In interview with the Guardian, chancellor promotes merits of Germany’s dual system of schooling and work experience, and says she regrets impact of eurozone crisis on young people
Angela Merkel has said youth unemployment is the biggest crisis facing Europe and urged other governments to do more to copy the German system – concentrating on apprenticeships and not simply academic study – to prevent the emergence of a “lost generation”.
In an interview before a summit to tackle joblessness among young Europeans, the German chancellor said her country’s tried and tested dual system – a mix of classroom learning and on-the-shop-floor work experience – was the best way forward at a time when almost six million under-25s in Europe are out of work.
“Youth unemployment is perhaps the most pressing problem facing Europe at the present time,” she told the Guardian and five other European newspapers. “We in Germany have learned a lot from successfully reducing unemployment by means of structural reform since reunification and we can now bring that experience to bear.”
Twenty European Union heads of state and all of the bloc’s 28 labour ministers have descended on Berlin to hammer out concrete measures to deal with the problem. Economists say the young generation faces the very real prospect of ending up worse off – materially, professionally and socially – than their parents because of the evaporation of jobs in Europe.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
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