THE LOST GENERATION

Teodora Koleva

THE FUTURE OF EUROPE DEPENDS UPON THE 94

MILLION EUROPEANS AGED BETWEEN 15 AND 29.

Sick Disabled

young

carers

engaged in

other

activity

low levels

of

education

immigration

background

Young

people with

disability

Family

background

vulnerable

subgroups

NEET – ‘not in employment, education

or training”

ACCORDING TO EUROSTAT, IN 2011, 7.5 MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE AGED 15–24 AND AN

ADDITIONAL 6.5 MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE AGED 25–29 WERE EXCLUDED FROM THE

LABOUR MARKET AND EDUCATION IN EUROPE.

Below

7% 8%

16% 20%

29%

NEET rates in 2011

Reforms undertaken in some countries:

apprenticeship

traineeship

on-the-job training

with schooling

temporary and

part-time work

various programs

/"I can do better“/

tHe SiZe oF tHe ‘NEET proBlem’ in Bulgaria

Crisis, Negative changes

96.97% Higher education

145.83% Secondary

129.59% Upper secondary specialized

167.74% Upper secondary general

76.28% lower secondary

83.43% Primary or lower

Level

of Education

19.5%

Higher education

23.6%Secondary

22.5% Upper secondary specialized

24.9% Upper secondary general

44.6% Lower secondary

65.3% Primary or lower

Unemploymet by Gender

subgroup of Bulgarian women not in employment-

83 % of which do not want to work for personal reasons, such

as raising children or doing unpaid family work

Social status amplifies the risk of being unemployed:

Parents who are unemployed, inactive, with low education, illiterate, without skills

live in poverty

ethnic groups

Roma

Risky economic sectors:

Agriculture,

manufacturing, construction and

wholesale

and retail trade

/70 % (57,000) of the youth employment reduction/

Lack of adequate education, qualification and skills

65.3% with primary and lower education

44.6 % with lower secondary

education

85% Drop-outs

of school

Bulgarian labour market has lower flexibility than the EU labour market as a whole. Young people have always been considered a group at the margin of the Bulgarian labour market.

Crucial factors unemployment or inactivity among young people (15–24) in Bulgaria :

STATUS ZER0

YOUNG PEOPLE APPEARED TO ‘count For notHing and Were

going noWHere’

social exclusion

NEET Profile in bg:

Female Inactive Without work experience High skilled Discouraged workers

disaffection

political marginalisation

long-term scarring effects on their labour market performance

consequences

for the individual

isolation

risky behaviour

unstable mental and physical health

Being a young person is not an advantage but a disadvantage

GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN VERY ACTIVE IN PROMOTING POLICIES FOR RE-

ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE LABOUR MARKET AND THE

EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Preventing early school-leaving

Alternative learning environments and innovative teaching methods

Career guidance and educational assistance

Financial incentives and parental engagement

Increasing the scope of compulsory education

Reintegrating early school-leavers

Addressing more complex personalissues

Supporting school-to-work transitions

Improving service delivery and offering youth guarantees

Providing information, guidance and counselling

Work-experience opportunities and skills development

/‘learn-work jobs’: www.stagemarkt.nl/

Entrepreneurship support

Apprenticeships and vocational training

‘apprenticeship countries’ (Austria and

Germany) managed to keep their

youth unemployment down

Training courses

Internships

Facilitating mobility and financial support

Employer incentives and subsidies

"ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE"

Higher education in Bulgaria is producing unemployed people. Since 1989, the nation has lived through a transition period, which has encompassed thorough

changes of the economy, from command to market-oriented and the polity from totalitarianism

to pluralist democracy. These changes affected education in a variety of ways.

freeing of the education system from ideological constraints

decentralization

restoration of private schools

acute economic crisis no connection between the universities and the labour market

Approximately a million of Bulgarians have emigrated since the fall of communism in 1989, nearly 85 percent

of them under age 30

“Money can really buy your happiness”. Therefore “the saddest place in the world, relative to its income per person, is Bulgaria.”

NO EXCUSES "People say you can only improve an education system over 25 years - but look at Poland and Singapore, which have improved in a very short time, we've seen dramatic changes."

Youngsters in Bulgaria should enthusiastically borrow ideas from other countries, to learn from each other’s policy approaches and ACT. But…Bulgarians are not motivated. Compared to the salaries in the rest of the EU,

salaries in Bulgaria are relatively lower.

GENERAL SALARY LEVELS IN BULGARIA

DESCRIPTION COST

Average salary for Bulgaria 250 Euros

Minimal salary by law 75 Euros

Total contributions paid by

the employer, including

health care, unemployment

and social security

contributions.

Around 35% over the base

salary

SENIOR PROGRAMMERJOB DESCRIPTION: This professional carries out program

development, including evaluation of

program prerequisites, development of new

programs, testing and

documentation of programs

etc. He/she also coordinates

work between programmers

and junior programmers. This

person has at least a high

school degree, university

diploma in Computer Science,

or supplementary courses in

computer information systems.

This person has at least 5

years relevant experience.

Country Total Yearly Cost

(Euro)

Low

Salary

High

Salary

US 52,000 80,000

France 43,000 55,000

Germany 47,000 57,000

United

Kingdom

44,000 59,000

Ireland 35,000 52,000

Netherlan

ds

38,000 47,000

Italy 42,000 52,000

Japan 59,000 83,000

BULGA

RIA

15,000 35,000

"POVERTY IS NO LONGER deStiny”

“You can see this at the level of economies, such as South Korea, Singapore." Mr Schleicher declares: “Anyone can create an education system where a few at the

top succeed, the real challenge is to push through the entire cohort. In China, this means using the best teachers in the toughest schools.”

Ivy WangFormer UK university student: “There are jobs everywhere in China, she

says, but the wages are "not satisfying". She was offered a salary of between $500 and $1,000 per month and half of that

would be spent on renting a single room. "Chinese employers know exactly who they want - someone who will do as they

are told but not for much money," Ms Wang says. "I work for a Swiss company now. "Working for a foreign company means I can explain what I have done and what I

have achieved, whereas with a Chinese company I have to be really quiet. "China wants to broaden its strategy and have people who speak English or have a foreign education background, but at the same time they really want to control those people easily," she says.

“tHe World iS Big and SalVation lurKS

around tHe corner”

What Bulgaria has to offer to young people:

Labour market, which is not flexible

Education with no practical training

The lowest income per person in EU

A sad Future

What to do to escape from this miserable

perspective:

Be more flexible /gain practical experience

thanks to apprenticeships and vocational

training offered by Governments/

Accumulate work experience in Bulgaria and

abroad

Be able to work in multinational enterprises