Surging youth unemployment in the EU: Are we losing a generation?
(Vatican Radio) The relentless rise in the number of young people in the European
Union without a job was one of the main items on the agenda at the EU summit meeting
in Brussels. Nearly one quarter of young people across Europe are currently unemployed
while in Greece and Spain it is more than a half. So how can we tackle growing youth
unemployment to ensure we don’t lose a generation? One Church-sponsored NGO that
is seeking to help young people learn the skills needed for earning a living and
overcoming poverty is the Cardinal Hume Centre in London. Its Chief Executive is
Cathy Corcoran who spoke to Vatican Radio's Susy Hodges.
Listen to the extended
interview with Cathy Corcoran:
Founded by
the late Cardinal Basil Hume, the Centre’s aim is to help vulnerable young people
and families to realize their full potential. Corcoran says the rising number of young
people without a job in the UK “is very worrying” …. because that means “a million
people whose chances of reaching their goals, their aspirations in life, are already
being dashed… their hopes are being dashed.”
Corcoran goes on to explain
how the Cardinal Hume Centre seeks to provide “a stable framework” to help vulnerable
young people realize their potential by working “one to one” with each of them.
These young people, she adds, “face multiple barriers to getting into work” and “we
work with them to overcome those barriers, one by one.”
Asked if she agrees
with those who warn that Europe risks losing a whole generation of young people to
the blight of unemployment, Corcoran has no doubts about the very real nature of that
risk: “It’s an urgent issue that our society needs to tackle responsibly and needs
to tackle urgently.” Otherwise, she warns, “it may be even more than one generation”
at risk.