claudio vitali, building partnerships with real impact for labour market: improving the employment...
TRANSCRIPT
Building Partnerships with real impact for labour market:
Improving the employment situation of young people in Europe
Claudio VitaliISFOL
www.isfol.it – [email protected]
Florence, 8th May 2011
Youth on the MoveBriefing for journalists
Contents and structure of the speech
Two main focus:
On matching VET and labour market needs;
On transnational mobility and related quality issues: brief presentation of a survey on the results of transnational mobility
Conclusions and open issues (a bridge for the next session…)
A focus on: “Matching education and training to the needs of labour market”
Comprehensive skills intelligence by sector, region, local level
Anticipating skills for the future and improving the measurement of occupations and skills
- long/medium/short-term forecasts: occupations, qualifications, skills;
- in depth skills audits: assessing enterprises’ needs & skills levels;
- common language Policy evaluation to monitor the effect of reforms Developing national qualification frameworks Measuring the supply of skills Making skills transparent
Understanding and addressing
skills shortages and skills mismatch
is key to LLL and labour market
policy making
over- and under-education without skills mismatch:
over-education: less emphasis on training actions, more on guidance to help decide on study fields;
under-education: recognition of skills acquired through experience
address persistent skills mismatch: training (up-skilling and widening the skills capital);
learning at the workplace, especially for young entrants in the LM; information, job search and guidance
How can we ensure that training is systematically informed by labour market intelligence and so responsive to
economic and social developments?
3 dimensions of skills policies:
formation of skills
matching
use of skills
partnership, partnership, partnership
Partnership, partnership, partnership
Skills formation is not only training but
Coordination and integrated governance at national and local level between:the worlds of work, education and training,
guidance and employment services, labour market intelligence providers
linked to
Growth, innovation and industry policies, fiscal, welfare and migration policies
Raise employer ambition to make the best use of skills
What do we mean by “Quality of Mobility"?
job creation?
competencies improvement?
increased employability of beneficiaries?
wider access to learning opportunities?
network building and development involving different socio-economic stakeholders?
growth of human and social capital for enterprises?
greater effectiveness of educational and vocational training schemes and systems?
……?
Starting from different expectations.... (a non-exhaustive list…):
Educational institutions expectations Widening and diversification of education/training supply Higher accessibility Respondence to specific learning needs Network building and reinforcement Production systems expectations Better matching between skills and learning needs Staff recruitment and selection Potential growth of human and social capital Beneficiaries expectations Employment/employability Professional skills development Life skills development Guidance
...something more about responsibilities and commitments (a non-exhaustive list…):
Responsibilities and commitments of Institutions Guarantee of equal opportunities of access Results valorization Enhance the impact Turn the initiatives into models Validation and certification of the experience abroad Responsibilities and commitments of production systems Mentoring and tutoring Quality of the traineeship Traineeship relevance with regard to the beneficiary’s goals Validation and certification of the experience abroad Responsibilities and commitments of beneficiaries Clear statements about of their expectations (sustainability) Motivation Adaptability and flexibility Investment in their learning
A survey on transnational mobility effects…
Some data to start: Difficulty of the enterprises to play an active role as
promoters or even only as sending organisations of mobility projects
Very limited participation by human resources managers from public or private production contexts
Limited participation by employed and apprentices
“Credit mobility”
It is a mobility which involves a (large) plurality
of sending organisations (mainly schools, public administrations at local and regional level, chambers of commerce, universities and their consortia, training agencies)…
and of hosting organisations (public and above all private enterprises)
It is a mainly “temporary” mobility, not calculated by Eurostat for the short duration and variability of periods spent abroad (3 to 20 weeks in average)
Transnational Mobility : aims as an opportunity to grow and improve personal and interpersonal competences to develop initiative and entrepreneurship to communicate in a constructive way in contexts and environments
which are different from the ones of origin
as a chance
to develop language competences to achieve new knowledge and professional competences to promote intercultural dialogue to be educated on European citizenship to verify and apply the knowledge acquired in formal education
pathways
Transnational Mobility: sectors The main sectors of traineeships and exchanges can be traced back to eight areas:
1. education; 2. human sciences and arts; 3. social sciences, 4. business administration, 5. law, 6. mathematics, 7. engineering, crafts and architecture8. Health, welfare and services.
The prevailing training sector in the three concerned years (2007, 2008, 2009) is represented by services.
These data are coherent with market trends: as a matter of fact, the economic growth of services has remained positive if compared to many other sectors (e.g. industry and building) hit by the crisis.
ISFOL survey on the effects of transnational mobility
The hypotheses assumed:
A. The specific nature of this kind of experiences is more useful in those countries where there is a lack of alternate learning and the absence of opportunities of transnational mobility for youths and young workers beyond Community programmes
B. The results which can be achieved further to a traineeship abroad are related to at least two main dimensions :
1. the cognitive dimension, through the potential development of transversal competences and communication abilities (not least those linked to language learning or improvement of language competences);
2. the social and economic dimension, through an increase of competitiveness on the labour market and an improvement of the opportunities of occupational integration.
The 3 aims of Isfol survey
1. increase and diversification of the information on the nature of the experience and the features of beneficiaries
2. identification, classification and quantification of the results which can be achieved thanks to the traineeship abroad and the related indicators
3. analysis of the results achieved by beneficiaries in terms of increase of employability and support to individual choices
A.V. %
Up to 26 years 1.080 45,1
27-28 years 496 20,7
29-30 years 288 12,0
Over 30 years 282 11,8
Non specified 251 10,5
Total 2.397 100,0
Trainees interviewed, by age groups (a.v. and %)
v.a. %
Lower Secondary School leave certificate 14 0,6
Professional qualification 34 1,4
Upper Secondary School leave certificate 772 32,2
Three-year university degree (Bachelor) 346 14,4
Five-year university degree (Master of Arts)
878 36,6
Ist level specialisation diploma 16 0,7
IInd level specialisation diploma 50 2,1
Ist level post-degree university Master 110 4,6
IInd level post-degree university Master 118 4,9
PhD 21 0,9
Other post-degree courses laurea (other specialisation coruses, non university masters, SISS)
15 0,6
Other 11 0,5
Non specified 12 0,5
Total 2.397 100,0
Subjects with very high educational levels..
As for family background, the “Leonardo trainee” considers his/her family economic conditions good or acceptable, despite a significant presence of retired fathers (32.6%) and mothers (17.5%).
The economic support offered by the Community arrangement covers in average 30-35% of the need;
no other support is envisaged, except family or personal means.
Economic resources….
The migration background can be defined according to a set of parameters including:
Qualification level / diplomas of parents, Language competences in the family, Previous experiences abroad.
As for qualification levels:1. only 1/5 of the parents is graduated2. almost 1/3 has only lower secondary school leave certificate3. A high number of parents with no qualification or only elementary school leave certificate.
Significant diffusion of language competences : knowledge of a second language by more than 40% of parents
Previous experiences abroad in 70% of the cases
Therefore “a family with no relevant economic problem, with sufficient income, in average without high qualification levels but with high levels of cultural awareness and sensitiveness”
Migration background …
Such changes can concern:
1. Increase of employability2. Enhancement of educational and career choices3. Development of relational and communicational competences
These hypotheses are substantially confirmed ¼ of the interviewees found a job consistent with own professional profile, in most cases abroad A small – but yet significant – percentage (almost 6%) – links the experience with a career
progression Enhancement of learning drive : 1/3 of the interviewees declares that the experience has
positively affected the participation to training activities, in terms of increase and greater focus Almost ½ of the interviewees is employed with a prevalence of full-time contracts (79%)
Changes further to mobility: hypotheses and evidences
1. The survey has shown how the effects expected (by individuals and sending/hosting institutions) are strongly dependent upon the quality of project design.
A greater involvement in the design of mobility programme of both beneficiaries – in order to well define needs and expectations -, and of hosting organisations, so as to ensure clear and qualitatively standardised services to trainees;
2. The study clearly shows that a greater investment on preparatory and preliminary activities is needed: the quality and relevance of these activities is a key factor for the success of the experience.
Preparatory and accompanying activities need include also ongoing empowerment and counseling, as well as a step for debriefing, in other words for reflection aimed at making he sense and portability of the experience clearer to the beneficiary.
Some conclusions and open issues
3. A basic language competence is essential at the departure and certainly enhanced at the end of the experience.
But the objective of a professional traineeship must be focused on the acquisition of specific and specialized glossaries .
In other words, transnational mobility cannot replace, mainly for its short duration. education and training systems in their function of providing acceptable basic language competences;
4. There is a problem of valorising the experience by the labour market. More than 50% of the interviewees claims that the tools at present
available for the transparency of competences achieved during the traineeship are too weak or little understandable by employers.
In other words, the promotion and dissemination of tools such as Europass or the future
European Passport of Competences should involve also potential public or private employers.
Some conclusions and open issues
5. The duration of mobility is strictly related to the usability of the experience.
At present, the duration of young people undergoing initial vocational training and for young workers are too short to achieve stable and balanced results in terms of learning, socialisation and increase of opportunities for professional integration.
The integration of the mobility experience into school and training curricula would allow to increase the learning period abroad.
Some conclusions and open issues
