Education key to youth unemployment reduction: Report

A leading education company welcomes the findings of the Organisation for Economic Development (OCED) 2013 Education at a Glance report, which examines the relationship between an education, employment and earnings.

Education at a Glance 2013 found that 15 to 29-year-olds have been hit particularly hard by the global recession, with unemployment amongst this group averaging 16 per cent in OECD countries.

A senior company official believes that education can play a role in reversing the youth unemployment trend in the region. Andrews points to the findings of the OECD report that education has a huge impact on employability, and that the global economic crisis has strengthened this impact even further. He says:

In 2012, a massive international project was undertaken entitled the “Learning Curve” to better understand the factors that contribute to a country’s educational performance and effectiveness of its workforce. It is hoped that the Learning Curve research will help governments and education providers make more informed decisions about where to best invest resources to produce better outcomes for both individuals and wider society.  

The Learning Curve report indicated that although notoriously difficult to quantify, governments in most countries recognise a link between the knowledge and skills with which young people enter the workforce and long-term economic competitiveness. Education seems to correlate with a host of personal benefits, from longer life to higher income. At a national level, too, education and income appear to go together. Finding the type of education that leads to the best economic outcomes, however, is far from straightforward.

The officail is quick to point out that there is no single solution for better labour market outcomes, and that the type of education an individual receives can have an effect on their employability.

“Our industry consultation and statistical research has also shown us that there is a wide gap between the number of young people graduating with vocational qualifications and the needs of employers across a number of industries including hospitality and tourism, construction, retail and telecommunications. This is in a large part due to the negative perception vocational education has in this region. However, this perception needs to change if we want to reduce youth unemployment here, and lessen the skills gap. What many people do not appreciate is a vocational qualification can lead to a high salary and job security.”

The OECD’s Education at a Glance report also found the role strong vocational qualifications can play in enhancing an individual’s employment prospects. The study found that countries with a higher-than-average proportion of graduates from vocational programmes were able to keep the increases in unemployment rates among this age group to below 8 per cent points while countries where less than 25 per cent of young adults graduate from vocational education, saw increases in unemployment rates of 12 per cent.

The company which undertook the report is Pearson.

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