Youth policy delivery, below the national level and outside the privileged settings of Riga and other major cities, is insufficient and largely in the making. The concentration of resources remains high and regional disparities in the availability of youth activities are considerable. Furthermore, the perception at the centre of youth policy-making suffers from an overestimation of the actual capacities of municipalities.

The development of Latvian youth policy has to be assessed in context of socio-political challenges associated with Latvia’s late transformation. From the mid-1990s onwards, Latvian youth policy, like many other policy areas, started to evolve as a contested policy field at the intersection of traditional interests… For instance, on one hand, and most visible, structured leisure time activities (that is “hobby and interest education”), similar to those of the former communist structures of youth management, continued to exist as an important element of youth policy. On the other hand, international co-operation and counseling in youth policy development and youth work introduced new concepts to the Latvian context. These included civil society development by facilitating participation, establishing NGOs, promoting autonomy and non-formal methods of education and training.

The high status of education in Latvia is reflected in many ways… The increasing participation in upper secondary education is indicative of the general striving for advanced educational merits as well as, clearly, reflective of the rather bad reputation of vocational and professional tracks. This development causes great concern among Latvian authorities and systematic attempts to anticipate processes of matching labour market are still at an early stage… Involvement in higher education, especially at the bachelor and masters level, has become a popular way of postponing career decisions among young people and of escaping the labour market that characterised youth transitions in Latvia until recently [...]

The school reform of 2004 introduced extensive compulsory teaching in Latvian in minority schools, most of them for young Russians. In this way, the Russian language in particular is further marginalised, despite its rather significant importance in economic terms, as well as on everyday basis [...]

Although the Latvian labour market has recovered during recent years, unemployment remains a key problem affecting young people. Regional differences persist and continue to reinforce social inequalities. Labour market participation is additionally affected for young women by an absence of relevant child care and pre-school facilities, as well as by high female unemployment after maternity leave.