Vienna the best city to live in!
According to the
Mercer 2014 Quality of Living rankings, Vienna
is the city with the world’s best quality of living, of all European cities. Zurich and Auckland
follow in second and third place, respectively. But why gets Vienna
such a good note?
There are many
reasons why Vienna
fares so well in such objective and subjective evaluations.
First of all
because of its culture, architecture and other free time activities. There are
numerous activities in the area of theatre, music, art exhibitions, public
readings, museums and operas that cater to all tastes. Imperial buildings like
Hofburg, Schönbrunn Palace, Belvedere
Palace and the splendid
buildings of the Ring Boulevard
shape the city's image. Like in Vilnius
you can see so many beautiful buildings with their unique histories.
Especially for
young people or young adults the impressive number of free concerts and
nightclubs is a good reason to live there.
A enjoyable city with an
excellent public transport network
of underground trains, trams and buses. They are of course well organized and will
take you almost anywhere in the city in no time at all. Good services, a clean
environment and different types of tickets are the reasons why so many people
use it. About 53% of Viennese workers travel everyday to their workplace by
public transport.
Moreover Public transport is
safe at all hours and the touristy
parts of the city are very safe to walk at anytime as are the vast majority of
streets. The only crime you need to look after are pick pockets.
Safety is a very
important topic in whole Austria.
The safety of young people is particular part in our politics.
Politics - Youth protection!
It regulates for example the
stay in certain places like nightclubs, car stop, theater and cinema. In
addition, the consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and gambling for different age
groups is regulated.
Every Austrian State
is responsible for fixing the detailed graduation and so there are different
rules for young people.
In Vienna children under 14 years are allowed to
stay outside till 22:00 h, between 14 and 16 years till 01:00 h and when they
are 16 years old there is no constraint. Moreover they are allowed to drink
every kind of alcohol with 16 years.
In my hometown Vorarlberg
the law is stricter but in my opinion it is better. Anyway I can say that I had
a wonderful youth.
With the completion of the
18th year the young protection law is not important any more.
Political Education and voting age
2003 reduction of
the voting age from 19 to 18 years
2007 reduction of
the voting age from 18 to 16 years
With the reduction of voting
age young people are facing with new challenges. They feel overwhelmed to form a
self-determined political opinion. Some young people want an "objective"
and "neutral" support. Therefore there are many projects to arouse
their interest for democracy and politics.
With the reduction of the
voting age there was also a big change in the subject “political education” and
its curriculum. Young people should learn to formulate their own positions on policy issues, to
understand other positions and think about solutions for problems in the fields
of politics, economy and society.
These competencies include
the willingness to compromise,
ability to communicate and tolerance
or acceptance.
Another main point is the educational
principle of "equality of women and
men". I think there are not many cities where this topic is so
important then in Vienna.
There are so many plans to strengthen the equality policy.
Education and gender equality
Education is a key factor
for equal participation in the labour market as well as for cultural and social
participation.
A new initiative by the
Austrian ministry of education called "Women
for technics" should encourage women to take up technical jobs. Many
women have already tried and have taken foot in a technical-craft job.
Even I have just graduated
from a Federal Higher Technical
Institute for civil engineering. To the surprise of many people we were
more female students then male. However this is only in my department and the
majority in technical schools is still male (about 75%).
 | |||
| My diploma project |
 |
| As you can see we were a lot of girls too :) |
Three of the ten most common
apprenticeships (retail, office
administrator / clerk and hairdresser / hairstylist) are chosen primarily by
women (woman shares between 73.3% and 94.8%), while the apprenticeships motor
vehicle technology, metal technology, engineering and mason / bricklayer are chosen
almost by young men.
Youth Unemployment Rate
Youth
Unemployment Rate in Austria increased to 9 percent in June of 2014 from 8.90
percent in May of 2014.
Germany 7.80 %
Austria 9.00 %
Lithuania 17.70 %
European Union 21.70 %
Spain 53.50 %
Austria’s low youth
unemployment rates in particular, have garnered significant interest. But what
are the main reasons behind Austria’s
outstanding international ranking in this area?
Austria is one of the
few countries that retained a strong apprenticeship
system, together with Germany
and Switzerland.
As youth unemployment is also low in the latter countries, apprenticeship is
seen as a major factor that contributes to the favourable situation.
There are two other factors of the same importance as the apprenticeship
system, one is a strong system of vocational
education and training (VET) fulltime schools and colleges, and the second
is a strong political consensus and priority for fighting youth unemployment,
and also using active labour market
policy (ALMP) as an additional
instrument for this purpose.
In 2012 dependent employee earned, if part-time and full-time employees
are considered together, on average (median) 1,781 € net per month (incl. Prorated vacation and Christmas
bonuses). The men’s incomes (2,050 euros) were around one third higher than
that of women (1,454 euros). The ten per cent of employed persons with the
highest income (median: 4,019 euros) per month earned around nine times as much
as the poorest tenth (median: 455 euros).
So if you compare our average
income with the Lithuanian income you can see big differences but we also
have to keep in mind, that food and accommodation is between 40 and 60% cheaper
than in Austria.
But don’t forget that it also depends on the city in which you are
staying because even in Austria
there are huge differences between the costs.
In conclusion I just want to say that Austrian politics try a lot to
give young people a positive future. In the end it depends on every person if
you grab your chances and how ambitious you are to reach your goals. Nevertheless
Austria and of course Vienna is a wonderful
place to live.
Sources
Youth politics
Youth unemployment rate
Curriculum
Living cost comparison