The key to developing the skills that young people need to enter the labour market is identifying disconnections between Education and Employment.

By Gabriela Vlasich*

for staffingamericalatina

Nowadays, employability is a very important issue. This concept refers to the possibilities a person may have in getting a job and it is directly related to training, experience, skills and features the person possesses.

Within this topic, a particularly interesting aspect to be considered is the relationship between secondary school education and employment, especially when focusing on how education promotes those skills needed to develop towards and within the labour market.

One of the main questions that arise on this subject is how far secondary school is successful enough as regards supporting and encouraging students to develop the skills required to entering the labour market, specifically the formal one.

In order to explore and attempt to answer these questions, the education division from IDB (International Development Bank) has recently published a research article called “Disconnected. Skills, Education and Employment in Latin America” (Bassi M, et al, 2012). This research analyses the connection between the skills demanded by employers and skills produced by secondary school. These abilities may be categorized in two main groups. On one hand, the cognitive skills –general intellectual skills-; on the other hand, the socio-emotional skills – social skills, self control and self-efficacy, among others-.

One of the most important results was the fact that skills which are relevant to be properly developed within the labour market –particularly socio-emotional skills-, may be acquired, modified and strengthened during secondary school. The importance of such discovery relies on the fact that secondary school may function as an agent of change, encouraging the development of additional skills, even when primary school was inefficient in these aspects.

Consequently, secondary school may be considered as the second chance to trigger the development of abilities which have a very significant impact on young people’s lives.

So, disconnection between the development of socio-emotional and cognitive skills promoted by secondary school and of those required by the formal labour market constitutes a main matter. Such disconnection may be the consequence of an educational system which has not responded properly to the increase or modifications of the skills demanded by the current job positions within formal labour market.

There are certain contradictions on this matter. Governments in Latin America have made great investments on infrastructure and teachers salaries. They have also expanded compulsory education. As a result of these policies, there has been an increase in the number of people attending secondary school. However, these policies and results have neither meant an improvement of education quality, nor an increase on the amount of students getting their secondary school degree. Indeed, the disconnection mentioned has not been reduced but has been growing.

The IDB gives a possible explanation to this disconnection, establishing that it may be thought in terms of supply and demand. First of all, the main supply factor is the great growth in the amount of young people who have completed secondary school education. Secondly, the other factors mainly consist of an increase on employers’ demand of workers who reach higher education. These ones appear as a direct consequence of the changing labour world. Such changes are: modifications in international commerce; development of technology which complements workers’ skills; reforms in economic policy, among others. The combination of both factors has resulted on a decline of secondary education returns.

Furthermore, a main source of education and employment disconnection, as well as of school dropouts, resides in a lack of pertinence in the study programs contents offered by schools and in the absence of educational opportunities after secondary school.

In conclusion, the challenge is to make secondary school education develop and promote the necessary skills to get into the labour market successfully. This means encouraging opportunities and adjusting curricular contents so that they become adequate to the demands of the current employment world. This is a very complex challenge. However, identifying the disconnections between education and employment is a step forward to succeed on this matter.

*Anthropologist

Project Analyst

Trafwe LATAM HR Advisors