On July 14, 2022, a "Youth Guarantee Roundtable Discussion: Lessons Learned And Policy Recommendations" was organised by the National Youth Council of Macedonia, one of the Connecting Youth platform partners.

The purpose of the event was to unite young people who are part of the fieldwork for the Youth Guarantee conducted in the period May-July 2022 and to provide them with space to share their experience and offer recommendations and solutions to representatives of the relevant institutions responsible for the Youth Guarantee. In addition, the policy paper “Youth Guarantee Deployment In The Western Balkans, An Institutional Set Up And A Perspective From Youth Organizations“ was presented at the event.

The event was moderated by Mr Filip Kulakov Program Manager at NYCM and attended by representatives from relevant institutions responsible for the Youth Guarantee including Ms Krisela Hackaj, Executive Director of the Institute for Cooperation and Development (CDI), Mr Gjorgi Tasev, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs and Policies (online participation); Mr Mladen Frchkovski, Head of the Labor Market Department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy; and Mr Goran Petkovski, Head of Department for European Integrations and other projects, Employment Service Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia. During the discussion, the field workers highlighted the challenges they faced and offered appropriate solutions for them. The field workers agreed that the main challenges are related to the alignment of the implementation period of the fieldwork and the active measures offered for youth and that it is also important to move to a digital method of promoting the Youth Guarantee and to find a solution which will enable young people to register electronically at the Employment Service Agency.

All challenges and proposed solutions and recommendations that were discussed at the event will be summarized and presented in an appropriate Policy Brief.