Executive Summary: Youth Circulation Corridors & Skills Pipeline Development

This document is in its initial research stage and has not yet been fully developed into a complete project report.

Core Thesis

Eastern Europe faces acute demographic decline, persistent youth emigration, and structural skill shortages that undermine long-term economic resilience. While mobility programs such as Erasmus+ and CEEPUS offer opportunities for study abroad, they lack mechanisms to align students with local labor shortages or incentivize their return. This project addresses those gaps through Youth Professional Corridors & Return Incentives and National Youth Skill & Employment Workshops.

Key Features of the Project

Youth Professional Corridors & Return Incentives:

• Locally anchored frameworks using municipalities, universities, and chambers of commerce to create cost-effective study-work pathways, encouraging circulation rather than permanent emigration.

National Youth Skill & Employment Workshops:

• Two-hour annual sessions in secondary schools to connect pre-university students with shortage sectors and create early pipelines into domestic labor markets.

  
  

Open Invitation

The Youth Circulation Corridors & Skills Pipeline project is at its starting stage. YMIR Group is still recruiting members, including research fellows and collaborators, to join the team. Deliverables, rubrics, and processes are in place, but active research, interviews, and drafting are yet to begin. The group is also seeking external partnerships and institutional support to establish a durable foundation for the initiative.