The CAP Implementation Contact Point’s Thematic Group (TG) focussed on youth employment in rural Europe is continuing to network and share experiences and new ideas to help young people live and work in the countryside.

The CAP Implementation Contact Point’s Thematic Group (TG) on rural youth employment is continuing to network and share experiences and new ideas to help young people live and work in a countryside full of possibilities.

Our first gathering of this EU expertise pool and ‘voice of rural youth’ took place at the beginning of March. The TG’s next meeting is scheduled for late May. In between these main meetings, TG members are actively developing and collating knowhow to help inform practitioners and policy-makers about best and better approaches for supporting future generations of EU rural residents. This TG is very much youth-led, with most members under 30 years old. Such affiliation allows young CAP stakeholders to have a significant say in shaping the discussions around rural youth employment.

Networking among our TG members continues via informal online meetings as well as a Twitter chat scheduled in May, before the second and final TG meeting on 23 May. 

The informal online meetings provide an opportunity for TG members to exchange information about trends in rural employment as well as share experiences with support programmes and tools with their peers from across Europe. This will help advance their collective understanding about supporting youth employment in rural areas. The aim is to think about innovative solutions and suggestions/requests for decision-makers in the CAP and other policies at EU and national levels.