The No Excuses Academy has been running for the last 20 months, delivering 8 iterations of 112-hour trainings in the fields of education, youth work and other types of pedagogical work, reaching over 115 unemployed young people aged between 20 and 29.
In 2020, the global pandemic created employment issues, especially for young people. The decline in the total working age population between 2019 and 2020 was 1.1%, while the number of young people with employment fell by 5.9% over the same period. [1] In 2020, the registered unemployment rate was highest in the 15-24 age group in most regions. On average, 17% of the working population from this age group was unemployed. There are also marked differences between the share of young people in employment today compared to the period after Slovenia’s independence in 1991. The most striking difference is among 25-year-olds, where only 55.4% of young people in this age group is employed, compared with 82.2% in 1991.[2]
This marked difference can be explained by the expanding time of education, but on the other hand, it also reflects the difficulty of entering the labour market.
The No Excuses Academy, which has been running for the last 20 months, has responded to these challenges by providing 8 iterations of 112-hour training courses in the fields of education, youth work and other types of pedagogical work, reaching more than 115 unemployed young people aged between 20 and 29.
"When the No Excuses Academy project started at the beginning of 2020, no one had any idea what the year would hold, but soon the epidemic was shaping our lives at every turn. It has also had a major impact on young people, especially in the areas of social life and schooling, but also employment. As expected, youth unemployment increased, entering the labour market became much more difficult and projects like the No Excuses Academy project became even more important to mitigate the effects of the epidemic," said Mia Zupančič, the manager of the project. "Although we did not expect at the start of the project that almost all of the planned training would be delivered online and that all activities would have to be adapted to the new reality, this did not stop us. Despite the challenges we faced in the project, we delivered all the trainings very successfully, with more participants than planned, which was partly enabled by the remote trainings. We believe that the No Excuses Academy project has helped to empower young people to successfully overcome the obstacles and difficulties they face in early adulthood."
Nassim Djaba, President of the Youth Alliance Without Excuses Slovenia, underlines the important role that youth work plays in youth employment. "The problem in Slovenia is that the non-governmental sector, which includes the youth sector, employs an extremely small proportion of the working population - less than 1% of the working population, while the European average is more than 5%. However, both professionals and employers often stress the importance of gaining experience through non-formal education, which is one of the pillars of youth work. Quality youth work requires full-time staff to take care of it, as currently the vast majority of all youth work relies on volunteers. Youth work and youth organisations provide young people with valuable experience and help them become active citizens. Youth work gives young people added value and equips them with competences that help them build a career."
One of the project participants, Žan Strnad, who successfully found a job after the training, stressed that the training provided him with important knowledge and skills in working with young people, have him the opportunity to connect with organisations in the NGO sector, expanding his job opportunities into a new field and, based on the information he received, he improved his CV and cover letter, which ultimately helped him to get his first job: "I am grateful for the training I received through the No Excuses Academy project, as it made it easier for me to enter the labour market. I was facing significant challenges in this field before, but the training gave me additional confidence and competences that enabled me to succeed in finding a job."
The No Excuses Academy is a project of the Youth Association No Excuses Slovenia and partner organisations (Youth Centre Krško, Social Academy, Utrip Institute for Research and Development and Vozim Institute) that addresses the issue of youth employment. The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund. The project responds to the challenges young people face when entering the labour market, which have been exacerbated in 2020 and 2021 by the COVID-19 epidemic.
[1] Employment Service of the Republic of Slovenia (2021): Youth and the labour market; Ljubljana. Available at: https://www.ess.gov.si/_files/14103/Analiza_Mladi_in_trg_dela_2021.pdf.
[2] Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (2021): Since 1991, the share of young people has decreased from 22.5% to 14.7%. Available at: https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/News/Index/9743.
