Scotland will represent the UK at the European Education, Youth and Culture and Sport Council in Brussels this week (Tuesday, November 27).
The meeting is part of a three day visit to Brussels by Minister for Youth Employment Angela Constance where she will share experiences around efforts to tackle youth unemployment.
Ms Constance said:
“This coming week represents an excellent opportunity to share with other European countries how Scotland plans to support more young people into employment through a range of activity and investment, including Opportunities for All, financial support for employers and record numbers of Modern Apprenticeship places and to learn from the activities of our European peers.
“I am in no doubt that the ideas and actions that some of our European colleagues are implementing to deal with what is a global problem could help inform future developments in Scotland. I will be very interested to learn how youth unemployment is being dealt with in other EU member states, with a particular interest in Austria, a relatively small country with a youth unemployment rate below 10 per cent.
“It will also be an honour to represent the UK at the Education, Youth and Culture and Sports Council, which will focus on how we ensure young people have a voice across the UK. I will be very pleased to highlight Scotland’s work in this area, including our upcoming youth summit where over 100 young people will get the chance to directly discuss their views on youth employment with ministers.”
Ms Constance will be in Brussels from Monday night (November 26) to Thursday morning (November 29) before spending the day in Den Haag (Netherlands) to undertake further events relating to youth employment.
The Youth Summit will be held at the Hub in Edinburgh on December 5 from 1030-1500 hours. The event will be co-hosted by Young Scot and the Scottish Youth Parliament.