Giuliani, L. & Pastore, F. (2014) “The European School-to-work Transition and the Crisis“, Social Europe Journal, 16 Σεπτεμβρίου.
The school-to-work transition is a long, dark tunnel for many young people around the world. However, the problem is not the same everywhere; in Germany, for example, young people have almost the same probability of working as adults, while in the Eastern and Mediterranean EU countries the employment chances of young people are likely to be more than three times lower: this disadvantage depends largely on the work experience gap of young people with respect to adults. These discrepancies are, in large part, due to the educational and training system and, moreover, to active labor policies in the various countries.
The Scandinavian countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway), for example, have a sequential system of education, whose mission is only to provide general education, while work experience should be made after school. Thanks to pro-active schemes on a large scale, given within four months from the beginning of the unemployment spell, the state helps young people to build their skills at the end of their school career.
In contrast, in continental European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, France), the education system is dual. It takes as its mission not only to generate general education, but also on-the-job professional training, to be carried out during the course of study and not after, as is the case in sequential educational systems. This implies that, just after graduation, young people are ready to enter the labor market. Unsurprisingly, these countries have always had a low unemployment rate and a very low relative disadvantage.
Figure 2. Relative disadvantage by school-to-work transition regime
Source: SEJ elaboration on OECD data.
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- Magalhães, C. P. & Ceka, B. (2014) “The meaning of democracy changes for Europeans depending on their education status, income and national context“, LSE EUROPP Blog, 27 Αυγούστου.
- Heyes, J. (2014) “Vocational education and training and the Great Recession: supporting young people in a time of crisis“, Report 131, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
- Mourshed, Μ., Patel, J., Suder, K., (2014) “Education to employment: Getting Europe’s youth into work“, McKinsey & Company, Ιανουάριος.