The Youth Guarantee and One‑Stop Guidance Centres as a social innovation and a policy implementation tool in Finland

Abstract

Chapter 5 introduces the Youth Guarantee and One-stop Guidance Centres, Finland. Youth Guarantee supports young people to gain a place in education and employment to prevent prolonged youth unemployment. The One-Stop-Guidance centres (OSGs) are a mechanism for Youth Guarantee implementation, giving young adults tools with which to improve their social situation, e.g. enhancing access to education and jobs. This is a social innovation that creates in a new form of public–private–people partnership with young people actively shaping their own future. OSG Centres invest in young people’s social capital. Turku OSG Centre, the focus of the case study, achieved its goal of empowering young people by involving them from the very beginning and throughout implementation.