Youth Guarantee country by country Italy
July 2015
Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
Table of Contents Introduction and context ................................................................................... 3 Commission's assessment ................................................................................. 4 EMCO's assessment .......................................................................................... 6 Previous years ................................................................................................. 7 2014............................................................................................................ 7
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Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
Introduction and context The implementation of the Youth Guarantee has started in all EU countries and is already bringing results. Compared to other structural reforms in Europe, the Youth Guarantee is probably one of the most rapidly implemented. This document provides extracts from official Commission and EMCO documents on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in Italy. It contains extracts from: • • •
The country-specific recommendations addressed to Italy in the context of the European Semester The country report drawn by the Commission for Italy in the same context The conclusions of the thematic multilateral surveillance review of the Employment Committee (EMCO) in December 2014
A section at the end of the document is devoted to the assessments made by the Commission in previous years. Italy presented a Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan on 23 December 2013. Italy is eligible for the Youth Employment Initiative: it has an allocation of 567.51 million euros (in current prices), with most regions being eligible (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte, Puglia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Toscana, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta).
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Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
Commission's assessment From the 2015 country-specific recommendations for Italy: "(…) As part of efforts to tackle youth unemployment, adopt and implement the planned school reform and expand vocationally-oriented tertiary education (…)" From the 2015 country report (EN): "Persistently high rates of youth unemployment and of young people not in employment, education or training point again to the risk of discouragement from entering the labour market. This may have potentially severe consequences on Italy’s human capital accumulation. Youth unemployment has almost doubled over the past decade to reach almost 43 % in Q3-2014. It is also characterised by marked regional variations. The proportion of young people aged between 15 and 24 not in employment, education or training rose from 16.2 % in 2007 to 22.2 % in 2013 (32.9 % for those aged 25-29) and is now the highest in the EU. Among these the big majority (77.5 %) is willing to work but 56.3 % are economically inactive. Furthermore, contrary to the pattern seen in some other Member States (e.g. Spain), the fall in youth activity rates has not been associated with longer time spent in education and training. The big gap between young graduates’ competencies and labour market needs has made the transition from education to work increasingly difficult. Only 54.6 % of those aged 15-34, who graduated from the first and second stages of tertiary education within the previous three years were employed, against the EU average of 78.6 %. In addition, having a foothold in the labour market is often not sufficient to ensure lasting involvement and the Italian labour market remains segmented." "Measures taken to tackle youth unemployment have not been sufficient; supporting young people in their transition from school to work remains a major challenge. Several positive developments took place within the framework of the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan. To promote job creation, incentives were introduced to hire young people between 18 and 29 years old and out of work for at least 6 months on permanent contracts; the conditions for hiring on apprenticeship contracts were simplified to make them more attractive for employers; profiling methods were adopted to identify young job-seekers according to the type of intervention required; a national website was launched to foster outreach. To improve the efficiency of support measures, services delivered to young people such as training, apprenticeships, assistance for employment search, etc. were standardised in terms of costs, modalities and duration, and an increased use was made of private placement agencies. However, and in spite of EU funds being mobilised rapidly, youth employment prospects remain a major challenge. Young people registered to the Youth Guarantee account for about one fifth of the total potential clients (1.7 million young people not in education, employment or training) and those with low education and further away from the education and labour systems have been less involved so far1. Interventions from public employment services towards young people are still weak, especially in southern regions. Targeted approaches for differentiated needs (such as ‘second-chance’ pathways in education), specific training focusing on the skills required by the labour market, and work-based experiences leading to qualifications remain underdeveloped. Despite recent agreements between the 1
Youth Guarantee Monitoring, 23 January http://www.garanziagiovani.gov.it/Monitoraggio/Pagine/default.aspx
2015.
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Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
Ministry of Labour and employers’ associations, more concrete collaboration with stakeholders to provide for offers of sufficient number and quality that respond to the needs of both demand and supply of labour, in line with the objective of the Youth Guarantee, is still missing. The apprenticeship contract does not yet represent a key port of entry in the labour market." "(…..) School outcomes and adult skills are below the EU average and entry to the labour market is difficult for the high-skilled. The early school-leaving rate remains well above the EU average (17 % compared to 12 % in 2013), although it is approaching the 2020 national target of 16 %. School education in Italy produces rather mixed results in terms of basic skills attainment, with very large regional differences between the centre-north and the south. Italy’s tertiary education attainment rate is the lowest in the EU (22.4 % in 2013 for 30-34 year-olds), remaining well below its 2020 national target of 26-27 %. While the school-touniversity transition rate is close to the EU average, the drop-out rate is very high (45 % in 2012)2. Entering the labour market is also difficult for the high-skilled; for the 25-29 age group, the employment rate of tertiary graduates is 50.1 % compared to an EU average of 78.5 % in 2013. Italy has a very low share of young people in workbased learning and a very high and increasing share of young people not in education, employment or training (26 % of 15-29 year-olds in 2013)." For further youth-related matters please refer to the country report.
2
ANVUR,‘Rapporto sullo stato del sistema universitario e della ricerca 2013’, 2014
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Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
EMCO's assessment Conclusions of the thematic multilateral Employment Committee, December 2014:
surveillance
review
of
the
Summary IT launched a Youth Guarantee Plan in May 2014, which aims at the implementation of an agreed set of standard services and measures to be provided by employment services at regional level to young people applying for the program. A significant aspect of the Italian YG plan is the introduction of a contestability mechanism that allows young people to apply for the scheme outside their region of residence, which may lead to enhancing competition among regions in what concerns the provision of services targeting the specific needs of young people. The IT authorities have also taken measures to improve the employability of young people and to reform the vocational education and training system. Some regions introduced measures aiming at preventing early school leaving and facilitating re-entry in formal education for 15-18 aged youth, especially in secondary vocational schools. Other regions opted for investing in vocational training courses targeting young people aged 19-29 with the objective of enhancing their employability. Several regions have also issued specific regulations on apprenticeships, including provisions for formal training. While these measures allow for a degree of flexibility and competition on the provision of employment services among the regions, the IT government needs to ensure a comprehensive delivery of such services across the entire country and to monitor the efficient and effective implementation of the YG plan at national level. Another important measure adopted in the IT YG plan is the transfer of a lump-sum to employers hiring young people registered to YG (“bonus occupazione�), subject to a minimum duration of the contract of six months and varying in amount according to the type and length of the contract as well as to the profiling score of the young people benefitting from this measure. Conclusions The IT authorities have taken relevant measures at national and regional level to improve the employability of young people and to reform the vocational education and training systems. They have also introduced a series of innovative solutions for the effective implementation of various support activities. The effective implementation of the Youth Guarantee plan across the entire country needs to be further monitored. The planned overarching reforms will be important for improving the situation of youth in the labour market. In response to the youth-related CSR, IT adopted a series of measures facilitating entry in the labour market and enhancing active labour market policies for young people.
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Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
Previous years 2014 From the 2014 country-specific recommendations for Italy: "(…) Provide adequate services across the country to non-registered young people and ensure stronger private sector's commitment to offering quality apprenticeships and traineeships by the end of 2014, in line with the objectives of a youth guarantee." From Commission Staff Working Document SWD(2014)413 (EN - IT): Challenges to delivering a Youth Guarantee (YG) in Italy - Lack of sufficient resources in public employment services, foreseen as the main service provider for the Youth Guarantee, to provide homogeneous service delivery across the country, coupled with limited use of public employment services in job search by jobseekers; - Unclear structure of incentives for non-registered youth not in education, employment or training to register for the services and the ensuing need for a proactive outreach strategy tailored to the different subgroups; - Need for effective and continuous coordination between national and regional levels in the delivery of Youth Guarantee measures; - Necessity to raise the commitment of the private sector and to step up cooperation with education institutions in delivering quality apprenticeships and traineeships. - Although the level of commitment is high, there are substantial concerns that the sustainability of the Youth Guarantee is compromised by the lack of a long-term implementation perspective. Comments "In particular, “action has been taken to tackle youth unemployment but its scope is limited and its effectiveness uncertain. In June 2013, a package of measures was introduced with the aim of fostering employment, especially among young people, centred on an incentive scheme to hire disadvantaged young people aged 18-29 on permanent contracts. However, the measures are fragmented and of limited scope, compared to the size of the challenge. Six months after the introduction of the schemes, their take-up was still limited. The government has submitted an implementation plan for the Youth Guarantee initiative, worth EUR 1.5 billion. Its effectiveness depends greatly on the employment services and on the coordination of the various stakeholders." " (…)The very low take-up of apprenticeship contracts prompted the government to relax some of its requirements. The 2012 labour market reform included a reform of apprenticeship contracts to increase youth employability. However, the take-up of this type of contract has been very low3. To remedy to this, 3 The number of apprenticeship contracts has decreased from 528 183 in 2010 to 469 855 in 2012. In particular, the share of young workers aged 15-29 with an apprenticeship contract has decreased from 14.7% to 13.9% in the same period. Source: Ministry of Labour – ISFOL – INPS (2013) 14th Monitoring
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Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Youth Guarantee country by country - Italy
the March 2014 decree law relaxes the obligation to convert apprenticeship contracts into open-ended contracts before hiring new ones to 20% of the total number of apprentices in firms with more than 50 employees. However, this limit can be amended under national collective agreements. For professional apprenticeships (apprendistato professionalizzante), the training plan that the employer is required to draft has been simplified, while for training apprenticeships (apprendistato per la qualifica e il diploma professionale), the salary paid to the apprentice for hours spent in off-the-job training can be reduced up to 35 % of the contractual wage. All these amendments simplify apprenticeship contracts and make them more flexible." "(‌) Italy has a very low share of young people studying and working at the same time4. The transition from education to work is particularly difficult for young graduates. The employment rate of young tertiary graduates (aged 25-29) is well below the EU average and that of young people with upper secondary education."
Report on Apprenticeship. http://www.isfol.it/highlights/xiv-rapporto-di-monitoraggio-apprendistato/xivrapporto-di-monitoaraggio-apprendistato.-3-i-numeri-dell2019apprendistato 4 3.7% of 15-29 year-olds in 2012 as against an EU average of 12.9%.
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