Figure 1: Educational system 2008/2009 (source Eurydice network)
The key features of effective transition systems
Macroeconomic situation in Slovakia has recently lead to very optimistic visions – economic growth from 2002 was more than 4% each year with peak in 2007 when economic growth has reached almost 9%. It was also very positive that Slovak education system and labour market reported in 2008 the same unemployment rate of school leavers as general unemployment rate. (Herich J.
2008).Unfortunately, year 2009 has been marked by world fi nancial crises and growing unemployment which affects also young people strongly.
For situation in Slovakia has been typical weak connection of vocational training with labour market needs as well as with further education. Tertiary vocational education is very rare. Therefore popularity of vocational education fell rapidly after social changes in 1989. New vocational training act (2009) should have started up new developments in vocational education. Unfortunately, there are still missing measures for teenagers and young people at risk. Among OECD recommendations for Slovak system (OECD 2007) there are second chances schools, intervention programmes for those at risk and even pre-school intervention programmes .
AMN celkove – Unemployment rate in total
AMN (SŠ) – Unemployment of school-leavers secondary level AMN (VŠ) – Unemployment of HE school-leavers
Polynomický model – polynomic model
Figure 2: Development of unemployment rate of school leavers (AMN) in years 2003 – 2008 (Herich J. 2008)
Strengths of our guidance system are long tradition in providing guidance services, relatively widespread and easily accessible network of guidance facilities, interconnectedness of guidance providers and schools. Nonetheless there is a need for further development of cooperation among all the partners in providing career guidance on national, regional and local levels. There is also demand for better coordination between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. Development of system for collecting, creating and spreading of information on particular occupations and future labour market needs is among suggested recommendations of OECD for the Slovak Republic (OECD 2007). Another important current issue is national qualifi cation standards and further education of guidance practitioners. More emphasis could be laid also on effective forms of guidance (distance counseling, self-assessment, internet based counseling, etc.)
In Slovakia, institutional framework to support the transition lacks.
Cooperation between key players in transition process is insuffi cient. In some regions with high unemployment existing schools offer inappropriate education without connection to local labour market but number of students is still high due to low mobility and missing information and guidance. Firms and companies do not follow policy of investment in education of future labour force. Schools complain about inadequate resourcing. Some progress has been reached in the fi eld of automotive industry where some involvement of important companies occurred.
In Slovakia, children and youth are a group at the highest risk of poverty;
young people as a group are among the most threatened by long-term unemployment (Zuzana Kusá et. al 2007). To beat these alarming data down National Action Plan for Social Inclusion and National Action Plan of Employment has been approved. Slovakia has also joined the European Commission initiative from 1995 on second chance schools, which are aimed at providing additional education for young people without completed basic qualifi cation. Nonetheless some poignant problems remain. These involve lack of accessible housing due to what most young people live with their parents even after completion of their studies; weak interconnectedness between vocational schools and labour market; lack of early and long-term prevention programmes for youth without acquired qualifi cation; etc.
In general, in Slovakia there is a high number of young people completing secondary education. In 2008 Slovakia was among the countries with the best performance in upper secondary attainment benchmark (85% of completion by 2010) – 92,3% (European Commission, 2009). This is thanks to 10 years of compulsory education, where primary schools lasts 9 years (9 grades) and 1 year has to be spent at secondary school of any type. Pupils mostly complete their studies at secondary schools. In spite of this positive indicator, quality of education in Slovakia has come to question. PISA studies 2006 showed slightly below-average mathematic skills and what is worse, Slovakia has been among the last countries in literacy skills (OECD 2007).
In Slovakia, it has not been very common to combine school studies and work. Another part of the problem is that there exists no dual educational system in Slovakia so students have no or just a few contacts with employers.
In recent years government approved some reforms in area of student work and introduced new types of work contracts. Due to their fl exibility they are applicable especially for young people and one of these contracts is aimed particularly at student’s temporary work. Disadvantage of such contracts can be a decrease in interest of employers to employ young people in full-time jobs and therefore misuse of such contracts.
Rate of youth unemployment (15-24 years) is at a very high level (27% - data for 2006, source: OECD, 2006). What is even worse, more than a half of all unemployed young women and men are unemployed for longer than a year.
Unemployment is the biggest threat for young people with vocational education.
Even though part-time or temporary jobs could be good starting point for many youngsters employers use possibility of employing young people in short-term jobs only very rarely (13%) (OECD, 2006). Lifelong education participation of young people is at a very low level – around 8% (OECD, 2006).
We can see that despite (slightly) higher educational level of young women these represent higher numbers of unemployed than young man. In general, there is a low level of employment among women in the age of 20-29 and in the last years this level even decreases (25-29 years old women – 60% in employment) (OECD, 2006). One of the most probable causes is prolonged maternity leave, which takes 3 years and therefore can constitute a potential obstacle to employment. In Slovakia, there are big regional differences in employment. Some regions (mostly rural areas) have stable low employment rates. Despite this fact intranational mobility is still very low. Particular social groups – especially Roma population – are stuck in a vicious circle of low education and unemployment.
5.12 Pathways from School to the World of Work in Spain
Paula Rodriguez, Mª José Cousinou and Lourdes Bueno Andalucía Emprende, Fundación Pública Andaluza, Junta de
Andalucía,
Graham Bell Street, 5, 41010, Seville, Spain