Rural-based youth aspirations are significantly constrained by geographic and socioeconomic contexts. When compared to urban young adults, rural ones face fewer employment opportunities, further difficulted by the need to be mobile, either through public or private transportation. The Covid-19 pandemic crisis increased the youth unemployment rate, compromising the capacity to develop life projects, and aggravating mental health. However, the pandemic also led to new forms of remote work that privilege digitalization, bringing alternative solutions to youth in rural areas, and providing the necessary literacy and infrastructures. Public Employment Services (PES) play a critical role in providing young people with employment and training opportunities. During the pandemic, many PES services were forced to adopt digital tools and technologies to continue providing essential services to young citizens. Such changes required a steep learning curve both from services and their uses, raising questions concerning their efficiency and continuity in less challenging times. While digitalization of services may be the only response that secures remote assistance, profiles like the ones of rural NEETS may require a more individualized and face-to-face approach to overcome labour market barriers. Following a comparative approach, this contribution presents two case studies regarding employment programs directed at rural NEETs in Portugal. The first case focuses on entrepreneurship, and the second on digital training. Through documentary analysis, on-site visits and interviews conducted with PES technicians, mentors and young NEETs, aged between 25 to 30 years old, we outline the main characteristics of successful interventions promoted by PES services and local partners. These results will be analysed considering results from case studies of Spain and Italy considering good practices. Our aim is to present a typology of good practices of PES aimed at supporting NEET youth in Southwest European Countries.

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NEET youth,rural,public employment services,Portugal,good practices