Headline Oct 13, 2015/ ''' A BLIGHTED GEN..ER..ATION?...SI​RES! '''

''' A BLIGHTED GEN..ER..ATION?...

SI​RES! '''

IN PAKISTAN   -the first conceptual temporary historic host of  !WOW!, we have been struggling to determine if the government has a coherent plan for Youth Unemployment. 

Whom should we thank?

A World Bank Database compiled from households shows more than  260 million young people in developing economies are similarly ''inactive''. Whom should we thank?

WHEN GERMANY liberalised its labour market in 2003-05 it also created new ways of getting people back into jobs.

For example, to make someone who has been out of work for a long stretch more employable, the state will pay a big chunk of his wages for the first two years of his new job.

MISMATCH and training gaps may explain why over the past five years youth unemployment in flexible economies like America and Britain has risen more than in previous recessions and stayed high.

Britain, which has one of the world's most flexible labour markets, has around 1 million NEETS. More than twice as many young Britons  [11.5% of the labour force] are unemployed as young Germans  {3.9%}.

Some blame the minimum wage, but Britain has a long-standing prejudice against practical education. In 22009 only about 8% of English employers trained apprentices compared with up to four times that number in the best continental European countries.

29% of British employers say work experience is  ''critical''  but the share of the British children who get a shot it has been falling for the past  15 years. Only 7% of the pupil say they had any mentoring from a local employer and only 19% had visited one.

A more entrepreneurial British economy may have worsened the problem. The share of private-sector employees at big firms  [with 250 or more workers]  fell from 50% to 40% in 1998-2000. 

The share at micro-businesses (4 and fewer) rose from rose from 11% to 22%. Small firms are less likely provide apprenticeships or work experience.

Many countries are now trying to bridge the gap between education and work by upgrading vocational schools, encouraging standard schools to form closer relations with local companies, and embracing apprenticeships.

In 2010 South Korea created a network of vocational  ''meister''  schools  -from the German for  ''master''   craftsman to reduce the country's shortage of machine operators and plumbers.

The government pays the students room and board as well as their tuition. It also refers to them as  ''young meisters''  inorder to counteract the country's obsession with academic laurels.

In Britain some further education colleges are are embracing the principle that the best way, to learn is to do; North Hertfordshire College in Kentucky and Toyota have created a replica of a car factory, where workers and students go to classes together.

But it is not enough to embrace the German model of training and apprenticeships: you need to update it. Some policymakers want to transform unemployment systems from safety nets into springboards, providing retraining and job placement.

The Nordic countries have been to the fore in this, introducing  ''youth guarantees'' personalised plans to provide very young persons  with a training or a job.

Practicality constrains poorer countries ability to implement such active labour-market policies.

The Honour and Serving of the  ''Jobs Operational Research''  continues. Thank you for reading. And see Ya all on the following one.

With respectful dedication to !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless and DreamWorker, a charity that tries to place young jobseekers to work. See Ya all on !WOW!:

''' Job Centre Plus '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless