Reporter: An investment in the future
571 views · Published 29 January 2013 · 5:05 · Indexed 30 October 2026
Channel: European Parliament · 2013 · News & Politics
Erasmus, Leonardo and the other lifelong mobility programmes are becoming essential as unemployment in Europe is reaching record highs. As the Union is negotiating its budget for the period 2014-2020, these training programmes may bear the cost of the crisis. We met some young people working abroad thanks to these grants. You're always fixing things. On a loom there's always a thread that breaks or a screw that falls out or simply comes unscrewed. There... I'll keep the tape in case it goes again today. Marie is living the adventure in Paris. Age 23, she has just finished her studies in textile design in Belgium. She has obtained a grant from the EU for a three-month internship in the great French fabric design company Malhia Kent. I hope to be able to find a job in Paris afterwards. That's my goal. So I've come here with the programme in order to gain more experience, etc, but also to have a foothold in Paris for job interviews, etc. Thanks to Leonardo, a European training and mobility programme, Marie obtained nearly 3,000 euros for her internship. She's one of 75,000 Europeans who benefit from these grants each year. They're helping to combat unemployment among young Europeans, now at 24%. Choose the nicest for the USA because that's our first show. And then... The ones that haven't got a label on, you must put a label on each of them. OK? What's the use of this internship for her and for you? First of all, I think that once you've worked at Malhia Kent you know how to work for ever. Our methods can be adapted to fabric or clothes or whatever she chooses to do. After that, if she's been very competent in what she does, which is the case, there will always be a time when we need someone, because we're growing, and we'll say, 'Marie is very good', and if she wants to find work in Paris I'm sure we'll offer her something. I'd like a Camembert and salad sandwich on old-style seeded bread, please. Goodbye. -Bye. Have a nice day. You too. Parisians are hard workers. You have to get into the same mind-set. The hardest part is in the metro in the morning. Back to the haute couture workshop. The black mark for the internship is the lack of a language programme. Apart from a few hundred euros paid for language learning, nothing is provided. Young Fleming Hermine Van Dijck is also on the Leonardo programme. She tries to get by in French as best she can. If you want to have French lessons, it's very expensive. So I haven't... That's not what I've done. So I've just bought books with CD-ROMS to hear... Is that what you say? Yes, that's all. I think 100 euros isn't enough, but... That should change in the coming years. In Brussels, the head of the Francophone Belgian lifelong learning agency thinks so. This agency manages the EU funding for Leonardo. In discussions on the new programme, the language preparation aspect will be strengthened. Currently, there's a small sum paid for each mobility project and national agencies encourage young people to prepare properly in order to benefit fully from their mobility. It's an essential issue at European level. Language diversity is European democracy. For the period 2014-2020 there could be a lot more people, like Marie or Hermine, who profit from this programme. The EU should increase this budget by 70% on average, a total of 19 billion euros over seven years. We need more, because Europe isn't made just like that. It's made through education. And even the economy can't really flourish, if you like, if we don't have people who are educated, who have had real training such as we can offer through these programmes. A grant of 3,000 euros for three months is not much to live on in a city like Paris. But Marie accepts that. This internship is for her an investment in the future. EuroparlTV video ID: 92ae4647-43b5-44ae-b543-a15000ff13e5
