In the wake of the global economic downtown trends have emerged that are threatening the future workforce. There are 75 million who are currently unemployed and more than 200 million youth who are earning less than $US2 per day. Yet 1/3 of businesses are still unable to fill vacancies due to skills gap. Therefore educational systems are not preparing young people properly to enter the labor market.

Cedefop has been invited to provide practical support to a new European initiative intended the help young people integrate more easily into the labour market. The initiative, which focuses on apprenticeship-type, work-based learning, was launched on 11 December 2012 in Berlin. Germany and six other Member States have signed Memoranda defining the scope and objectives of future collaboration.