Yenesis from Cyprus - Green Skills Award 2024 Finalist

John Donne put it succinctly in perhaps the Renaissance period English poet’s most famous phrase: “No man is an island.” 

YENESIS, a Cyprus-based youth employment project that combines green skills with addressing the needs of vulnerable young people living on islands, brings those words into a 21st century context. 

The international project is designed to reduce youth unemployment in islands by creating green jobs.  

Specifically aimed at young people who are classified as NEETs – Not in Education, Employment or Training – Yenesis (Youth Employment Network for Energy Sustainability in Islands) offers training, one-month apprenticeships abroad, and six-month local placements to get young people into green jobs. 

Initiated by the Cyprus Energy Agency, the project reaches young people in seven countries and is multilingual. 

The project is now one of ten finalists in the European Training Foundation’s Green Skills Awards 2024.  

The award is a global initiative, first introduced in 2021. It provides ideas and inspiration from all over the world about innovation happening thanks to individuals and institutions. The initiative has become a source of good practices that can inspire people everywhere to make real change happen in creating circular and carbon-neutral economies and societies. 

Myrto Skouroupathi, Climate Change Mitigation Coordinator with the Cyprus Energy Agency returned to the Mediterranean island after completing her Masters in Environmental Engineering at University College, London – where she graduated with First Class Honours. 

Like many young people living on islands, although she was keen to “give back” to her homeland, initially she found “few opportunities, and even fewer given my lack of work experience.” But after joining the Cyprus Energy Agency she was tasked with writing a proposal on green skills for young unemployed people. Now, five years later YENSIS is the result. 

“Young professionals in islands face several challenges when looking for a job, such as lack of job opportunities or work experience,” she notes.  

“Yenesis offers a solution to break this vicious cycle with the creation of green jobs.” 

The project provides training in 10 subjects and 7 languages, in areas such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable tourism and mobility. 

“Islands suffer from high unemployment throughout the year, with a seasonal peak on non-tourist periods, especially amongst young people,” Myrto adds.  

“At the same time, islands specifically, are more exposed and vulnerable to climate change, thus green jobs are especially needed.” 

After selection, participants were assigned to specific areas appropriate to their home islands and regions – sustainable mobility, for example, was an important area for green development on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, where a network of charging stations for electric cars is being introduced. 

Other projects include a combined wind and hydro power scheme on the small Canaries island of El Hierro, where energy stored from wind power is used to pump water uphill to create hydro power on calm days. 

An eco-farm, solar power and energy savings schemes in public buildings are also featured. 

Alongside environmental subjects, participants are given training in soft skills and entrepreneurship – important elements in islands where unemployment peaks during non-tourist periods and which are more exposed and vulnerable to climate change. 

The one-month apprenticeships on another island gives the young participants insights into how green skills are deployed elsewhere and the local six-month placement offers a valuable opportunity to build experience.  

Yenesis includes as week-long showcasing trip to Norway – which along with Iceland and Liechtenstein is among the funders of the scheme. 

For wider dissemination, all educational material from the trainings is available as an e-course, translated into the seven languages, including English, used across Yenesis.  

Training is also offered to high-school students and career advisors on the future of green jobs. 

The results speak for themselves, Myrto says:

“So far, our project has reached thousands of young people in seven countries, creating hundreds of jobs and many new start-ups. But numbers are rising by the minute.” 

Apart from the 120 green jobs created, 92 young people have found employment in environmental areas, there have been 15 start-ups and more than 180 teachers and careers advisors trained. 

Broader outreach has involved more than 120 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), more than 4,000 teenagers, and 35,000 members of the public. 

“There are dozens of success stories from the participants of Yenesis. Our hope is that institutions will take up our tools and methodology for green employment, to increase our impact.”