By Veerle Miranda and Shunta Takino
Young people have bounced back strongly in the labour market despite the sizable impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. As of May 2022, the unemployment rate for 15-24 year-olds across OECD countries stood at 10.4%, a rate lower than before the onset of the pandemic (12.0% in January 2020).
However, there remain significant gaps in our approaches to equipping young people with the right skills. Despite the rapid digitalisation of OECD economies, data from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills show that more than half (57%) of 25-35 year-olds across the OECD have a low (or no) proficiency in problem-solving in technology-rich environments. In addition, young people’s work aspirations are not always in line with changes in the labour market: two in five 15 year-olds (39%) in the 2018 PISA survey expressed an interest in working in a job at high risk of automation over the next decade.
To improve young people’s life chances, the OECD worked with member countries to develop the Recommendation on Creating Better Opportunities for Young People, which was adopted at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in June 2022. The Recommendation offers policy principles to support young people through a whole-of-government approach. All OECD countries – together with Brazil, Croatia and Romania – have expressed a commitment to these principles.
| What is a Recommendation? OECD Recommendations are non-binding OECD legal instruments adopted by the OECD governing body – the Council. By adhering to Recommendations, countries make a political commitment to the principles in the Recommendation and this comes with an expectation that countries will do their utmost to implement the principles. The OECD has developed more than 300 Recommendations since its creation, with around 170 still in force today. More information on OECD Recommendations can be found at https://legalinstruments.oecd.org. |
Given the importance of skills for young people, the Recommendation dedicates a section to policies to ensure all young people acquire relevant knowledge and develop appropriate skills throughout initial education and beyond. It acknowledges that the changing world of work and society requires a wide range of skills, including not only basic numeracy, literacy and problem-solving skills, but also digital, creativity and social and emotional skills. Young people should also be empowered to engage safely, healthily and responsibly in the digital environment, as the time spent by young people in the digital sphere continues to expand.
A suitable aspiration for World Youth Skills Day is to close the inequality of opportunities for learning and skills development. On average, across OECD countries, the share of 15-year-olds reaching a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics is around 30% lower for students in the bottom quartile in terms of socio-economic status compared to their counterparts from the top quartile according to data from PISA 2018. Unless these gaps are closed, young people in vulnerable and/or disadvantaged circumstance will continue to experience long-lasting negative impacts not only in the labour market, but also in other outcomes such as health and life expectancy. In particular, further efforts are needed to mitigate and address early school leaving, including by providing young people with opportunities and flexible pathways to re-enter training.
A key lever to equip young people with relevant skills is work-based learning and apprenticeships. While work-based learning was heavily affected by the COVID-19 crisis, more than 80% of OECD countries had strengthened work-based learning one year into the crisis. In some countries, such as France, the number of people on apprenticeships even increased, aided by public supports and financial incentives. Such schemes, when well-designed with the involvement of employers and trade unions, can give young people learning pathways outside of academic programmes, smooth the transition from learning to earning, and reduce the incidence of youth unemployment.
Employment services can also give young jobseekers appropriate training opportunities based on reliable and relevant information on labour market prospects and skills in demand. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, 83% of OECD countries reported struggling with providing appropriate support for young jobseekers. It will be important to ensure timely access to such services for young people in vulnerable and/or disadvantaged circumstances.
The Youth Recommendation also presents other core elements of policies for young people beyond the acquisition of skills and transitions into and within the labour market, including on the well-being of young people beyond economic outcomes, trust of young people in public institutions, and youth-responsive services. The policy principles presented in the Youth Recommendation build on decades of work on youth policies at the OECD, as well as cross-ministerial collaboration and inputs from a consultation of young people organised in September 2021. You can read more about the Recommendation at http://oe.cd/youth-recommendation.
Skills and Work 