The Forum “Youth Talent and Perspectives on the Future of Work”, organized by Adecco to promote GAN4Youth Argentina, was developed in Buenos Aires on October 11.

Experts and key actors on youth employment took part in the event organised by Adecco, which sought to promote GAN4Youth Argentina. The list of specialists who shared their views included: Daniel Funes de Rioja (president of the IOE, vice-president of UIA and head of GAN Argentina), José Manuel Salazar Xirinachs (Director of ILO Latin America and the Caribbean), Alain Dehaze (Global CEO Adecco Group), David Herranz (CEO Adecco Argentina), Miguel Ángel Ponte (Secretary of Employment of Argentina) and Martín Padulla (Founder and managing director of staffingamericalatina).

Data on youth employment

During the forum, the specialists shared data on the situation of youth employment in Argentina. According to a report of Adecco, presented by Martin Padulla, the youth unemployment rate in Argentina is 24%, well above the global average (13.1%) and the regional average (16.8%).

A very serious issue is that over one million youngsters are neither in employment, education or training (the so called NEETs), and over 700,000 of them are not even looking for a job (known in Argentina as Triple Ni). Among Triple Ni, women suffer the strongest impact, as there are around 580,000 young women in this situation against 170,000 young men.

What happens with young people who are in employment? Well, almost 60% of them have informal jobs.

One of the main variables that has an impact on the chances of getting a formal job is completing secondary education. However, only 53% of young Argentinians graduate from high school and half of them do not have proper reading comprehension skills.

The country endures a deficit in the quality and pertinence of education, which has a direct impact on the productive sector. Over half of the companies that operate in Argentina have had difficulties filling job vacancies during 2015. The major cause is the lack of technical and socioemotional skills.

Meanwhile, an elevated share of young people (67%) point out that they major difficulty they face when looking for a job is that they lack working experience. Furthermore, over half of the claim that their jobs are not linked to their field of study.

Apprenticeships Systems

The relevance of apprenticeships systems to face the problems just mentioned was pointed out during the event.

On these regards, Alain Dehaze stated that we need to train people with the skills that the labour market demands.

Daniel Funes de Rioja claimed that these learning instruments must be feasible for everyone, including micro, small and medium companies. This is quite an important point, considering that in Argentina, SMEs concentrate around 80% of employment, while having very high levels of informality.

Jose Manuel Salazar Xirinachs highlighted that apprenticeships systems are one of the main ways to address and promote formal youth employment, and, for that reason, GAN4Youth represents a game change. Moreover, ILO’s Director pointed out the importance of public-private cooperation.

Public and Private Employment Services

Adecco’s report also showed that staffing companies are the main entrance door towards formal employment for young people. Data shows that 1 out of 3 workers hired through staffing companies are younger than 22 years old and the average age is 26 years old. Moreover, 57% of these young workers come from informal labour experiences and 40% of them end up signing open-ended employment contracts with the user company once the assignment is over.

Martin Padulla assured that this positive impact may be enhanced with the ratification of ILO’s Convention no. 181 on Private Employment Agencies, and through the cooperation with public employment services. In Argentina, public employment services have offices in a wide range of locations. However, they lack professionalism.

The articulation of public and private employment services with a strong system of apprenticeships can have a major impact on the promotion of formal youth employment.