Improved opportunities for young people in Veneto
09.07.2015 – GIZ is supporting the northern Italian region of Veneto with reforms to promote youth employment. The European Union is also involved.
More than 40 per cent of people under 25 years of age in Italy are unemployed. One reason is the mainly school-based vocational training, which is based on the actual demand in the labour market. Also, school leavers have no experience of operational workflows, or of working in shifts or on public holidays, and thus they are less productive when entering the workforce. In addition, they often choose a training course in an area for which there are few jobs in their region, unlike in Germany, where the enterprise offering the training selects an applicant on the basis of its needs. During an apprenticeship with a company, the two sides get to know one another, and the trainee takes part in everyday working life. The Italian Government is aiming to take corrective actions through reform of the vocational education system that began in 2012 and introduce elements of the German dual system of vocational training.
Veneto is particularly well-suited as a pilot region for introducing reforms. On the one hand, the region is suffering from structural change in the economy while on the other tourism offers opportunities for the hotel and catering sector. The regional government and its employment agency have approached the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Entwicklung (GIZ) GmbH, requesting its support in this process. ‘The Italian side particularly liked our integrated approach to promoting employment that takes into account both youth training and labour market demand – and how we combine these two aspects,’ said Axel Fastenau, who is responsible for cooperation with industrialised countries at GIZ. Also, GIZ’s experience with identifying and analysing change processes played an important role. But first, elements of the German system of dual training have to be selected and adapted to the Italian situation. To this end, GIZ is cooperating closely with schools, local authorities, business associations and trade unions. These are also important partners in measuring results and drawing up recommendations for reforms.
Said Fastenau: ‘We are looking for effective practical mechanisms on a small-scale that are also transferable to other regions of Italy and other sectors.’ The results will feed into the political consultation process. The Italian Ministries of Labour and Education are on board. They have requested support from their German colleagues at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The BMAS is supporting the Italian Ministry of Labour and has appointed GIZ to do this work. For its part, the BMBF has requested the support of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) as a specialised institution. GIZ and the BIBB are German partners in the project, which is being financed by the European Union and the Region of Veneto.GIZ works world-wide for various commissioning parties to promote business and employment. In recent years, it has provided vocational training to about 100,000 young people per year, supported more than 2,000 business start-ups and advised 30,000 enterprises.