If €6 billion sounds like a lot of money, just think how far the new budget for tackling European youth unemployment has to go. The fundDuring June, the European Commission pledged 6 billion for a youth jobs initiative but this week Angela Merkel estimated that the total, when added to other available funds, was more like 20 billion. is intended to create apprenticeships and training across a continent experiencing a frightening peak in joblessness among the under-25s.

Figures released earlier this week showed that 23.8% of young people across the EU are now out of work. Fearing that these jobless youths might become 'a lost generation' Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, called a summit meeting of employment ministers in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss what she calls 'perhaps the most pressing European problem at the moment.'

In Greece, the most dramatically damaged economyThe way that money flows through a country, which affects wages and the cost of living. in the EU, youth unemployment is running at 64.2%, and a graduate brain drain has been reported: over 150,000 graduates have left the country in search of work in the last five years. Spain also has a crippling 60% of young people out of work, with Italy and Portugal hovering around the 40% mark. Ironically, this slump in hiring comes at a time when Europe's youth is better educated than ever.

In Germany, by contrast, overall unemployment is almost as low as it has been since the historic reunification of this once-divided nation. Only 5.4% are unemployed, and even among young people the rate is around 7%, a 20-year low.

The reason, many say, is that above the age of 15, half of all young Germans are in vocational training. Of those, half are on an apprenticeship. This has built 'a conveyor belt of highly skilled workers' able to take up productive roles straightaway in the country's consistently strong manufacturing industry.

Get up! Start up!

The outlook for many young people contemplating their first search for a job is undoubtedly gloomy. Even equipped with a degree, competition for each position is fiercer than ever.

But some voices try to strike an encouraging note, pointing out that amid all the doom, there might be a chance for some of those embarking on a career to make it more exciting than for earlier generations. 'If formal employment is hard to come by,' they say, 'use your initiative, and get your own business or creative scheme started.'

Soft soap and unrealistic pressure! others retort. The reason Germany is able to lecture the rest of the EU about creating better employment prospects for the young is that they follow a very traditional path through learning a trade and then working in industry. Only in countries where work is uncertain are young people being forced to start their own businesses.