Making Apprenticeship More Attractive For SMEs And For Youth

SMEunited is organising this debate in the framework of the European Vocational Skills Week combined with its annual theme ‘Youth and Skilled Workforce”.

One of the main objectives is to reflect on how Crafts and SMEs can better attract more young people through apprenticeship and tackle labour shortages and skills mismatches.

The current trends show a decreasing level of young people taking up apprenticeships in some Member States, whereas in others, reforms of the apprenticeship system are showing encouraging/promising results.

SMEunited aims to promote and increase apprenticeship and give more visibility to its benefits in Europe by showcasing best practice examples from its members.

In several Member States, apprenticeship has always been an essential pillar of the school-to-work transition and the most effective way to provide young people with on the job learning and provide Crafts and SMEs with the requested skilled workforce.

Apprenticeship strongly contributes to entrepreneurship and also ensures a smooth transfer of small enterprises.

One of the main success factors of quality and effective apprenticeship is to involve SME representatives and social partners in the governance of apprenticeship.

SMEunited has been advocating for many years on the importance to developing apprenticeships and will continue this debate together with different stakeholders at both the EU and national level involving its members.