profit organization
  • Policy, advocacy and convening power

Sustainable Development Goals & targets

  • 4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
  • 8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
  • 10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard

Themes

  • Digital skills for youth
  • Quality apprenticeships

Achievement At Glance

At the European Student Think Tank, a student-run research team of young people from the London School of Economics, Bonn, Cambridge, Maastricht, Leiden and Oxford is committed to empowering and supporting Europe’s youth. Its work centres on producing and disseminating knowledge and ideas on Decent Jobs in Europe. As of April 2019, more than 60% of our total commitment to the Global Initiative has been fulfilled, with current activities centred around preparing the remainder in the months ahead.

Regarding the EST’s commitment to both the creation of a youth platform for new economic thinking and the diffusion of its outputs, we can report significant progress. On the one hand, the EST has delivered its first wave of knowledge products on various themes of youth in the world of work with its release of 5 knowledge products in March 2019. On the other, knowledge sharing activities enhanced through youth participation, advocacy actions via media platforms, and engagement with major stakeholders at the European Union level have all contributed to our commitment to the Decent Jobs for Youth Initiative. We now work towards a second wave of knowledge products, further advocacy actions, and stakeholder engagement to sustain and catalyze this pro-active spirit.

Description

Today’s rapid societal change and technological innovation are, despite their potential, accompanied by a rising sense of insecurity amongst the young. It can be a feeling of unwanted passivity towards the future. A future that is indeed shaped by complex and interrelated influences. Against this backdrop, the European Student Think Tank (EST) commits to support Europe’s youth through its dedicated Working Group on Youth Employment. Coordinating online from across the continent, the project synergizes expertise of early-career researchers from different disciplines and brings together academic resources from the University of Oxford, University of Bonn, University of Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. In its first project cycle 2018/19, the Working Group will create low-threshold knowledge products and disseminate them through the EST’s institutional network to partnering platforms and organizations, which hold participatory events and educational workshops on a regular basis. In an initial wave of publications in March 2019, the think tank will release Briefs on youth employment covering subtopics, such as gender inequality, youth and unions, technological change, social mobility, and atypical work. In August-September 2019, a second wave will engage in cross-cutting and solution-oriented investigation. The EST’s project strives to foster independent decision-making in professional life and to equip the young with an evidence base, while taking a representing and advocating role on the European level in support of the next generation’s case for decent jobs.

http://www.esthinktank.com

Deliverables and links to SDG targets

  • 10
    Knowledge products on youth employment developed
    4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

    The EST creates low-threshold knowledge products and provides this content for free to other platforms and organizations, which hold participatory events and workshops. Topics of youth employment, skills and education revolve around major challenges the young are facing. By raising problem awareness, the EST supports young people’s decision-making and independence.

    BY:
    Sep 2019
  • 5
    Knowledge sharing or advocacy tactics on youth employment carried out, including events, campaigns and media items
    10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard

    The EST not only channels knowledge towards the youth, but represents it in the sphere of professional policy-oriented research and policy-making. In this capacity, the think tank works along the lines of the United Nation’s normative framework and helps set the agenda in favour of the young.

    BY:
    Sep 2019
  • 3
    Youth employment stakeholders supported through technical assistance, capacity-building or peer learning
    8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

    Cooperating closely with other youth organizations, the EST produces knowledge that is receptive to young people’s experiences, struggles, and ideas. As part of the youth think tank, its Working Group strives to support stakeholders and decision-makers at the European level with innovative and sharp proposals for decent and inclusive employment.

    BY:
    Sep 2019
Australia
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Germany
Denmark
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Greece
Croatia
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Latvia
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovakia
Sweden

Start

4-Jun-2018

End

30-Sep-2019

Target: 15-19, 20-24

Primarily:
  • Young people in urban areas
  • Young people in rural areas
  • Graduates of second-level education and students in third-level education or beyond

Gallery

Would you like more information about this commitment? Log in or sign up to contact the focal point.