Youth employment
Published on
Story by
Doru Francescu
We are being told that the more we study now, the more comfortable we’ll live later. We are being told to invest in our career. To participate at courses, trainings, internships, all kind of activities that can put you in competition with others like you.
But nothing guaranties that once the university graduated we’ll obtain a well paid job, or we’ll manage to build a successful career, or even that we’ll work in the same field as the one we studied for. But also we don’t have to accept anything that comes in second hand. If you did study a lot, think about what you have learned and what you can use it for. Maybe somewhere in the future, it will be us the ones who rise the statistics for studies abroad, or the high quoted jobs!
One of the student’s biggest problems is the possibility of finding a job that corresponds to the study field you graduated. One the other hand, there are many students that have to find a job during their studies just to increase their income either for a full time or a part time job. Luckily for graduates, in Romania, the employers are stimulated to hire fresh graduated students, cause if they do it for an undetermined period contract, the employers obtain, during 12 months, subventions in quantum of 1 -1,5 raw base salary on economy. In the same time they have to maintain the work relations for a period of at least 3 years, while the graduates can follow professional training organized by the employer. All the necessary expenses will be supported from the budget of the unemployment insurance – on the request of the employer.
The employers receive:
1 minimum raw base salary at a country level, in force at the date of the work framing, for the graduates of the vocational education; 1,2 minimum raw base salary at a country level, in force at the date of the work framing, for graduates of highschool education; 1,5 minimum raw base salary at a country level, in force at the date of the work framing, for graduates of higher education.According to an ILO research, when it comes about youth unemployment rate Romania holds the third place in Europe with a 9,9 %, but also a high position among the countries that practice “the black market work”. The high rate among youth is determined by a discordance between the study fields, the abilities requested on the market and the education’s system offer.
Although young graduates learn how to prepare themselves for a job interview, what kind of information should write in a resume, how to search for a job on the internet or at the Job Fairs, most of the times they confront with refusals. And this happens because the private companies or even the public institutions usually request a minimum of work experience. The paradox is that, between some experience, it is being asked young work force – meaning the exactly same young people who did not accumulate work experience. And this is where the stimulations we have talked above come on stage: the young candidate must only “remember” the employer all the facilities granted to the companies that hire graduates.
A proper solution for the diminution of the unemployment rate among youth is being presented by the Philips Plan for the unemployed instruction, developed by Ton Van de Bruggen. From two in two years the company, in collaboration with the syndicates, negotiate the categories which will be trained (young people that have abandoned school, young people over-skilled without a job, women, young minorities) and the number of persons that, after graduating the one year training program will become Philips employs. After their countable analysis, Philips won in 10 years 5 times the invested sum of money they have invested in this program (50.000 euro for trained worker), extending the project in Croatia and Morocco.
The success of the Philips Plan is due to a good cooperation between companies, the employees (which have donated monthly 0,3% of their salary), syndicates and the government, which had a financial contribution in supporting the initiative.
To be successful in your professional life you must take everything with a very great responsibleness and involvement. The job seeking has become in the last years a real battlefield and you must prepare in time and with carefulness a strategy of self presentation and to create a favourable image in front of the employers.