With 24% of young Europeans unemployed, EuroparlTV follows two Belgians seeking to improve their chances of finding a job through retraining.

Close to You: New skills, new jobs

Hubert Dominique gets bored  in his family home in Brussels.

He's already trained as a mechanic  in technical college.

But without experience he remains  a job seeker with little hope.

I went to register with agencies  to try to find work in this field

I thought I'd try to find work  directly myself, so I went to look.

The problem is that in most garages  they want experience.

He's out of work,  as are 20% of young Belgians.

In spite of his many efforts,  he can't find work.

In order to progress  he's going to change career path.

In a few days, he'll start  a training course in sales.

So there's four months  of intensive lessons

and two to three months  of internship in a company.

What do you hope to get from it?  -If the internship goes well you'll get a job.

He's started 18 months of training as  a heating engineer in the south of Belgium.

Before I came here  I was studying law at university.

And after a while I got fed up,  I wasn't motivated any more,

and I said to myself, 'Why not work  in a trade in the construction industry?'

And I'd already done heating engineering  as a student. So I chose that.

Was it the opportunities  or the work itself that attracted you?

but I think first and foremost  you have to do something you like.

In this training centre run by FOREM,  Wallonia's employment service,

after their training in required trades.  The big advantage is the work experience.

You've just finished your work experience.  Did it go well?

There were three workers  who had trained here.

That's good publicity for us.  It proves that when you get trained here

We train job seekers, apprentices,  company bosses, workers,

Even with the crisis, we see that there are  still jobs in the construction industry,

employers are demanding more  in the level of qualification.

The EU is planning to increase  the amount of training

for the 5.5 million jobless Europeans  under the age of 25.

The EP Information Office in Belgium  organised a debate on the topic.

We met up again with Paul, who came for  the event, but especially to meet MEPs.

What could Europe do  to encourage young people

to be entrepreneurs themselves, so they  are less dependent on the jobs market?

If someone wants to set up on their own,  they need money.

They may well not have any.  In fact they rarely do.

like exempting young people  who set up their own company

from national insurance or tax charges  for the first three or four years,

It's a way for society  to share part of the risk.

It looks like you have  plenty of good work to do.

Thank you for answering my questions.  -Good luck to you too.

Across Europe 24% of young people  are unemployed.

Professional training courses  won't solve the problem on their own.

It's important to act on the job seekers  themselves by giving them tools,

but it's also necessary to act on  the way the labour market works

and the way that employers work in  the global context of the economic crisis,

and we must have policies  that do something about job opportunities.

it's better to increase one's chances  of finding work by taking training.

The young unemployed represent a loss  of 150 billion euros per year in the EU,

whereas this European programme  would cost only 21 billion.