Educational drama: they offer jobs and do not find young people with completed high school

Jasmine Bazán

08/03/2021 6:00 AM

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 08/03/2021 6:00 AM

Last Wednesday, the head of Toyota Argentina

Daniel Herrero

 assured that the automaker needs 200 new workers, but it faces a problem: most of the candidates do not have the minimum requirement to enter the plant.

That is, the

complete secondary

.

The subject puts on the table two of the great social dramas of Argentina.

In a context of economic crisis, scarcity of opportunities, a drop in available positions and worrying statistics on student dropouts:

what is the current state of youth employment in the country ?;

What about education?

A survey conducted at the beginning of the year by consultancy Randstad found that

half of those actively seeking work are unemployed.

Unemployment and underemployment numbers particularly affect those under 30 years of age.

Those with

incomplete studies

are even more likely to fall into informality.

But what percentage do they represent?

Iván Matovich

 has a Master's in Political Studies in Education from the Institute of Education at University College London and coordinator of the Education Program at CIPPEC (Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth).

"

Before the pandemic, we knew that only half of the adolescents who entered secondary school managed to finish it.

Of those graduates, only 27% do so at the expected age: the rest repeat at least once. Another 15% you will get your degree later, from educational completion programs for youth and adults, "he says.

Minimum requirements for jobs are often not tied to skills.

The

link between the educational world and work

generates various discussions between academics, teachers, school directors, officials and businessmen.

"In the case of Argentina, where permanence in school is not guaranteed, when we talk about this issue, we are seeing the tip of the iceberg," warns the expert.

Pedagogical continuity surveys carried out by the Government estimate that approximately

one million boys and girls have dropped out of school since the arrival of the coronavirus

, mainly at the secondary level. 

The "silent tragedies"

Matovich wonders:

are learning significant?

;

Do they prepare young people not only for the world of work or higher education, but to be critical citizens?

In the framework of a democracy with new challenges, he understands that this is fundamental.

The

socioeconomic inequality among jurisdictions and

is in the eye of the storm.

The latest PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tests showed that 25% of 15-year-old adolescents with more resources exceed the quality of learning of the 25% most disadvantaged by at least two years.

"Over the years, progress has been made for more boys and girls to enter the system, but they do not learn the most relevant content. Before, school dropout was spoken of as a 'silent tragedy'. With the pandemic we are going through a

'second wave 'of this tragedy,

"he continues.

Many drop out because they must

work to compensate the income of the family group

, because there are no adequate policies to support the schooling of adolescent mothers and fathers or because of a lack of incentives.

A vicious circle is created, where exclusion passes from the educational sphere to the work environment.

Young people: what jobs and for whom?

Manuel Mera

has a degree in Political Science from the Di Tella University, a Master's and a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University, and investigates issues related to the labor market and social protection.

At the beginning of this year, together with colleagues from CIPPEC, he published the report

"The labor market in Argentina: structure, impact of COVID-19 and lessons for the future."

The scholar explains that, during the second semester of 2020, the

unemployment rate for those under 24 years of age

with complete secondary education was 33.51%.

Those who had not finished secondary school suffered a 37.82% unemployment.

The difference, of four points, is not very significant on its own, but the explanation does not end there.

"Obviously

, they access different types of employment.

A person without complete high school education faces many more barriers and challenges, which are conditioned by lower wages, different working conditions and greater informality," he clarifies.

In addition, it raises an alarming fact: the general unemployment rate in the same period was 11.33%.

Young people are notoriously the most affected.

According to the aforementioned CIPPEC report, these

are concentrated in the service sector (35.7%), commerce (21.5%) and construction

(15.9%).

Among the most sought after jobs on the Zonajobs page are precisely that of call center operator, salesperson, administrative staff, customer service, data entry, cashier, operator and cashier.

That is, those that do not require previous experience or higher education.

Young people wait to leave their curriculum in a local gastronomy.

Conflict between supply and demand

"Entrepreneurs often mention that it is difficult for them to find people. First, you have to understand that

the relationship between supply and demand for work is not linear or simple,

" Mera suggests.

What aspects contribute to the difficulties of companies in finding candidates?

He replies that

lack of experience

is an important piece of information.

Also the fact of having or not having a network that allows access to possibilities and even knowledge of how or where to apply for a position.

"

The pandemic strongly affected the labor market

, which, on the other hand, has been without growth for years. Opportunities are not generated; and, the more limited these are, the more difficult sectors will be left out," he continues.

According to statistics, the drop in employment over the last year was not due so much to layoffs, as to the

historical drop in new hires

.

For the expert,

as long as the economy does not rebound, young people will continue to have problems.

Think that specific policies to incentivize their hiring could help.

There are some programs run by the Ministry of Labor and some provincial governments, but they are still relatively limited in terms of scale and budget.

Not to mention that the requirements to access them can be limiting.

Mera argues that "

internships

could be a useful tool to achieve training for children on the job, as long as it protects them, with decent jobs."

"Another aspect is the interface with the market:

how do you get people to come closer.

There is much mention of 'soft skills', which exceeds secondary education and has to do with the ability of young people to align themselves with a position labor: constancy, presence, training ", complete.

The jump from classroom to work

Claudia Romero, researcher, doctor in Education and professor at the School of Government of the Di Tella University, agrees.

"After the financial restriction,

the lack of human resources is the main restriction for the growth of the economy

."

Account that 50% of adolescents who do finish high school, many times do so without basic knowledge.

For example, reading comprehension, which

makes

it

difficult for

them to understand

simple texts

, "such as the operations manual of a machine."

"But, in addition, there is another group of

non-cognitive skills called socio-emotional or 'soft'

(responsibility, interaction in work teams, openness to new experiences) that are not sufficiently explored at school and are essential for the future," he argues.

The difficulties of looking for and finding employment.

Some scholars or contractors are inclined towards a

generational sociological explanation

of the alleged deficiencies of the applicants: difficulty in meeting schedules, inconvenience of attention and to work as a team.

Romero, on the other hand, prioritizes two edges: the contextual and the educational.

"I think that young people do not have these skills built because they have not seen them in their families; and that the school does not propose that children be more autonomous, more responsible and does not offer them real challenges."

He is concerned about the

reproduction of an unequal system, which reinforces poverty and exclusion.

Unregistered work is the only option for a large sector of young people.

Others, with more complete studies or who perhaps share the low qualifications but have references or relatives that support them, achieve a better start in their working life (a question that will affect the rest of their experiences).

"Deep down, what there is is a

loss of meaning in school

, because they also know that, although they are received, there is no job for everyone. Attending a technical college or a high school no longer represents, as in previous decades, a synonym guaranteed employment, or social advancement ", synthesizes the teacher.

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