An article by Emmanuele Massagli, professor at the University of Bergamo
In the wake of the economic crisis, the lack of employment has become a central issue in the political and institutional discussion. Its most persistent effect over time has been a sharp increase in unemployment, especially youth unemployment, which has made it necessary to design strategies and interventions aimed at increasing employment, but also at facilitating the transition between education and work. The length of these transitions has been greatly stretched out during the crisis, confirming that the entry of young people into the jobs market is conditioned more by the quality of the training received than by the regulatory mechanisms of employment contracts.
The data collected in recent years by the main national and international research centres show the serious consequences generated by the economic crisis on both sides of the Atlantic. While the average youth unemployment for the Latin American and Caribbean region is 19.5%, in European countries this indicator stands at 16.9%, rising even to 29% if only the south of Europe is considered. Although it is true that these data can vary greatly between the different States, all countries have in common the concern for the occupational future of young people, often trapped in dangerous dynamics of job interruption and even demotivation, which translate into inactivity.
Although the first political concern is to reduce the youth unemployment rate, we should not underestimate the alarming statistics on the number of young people who, once they have entered the job market, find themselves in situations classified internationally as “not decent”. Recent studies by the OECD and the ILO show that young people form one of the segments with the largest shortage of decent work, since they have a job precariousness rate 30% above that of adults.
Furthermore, the already fragile foundations on which the youth jobs market is based today also have to face the disruptive and widespread technological changes that some authors have called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” These changes have a particular impact on the law, on the organisation of work, on competences and on workers’ knowledge and skills, and their impact is even greater for those coming into the job market. The new transformation that the western world is experiencing is destined to question the traditional certainties of training systems and classical placement techniques. In this sense, it is paradoxical that, despite high unemployment rates, many companies have difficulty finding qualified labour to fill their vacancies.
This situation has very high social and financial costs: both the direct economic consequences (higher spending on subsidies, lower tax revenue, less consumption, emigration) and the indirect (social exclusion, violence, insecurity) must be taken into account. Since they are, in all cases, factors affecting social cohesion and economic development in the European and LAC states, the governments of both regions have made this issue a priority problem
In both LAC and Europe, attempts to provide a response to the occupational crisis have been characterised by renewed interest in the training and learning contract and in vocational training. This fact is of particular interest if we consider the marked geographic, political and economic heterogeneity that exists between the two continents, and clearly shows where the future of training and employment lies. Many governments have introduced or promoted dual training processes with the explicit objective of bringing together two worlds (education and work) that due to cultural prejudice have remained apart. This duality (which when fully implemented becomes a circle) has to be conceived as a pedagogical method capable of guaranteeing the integral training of the person, and also as a policy aimed at increasing youth employment.
In the current situation, technological innovation and the jobs market demand a renewed appreciation of dual training processes. The productive realities perceive the training and learning contract as a device that improves youth employment rates and facilitates the rejuvenation of the workforce, increasing competitiveness thanks to the introduction of new skills and capacities not covered by traditional training channels. Dual processes place students at the centre of change, of which they are the object but also the author, because those who know the production processes from both a theoretical and practical point of view have a better chance of generating innovation. Dual training allows the transmission of specific knowledge of a certain productive context: when they complete the process, apprentices not only have to “know” the work, but they also have to “know” how to work.
