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Written by Malcolm Bush
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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:43 |
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The International Labor Organization (ILO) has recently
expressed its concerns about young people around the world experiencing weak
connections to the adult world of work.
The ILO believes that in southern tier countries the major issue is the
supply of jobs. But workforce issues,
the skills of young people and their connection to job markest are also
important. In 2005 the Lula government in Brazil
echoed these concerns with the launching of its Pro Jovens program designed to
subsidize employers who provide jobs to youth.
A new study written by Malcolm Bush, Woodstock Institute president and board member of the International Center for the Study of Childhood (CIESPI) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, using data generously provided by the Rio based
Instituto de Estudos do Trabahlo e Sociedade, points to the problems facing
young people in one low-income community in Rio, Caju,
but also to the diversity of the young people´s educational and work
experiences.
The study, based on a sample survey of over 800 young
people between the ages of 10 and 24 and their parents, shows the relationship
between various aspects of young people´s lives. Education is a key to employment and within
this one low-income community there are important variations in educational
attainment.
- -Young people
whose parents can read or have themselves completed ensino fundamental or grade
school are more likely than other young people to be one year or less behind
grade level or to have not failed a grade.
- -Failing a year
at school was related to being male and to having a higher number of other
young people living in the household.
- -Young people
overwhelmingly blamed themselves, not the quality of the schools in their
community, for failing at school. Young
people overwhelmingly blamed their incapacity to learn for the chief reason for
failing at school.
- -40% of young
people who were working had a work card.
Not surpisingly, older youth were more likely to have a work card than
younger youth. But also young people who
had completed ensino fundamental were more likely to have a work card than
those who had not.
- -Younger youth
were more likely to work in their own communities, older youth outside their
communities. This finding suggests that
the level of economic activity in low-income communities is an important
condition for helping young people establish their work lives.
- -Most young
people found their first jobs through family and friendship networks. While this finding indicates the richness of
such connections in low-income communities, it suggests that youth from
low-income communities could well be disadvantaged in finding work in the
formal economy outside their neighborhoods.
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-There is
growing concern in Brazil
about the number of young people who are neither involved in work or
schooling. A much higher percentage of
young women, (35%) than young men (17%) in the Caju sample fall into this
category, a difference explainable by the young women who had children of their
own or other domestic responsibilities.
This research, which will soon appear in its complete
form on the CIESPI web site, complements a major CIESPI project, Connecting Youth
in Low-Income Neigborhoods in Rio de Janeiro
to Work. This CIESPI project, funded by
FINEP and coordinated by Alexandre Soares, examines strategies for improving
such connections with a special concentration on five low-income communities in
Rio and in the context of community economic
development.
For more information contact Malcolm Bush:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
and Alexandre Soares:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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