South East Europe six, continues to have the challenge for growth and youth unemployment reduction. For instance, Skopje, as the capital of Macedonia, in the very heart of the Balkan Peninsula holds about a third of the total population of the country. As a capital city, it is the place where most of the universities are located. For this reason and in search of a job in the capital, numerous students from all part of Macedonia enroll and graduate every year. Flooding with inexperienced educated young people, Macedonia for instance faces a youth unemployment rate of 53.7 per cent, one of the highest worldwide. Consequently, the number of inexperienced educated unemployed young people is the highest in Macedonia’s capital, Skopje. When it comes to Serbia, unemployment rate is above 20% and the youth unemployment rate is nearly 50%. Like Macedonia and Serbia, also the other 4 countries that make up Southeast Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro, all continue to grapple with high unemployment, limited growth, and ongoing financial obstacles brought on by the global financial crisis.
When it comes to the EU zone, unemployment rates stood steady as 12% in August, 2013. However it was youth unemployment that took the worst hit in EU’s third largest economy - Italy, reaching a new all-time high of 40.1% from 39/7% in July, reports the Guardian. Where things get really bad is when one looks at Spain’s youth unemployment. At 57.7% in November, nearly two in three Spaniards under 25 had no jobs, and the nail in the coffin for the “recovery” is that this rate is now well above the latest update from Greece, where the youth unemployment was “only” 54.8% as of September (dive in here for more details). Portugal as well fits the list. Get more well-clued about Spain’s neighbor here!
A BIG number of 5.6 million young people are unemployed across Europe, and a total of 7.5 million are neither being educated nor are they working.
What are we asking for?
This time, you are invited to participate in a regionally-focused challenge, that is a partnership activity among Challenge:Future and Mladiinfo. We are asking for you to think and develop ideas and solutionsthat would answer the following necessities:
- How can youth use social media, new technology, new web application, mobile applications to increase youth employability? How can all these new tools and web-assets be used for youth unemployment reduction?
- Can new media and social media make a new working environment for 3 – 10 % of unemployed youth in most endangered European countries and reduce the unemployment percentage?
Social networks, web platforms, on-line educational web-pages, web and phone applications ; these could all fit in here. Already having a spark? Spark the sparkle!
Observe behavior of youth over social media!Check what are the turn-on and what are the turn-off information flow for youth! Communicate with someone from these countries, so they will give you a better understanding in the situation on the local level. Peer-to-peer collaborations are encouraged! Take in account everything and start to re-shape the current on-line environment.
Present your solution in the following up-to-5 slides!Make it count!
26th of February – 20th of March – Voting period
- 25th of March – 30h of March – Judging period
- 3rd of April: shortlist of 10 finalists
- 4th of April – 12th of April – Social media promotion of the 10 best selected submissions
- 15th of April – Winners announced
YOUR TASK : MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION NOW!
Can you propose new ways through which young people can SKILL-UP?
Maybe you have an idea how to enhance youth’s linkage to institutions?
Best solutions could be financed!
Come up a with an innovative solution that could help your peers from most endangered European countries to come up and create jobs and opportunities via the usage of social networks, web-platforms, blogging, on-line educational web-pages, web and phone applications!
Make the research!Check the statistics.List all your findings on a piece of paper and map the issues. Try to make connections among most distant things. Imagine how you are already creating the podium where your ideas and your initiative will work and change the stagnant situation.
You should have your submissions put in 5-10 slides . The first slide of your PPT should include your personal information (name, family name, age, country, status of whether you are (un)employed or still a student). Slides 2-4 should include information from your research, your findings and explain why you have decided to deliver your particular solution. What are the needs for it?
Once you have your solution prepared, click the “POST IDEA” button in the upper right corner of this page and submit it. Best of luck!
Eligibility
The competition especially encourages submissions from CF members coming from the following countries:Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Slovenia and The Czech Republic
Student status is not required. The challenge is opened to young people aged 16 to 35.
Judging and evaluation criteria
Submissions will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Innovativeness – We are looking forward to see submission that will bring new flavorand will adjust to the current climate of new media and social media channels
- Flexibility and Applicability – Your ideas need to be yet adaptable to different context; they should be evolving and flexible to fast changes. Take in account that winning idea will be furthermore developed at a real-time training course, thus it needs to be applicable and expedient as a whole team of 35 young people will develop it along with the winner
- Suggestive – they need to be intriguing and attract youth to try out new experiences, to check out new web-contents, to search new assets, to have the income of new creative information
- Social media feedback – 10 best selected ideas will be promoted on Facebook channels of Mladiinfo and Challenge:Future. The feedback received from M! & C:F followers (number of likes, comments, times of the link being shared by other users) will be considered in the judging and evaluation criteria.
Awards*:
3rd place: 1-month free mentorship session with Mladiinfo team (1-2 hours a week over skype or any other agreed form of communication) where the M! team will work with the 3rd place team for further development of the submitted solution and will share advices for possible fundraising for the idea implementation
2nd place:Team leader of the second-placed submission will be invited together with 35 youth from European countries at a week-long youth event that will be held in Skopje, Macedonia in mid of June, 2014, organized by Mladiinfo (www.mladiinfo.eu). Accommodation and meal costs will be covered for the team leader. The participant will be asked to cover 30 % of travel costs to/from Skopje
1st place: Team leader of the first-placed submission will be invited to develop further his/her idea together with 35 youth from European countries at the same week-long youth event which will take place in Skopje, Macedonia in the mid of June, 2014, organized by Mladiinfo (www.mladiinfo.eu). All costs (travel, accommodation, meals) will be covered for the big winner.
*As already mentioned above and due to project restriction, only applicants based and living in the enlisted countries in the eligibility section of the challenge can have the opportunity to compete for the first and the second prize. You can still enter the competition and go for the third prize if you are coming from country other than the listed eligibles
More about the training
The week-long training that is to be held in Skopje will serve as the space for a start off an informal online network that will actively participate in reduction of youth unemployment. The training will connect and engage young people from EU and SEE countries. Itwill have the aim to increase youth awareness about the possible opportunities that exist in/out of their country in context of strengthening employability.Furthermore the training will provide actual options to young people to obtain some of these opportunities and share good practices when it comes down to youth unemployment.
Timeline:
31th of January – 25th of March – Application period
12th of April – 14th of April – sum up of social media results and judges voting
Mid of June 2014– Training: Skopje, Macedonia
Selection process
1. The C:F community will vote for your submission using “thumbs up” from 26 February – 5 March – and will be able to post comments. Top 3 by community votes will be selected among 10 finalists.
2. Community Judges will select 10 Finalists, as chosen based on the total community votes and judges.
3. Finals Judging Panel will select 3 winners among TOP 10 finalists. The Finals Judging Panel will select the 3 winners, also considering the outcomes and number of “likes” and other feedback that the submissions will receive from the social media promotion.
If you have any questions or if you need consultancy concerning the contest, please direct to info[at]mladiinfo.com or at stefan[at]challengefuture.org
Who is evaluating submissions?
The forces of Challenge:Future crew and the forces of Mladiinfo crew will come together and evaluate the submissions. It’s an awesome team that fights unemployment already right?
Need some start materials to dig in and also inspiration? Here are some links you can check out!
