A lost young generation

A lost young generation

A few weeks ago the debate of ” A lost young generation” came up again on Spanish media ( TV, magazines etc). Young graduates who  are working in non qualified positions or  they are still job-hunting for their 1st role-temporary or permanent-or they have made the  decision of starting their career abroad. Young graduates who are living with ≤ 1000 euros, struggling with more than 1 job or they have accepted to remain living with their family.

1. Who are these young people? Are they overqualified for the job market or only over educated but not well- prepared for the market?

Young people who has invested their time and money in studying a degree, they have interiorized the message that only by having a degree they will be able to access the job market. Although that qualification will not guarantee them to work on what they like, neither it will guarantee them a salary with an upward progression…They believe that it enhances their job possibilities to access to a scarce good ” a job”. If we analyze statistics and numerical data they actually reflect they are right. Having a degree allows them to be on the starting gate of the competition game.  

When we hear talking about the youth, we listen to ” they are the generation best prepared to access the job market”. However is that statement true?  The Injuve- Institution dedicated to tackle youth matters in Spain has produced a report called ” A future without a lost generation“, they apply the term “over education”, despite studying a degree, getting postgraduates and masters, hundreds of CV with high education qualifications are discarded. Companies’ feedback is that they are lacking the right skills& competences  for the job they are hiring.

It´s clear then that there is a divorce between the education system and the job market, which is requiring interpersonal skills and experience that is not provided by academic degrees.

” Younger generation is required to have a lot of formal education but jobs that are offered after their studies are not matching these qualifications so the best are leaving the country” FM El País Newspaper

“Teachers are telling us that it´s not enough to get good grades, we have to get the best because there is not enough jobs for everybody” MB El País Newspaper

2.Why do we have this great misalignment between  spanish job market offers – quality and quantity – and the young graduates´ expectations?

The combination between over education and lack of skills are getting them out of the game for the majority of  job market offers. It´s inevitable that most of them are feeling let down. Some of them are choosing to hide their qualifications acquired during long years of academic study.

The lack of jobs for the young generation is connected with the high unemployment rate in Spain, which  the country has been dragging for more than 30 years. Actually, the link between youth unemployment rate  and the whole working population has not worsened a lot but it´s true that is more fragile. After 30 years, taking as a starting point the year 1981, Spain has barely achieved to reduce their unemployment rate below 2 million.

This Injuve analysis is reflecting the difficulty of the country to create high quality employment. This is affecting thousands of people, and it is obviously  affecting more to graduates, who are trying to access the job market. The absence of new jobs, connected with temporality is producing a feeling of hopelessness that is affecting great part of the population. Young graduates are not able to develop their professional career and to acquire interpersonal, social and finance-management skills. These skills are important to become independent.

3. What is the impact of our cultural mindset when trying to work towards a full employment job market?

Great part of  the Spanish population are still convinced that an academic title provides  the professional and personal competences that are needed for that desired job position. This is known in Spain as “Titulitis” -the habit of getting a formal qualification or degree for everything-. Having this rooted belief makes Spain to be slow-paced in changing the current situation. Education not only needs to provide technical and theoretical knowledge but also to be able to identify talent, investing in competency-development and to start valuing student´s extracurricular activities. In addition to this, employers need to value the candidate with a global view, they need to recognise the importance of  interpersonal skills and the different education and life´s paths.

Change means to give value to” learn by doing“, to provide opportunities where they can connect technical knowledge with real experience. Only when, we access to that experience, we can make real that knowledge and it´s possible to develop our personal skills and grow.

We all know that Einsten famous sentence “ If you are looking for different results, don´t do always the same”. In my opinion to continue with the same mental structure and the same values are not really helping us to advance into a full employment market. Taking also in consideration that  the European economical situation is complicated… Which are the cultural factors that are determining that we are still anchored in the same political strategies regarding employment and education? This question can lead to another post. 🙂

 4. Is leaving to work abroad the only option for the young graduates to start their professional career?

The fact of leaving the country to work  abroad is seen by many as “ a disastrous situation leading to talent lost” However, Does it makes sense to keep talented young people working in a irregular job market, getting stuck in non-qualified jobs and with low salaries? Is it not better to try to acquire that experience and personal growth in another setting? If the job market is not creating new job opportunities for them is it appropiate to:

1. To remain unemployed.
2. To continue accumulating titles to acquire the desired job opportunity.
3. To accept  “working  long term” for a non qualified job.

To be forced to look for jobs abroad when your own country is not able to create qualified job positions is not a desired situation to be in. Nevertheless, is it realistic nowadays to think that our working life  is going to be in one country?  It might be that geographical mobility can also bring us another way of seeing and doing things…as Einsten said ” to get different results”

 Information partly extracted from :

http://www.injuve.es/observatorio/formacion-empleo-y-vivienda/un-futuro-sin-generacion-perdida

“Mileuristas 10 años después”  El País Semanal