Sweden: promising start for the Swedish initiative to support integration contracts for unskilled youngsters

At the end of June, a few weeks after the metal industry, the union partners in the trade industry, Svensk Handel, Arbetsgivarföreningen KFO and Handelsanställdas förbund presented the government with a professional integration agreement for young people, in keeping with the government’s decision to support the development of these agreements at decentralized level.  These agreements, introduced in 2010, took a recent boost when the government decided to finance their implementation, especially to promote them in businesses.  Indeed, once signed at central level, these agreements have to be developed in businesses to be implemented.  (Ref.  130511)
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What’s special in the youth integration agreements. The purpose of these agreements is to encourage businesses to propose precise apprenticeship jobs to untrained youngsters in order to help them start their professional career, and to replace seniors who are retiring. They cover people under the age of 24 with no professional experience. During training, youngsters receive 75 percent of the sector’s lowest salary. “The goal is to help young people find training and the industry find compet

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