The general objective of the project “NEXT STEP – from the Exercise Company to the first job” is to increase the level of occupancy and improve personal and professional skills for a number of 320 students registered in the national education system, coming from exercise companies from Targu Jiu municipality, Gorj county, through counseling measures, professional guidance, work-based learning programs and innovative actions. Young people’s access to education and employment is an essential component of their transition to adulthood and, implicitly, their social integration. Among the priority objectives of European policies is the creation of more opportunities for youth in the fields of education and employment, which suggests an increased focus on these components in public policies, including in Romania. However, although since the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy the number of opportunities for access to education and the labour market has increased, unemployment among young people has continued to be much higher than among adults, and with the advancement of the global economic crisis, it has even increased worryingly. The transition periods of young people from education to employment have become significantly longer and more complex than before, and the various obstacles and risks young people face during this transition do not act singularly nor uni-directional. Most often, difficulties in accessing the labour market are related to the inadequacy and/or insufficient skills acquired by young people in the education system in relation to labour market requirements. The level of education is a decisive factor in ensuring success in life; young people fail to integrate professionally, both due to the lack of adequacy of theoretical information, accumulated in school, to pragmatism of the demands imposed by the labor market, which is in a continuous dynamic, lack/inadequacy of practical training, ignoring transferable skills, which employers consider absolutely necessary. Young people face difficulties on the labour market, both due to the existing socio-economic context and the fact that the offer on the labour market is not known to them; on the other hand, very low wages for “new entry” (due to lack of work experience) discourage these young people. Often, young people’s access to the labour market is hampered by specific factors, such as coming from economically and culturally deficient backgrounds, precarious education (unsuitable professional qualification, high proportion of young people who leave school early). The project contributes to the achievement of the main objective of POCU (development of human resources by increasing access to a quality education and training system, stimulating employment, especially for young people, reducing poverty and social exclusion