Breakfast energy drink

Young people are not physically fit enough for work

Andreas Pollack, Eva Höltl and Thomas Holzgruber call for more health education.(Bild: Himmelhoch)

While unemployment among young people is on the rise, many of them are unable to hold down a regular job. Several experts are therefore now calling for a preventative health concept.  

Fit for the job market takes on a whole new meaning in light of the warning from three experts. According to Andreas Pollak, Managing Director of the T.I.W. association, Dr. Eva Höltl, Vice President of the Austrian Society for Occupational Medicine, and Dr. Thomas Holzgruber, Patient Ombudsman of the Vienna Medical Association, many young people are physically unable to successfully enter the job market or participate in it on a permanent basis. The experts have identified a lack of health awareness as the reason for this.

Energy drink for breakfast
"Some drink an energy drink for breakfast or order a pizza at 10 p.m. in the evening. And then they wonder why they can't sleep," says Pollack, adding that "the earlier health literacy is learned, the greater the chance of a positive start to a young person's career." Every year, the T.I.W. association helps thousands of young people to steer their everyday lives in a healthy direction by providing advice.

And together with other experts, the association has now developed a prevention concept:

• A national prevention strategy: a roadmap for the distribution of tasks, who takes on which prevention tasks, where and when, and how these are to be financed, including the definition of standards for young people.

• Efficient use of existing structures: Well-trained staff in kindergartens and schools can influence young people from an early age.

• Financial support for associations such as T.I.W.: More and secure funding for associations and organizations that strengthen the health literacy of young people at an early stage, with low-threshold, target group-oriented and free of charge.

And Pollack points out: "Every euro invested in prevention and screening now helps to save a hundredfold in the long term."