Cities play a key role in organising and providing childcare and education services. Local administrations aim to ensure all children have equal opportunities and access to quality education from an early age.

Fighting child poverty has recently become a top priority on the EU agenda, via the EU Child Guarantee financed though the new EU budget, which aims to ensure free access for every child in poverty to quality early childhood care, education, health, decent housing and adequate nutrition.

Cities actively work on these challenges by increasing the availability of early childhood education and care, providing support for active social inclusion for disadvantaged children and families. They introduce special subsidies to support quality childcare and education services, as well as offering training programmes for relevant staff. Cities also work hard to tackle early school leaving and offer vocational guidance, up-skilling and second chance programmes, digital skills training as well as informal learning activities through sports and culture.