Swedish Presidency hosts 2013 summit on young people and work

“During my time as Minister For Employment I have visited all of the Nordic countries and looked at all the good examples of efficient measures aimed at those who are the furthest away from the labour market,” says Hillevi Engström in the programme’s preface, where she underlines the advantages of sharing experiences in the way the Nordic countries do.

This will also be at the core of the cooperation in 2013, when Sweden will do a lot to highlight experiences and good examples of what works when it comes to getting more people into work and reduce the risks of people falling outside of the labour market. 

“This is particularly important in a time of global economic unrest,” says Hillevi Engström, who, alongside Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, will focus on young people’s place in the labour market.

A job summit will be held on 16 May during the prime ministerial meeting in Stockholm. It will have a broad remit and welcomes participants from several ministries and councils of ministers in addition to the Nordic Council of Ministers for Labour. The summit will see examples from the Nordic region of how politicians and businesses can cooperate to successfully integrate young people in the labour market. There will also be a conference attended by prime ministers, labour ministers and Sweden’s Minister for Finance. Background reports will be prepared which will analyse young people’s transition from school to working life, young people’s situation in the labour market and young people outside of the labour market in the Nordic region.

The focus on young people’s situation in the labour market will also include a closer look at their work environment. There will be a major event in cooperation with the Swedish ILO committee in Stockholm in October, among other things. 

Minister for Integration Erik Ullenhag will also gather his Nordic colleagues to an informal ministerial meeting in November which will focus on the integration of foreign born people into the labour market.

Work to find solutions to border obstacles between the Nordic countries continues unabated and will be followed up by Sweden’s Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2013.