Common themes of EU social policy include: the promotion of employment; improved living and working conditions; the equal treatment of employees; adequate social protection; and capacity building of the European citizenship. However, it is often the case that rural dwellers and, more specifically, rural NEETs, experience higher levels of marginalisation than their urban counterparts. Such marginalisation is evidenced by their exclusion from decision-making, public life, community, and society. These issues are compounded by an underdeveloped rural infrastructure, problematic access to education, limited employment opportunities, and a lack of meaningful social interaction. This study, a cross-sectional analysis, assesses a number (n = 51) of social interventions under the Youth Guarantee Programme from a social innovation perspective and presents a characterisation of examples of best practice across different dimensions of social innovations. This paper presents an examination of the potential of sustainable rural–urban ecosystems that are focused on supporting the symbiotic social innovation diffusion methods which can help to establish and sustain rural–urban pathways to improved education, employment, and training.

In the last decades, young people not in education or employment have become the focus of policy-makers worldwide, and there are high political expectations for various intervention initiatives. Despite the global focus, there is currently a lack of systemic knowledge of the factors supporting policy-making. Therefore, using scoping review methodology, a systematic literature overview of research findings in 2013–2021 on young people not in education or employment will be provided. The research revealed five categories to consider from a policy-making perspective: “NEET” as a concept, the heterogeneity of the target group, the impact of policies for young people, possible interventions, and factors influencing young people's coping strategies. Based on analysis, the target group requires applying the holistic principle where the young person is a unique person whose involvement in service creation supports the service's compliance with the actual needs of young people. To support young people, it is important to consider differences within a single social group; the interaction between the different site-based policies; young people's sense of self-perception and autonomy in entering support services; possible coping strategies and the need to provide support in a time and place-based flexible and caring environment through multidisciplinary teams. The study's results support the importance of implementation and the identification of existing opportunities of the EU's reinforced Youth Guarantee guidelines and point to possible future research topics related to the target group.

Supporting young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) represents a new global policy challenge. There is a need to increase knowledge about policymaking connected to multidisciplinary approaches in order to provide better services for NEET youth. This study focuses on interpretations by specialists in the youth field in Estonia regarding the current public policy support system for NEETs and the associated factors affecting the achievement of policy goals. Based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews with specialists from all levels of the national NEET support system, this study demonstrates that the cross-sectoral and multi-level public policy system for NEETs lacks sufficient understanding of the central aims. The support strategy is, rather, created for use within a single structure and does not have a common meaning from a system-wide perspective. State-level coordinating parties need a common understanding at the beginning of policy creation concerning the system’s long-term aims, information flow and performance, agreed-upon roles transcending sectors, and process management across structures. This change would enable better outreach and integrated services at the local level and be accurately based on the needs of youth with heterogeneous backgrounds whilst avoiding barriers at the individual case level. Keywords: NEET; policy creation; policy coordination; information flow; multidisciplinary service; Youth Guarantee; Estonia. ······ Sprijinirea tinerilor care nu se află nici în sistemul educațional nici în cel ocupațional sau de pregătire (NEET) reprezintă o provocare globală de tip nou. Există o nevoie de a spori cunoașterea asupra design-ul politicilor, în conexiune cu abordarea multidiciplinară, spre a pune la dispoziție servicii mai bune celor NEET. Acest articol se concentrează pe interpretările specialiștilor în domeniul tineretului din Estonia cu privire la sistemul actual de politici publice pentru NEET și la factorii asociați care influențează îndeplinirea scopurilor acestor politici. Pe baza analizelor de documente și a interviurilor semi-structurate cu specialiști de la toate nivelurile din sistemul de suport NEET, acest studiu demonstrează că politicile publice cros-sectoriale și de multinivel din Estonia duc lipsă de înțelegerea pe deplin a problemelor centrale. Strategia de suport este creată, mai degrabă, pentru a fi folosită într-o singură structură și nu are un înțeles comun cu perspectivă largă, de sistem global. Părțile care coordonează aceste strategii de la nivel de autoritate de stat necesită o înțelegere globală de la începutul creării politicilor cu privire la scopurile pe termen lung ale sistemului, cu privire la fluxul de informații și la performanțe, să se pună de comun acord asupra rolurilor transsectoriale și asupra proceselor manageriale transstructurale. Această schimbare va permite o mai bună putere de pătrundere a acestor servicii integrate la nivel local și o centrare mai precisă pe nevoile tinerilor cu backgrounduri diferite, în timp ce barierele diferitelor cazuri individuale vor fi evitate. Cuvinte-cheie: NEET; design de politici; coordonare de politici; flux de informații; servicii multidisciplinare; Youth Guarantee; Estonia.

targeting rural NEETs. In my opinion, this is the most outstanding contribution of this manual, and also an original one, considering that to date no other efforts have been made with the intention of developing a grid of how to describe interventions dealing with rural NEETs. This manual offers, therefore, valuable contributions for upcoming research efforts within and beyond RNYN, including: (a) a complete methodological framework for future case stu-dies; (b) practical tools to conduct field research than can be combined with many different methodological approaches (qualitative, mixed-methods, etc.); and, (c) strategic criteria for conducting research in complex settings such as community-based programs. In addition, this manual sets the necessary conditions to present evidence-based conclusions about programs targeting rural NEETs, further aiding policy-makers to opt for solutions that clearly produce better results. This manual would not have been possible without the efforts and best knowledge from its editorial team. Therefore, as the Chair of RNYN, but also in a more personal note, I would like to thank Claudia Petrescu, Emre Erdogan and Paul Flynn for the impeccable and rigorous way in which they conducted all the process. I would also like to thank the Working Group 2 mem-bers traversing many countries who contributed to this document.

Given the increasing value of lifelong learning, self-directed learning (SDL) has become increasingly relevant over time. In rural areas with limited service resources, the main approach to NEET-youth depicts them more as young people in need, and less as people with the potential for self-development and participation in lifelong learning. The growing importance of people’s return to education, flexible learning paths, and the need for quick adaptation and re-training in a rapidly changing society emphasizes the need to design service models for NEET-youth. This is in order to support their SDL skills, and indicate the service providers’ role throughout the process. The empirical study in Estonia was grounded on the Double Diamond service design method using quantitative data on the respondents’ readiness for SDL, and also qualitative data from service providers about their roles and the affordances of their services in supporting SDL skills. The model was tested with rural NEET-youth.