At a conference organized for representing a project on studying youth unemployment which was completed by the Office for the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the Commissioner László Székely said that the proportion of unemployed young people in Europe has been increasing at an alarming speed.
Although Hungary is relatively well-positioned, the Office had felt obliged to address the issue. He said that the results of the study highlight that it is a complex social issue involving several human factors and thus not only activities of public administration institutions for employment policy must be analysed, but those of the educational system as well.
Minister of State for Employment Sándor Czomba said at the event held in Budapest that employers prefer to hire those young people who already have work experience of at least some months. He drew attention to the fact that those Government measures and programmes are successful which aim to assist people in gaining practical experience, such as allowances or tax breaks on wage contributions that prompt employers to hire young people.
He stressed that in light of experiences whether or not young jobseekers have had any practice is a key issue. He added that two-thirds of young people employed due to employer incentives keep their jobs after the tax exempt period ends.
The Minister of State emphasised that the fact that a large share of young people – on average 23 percent – is unemployed poses a grave problem and a huge challenge all over Europe. According to surveys, in Hungary it is those with only secondary or primary school attainment who find it hard to get a job, but those without even a primary school attainment it is almost impossible to integrate into the labour market.
Sándor Czomba called prevention as one of the most important tasks: unemployment is only being recreated without training, he said. In his opinion, vocational training, adult and tertiary education must be brought in line with labour market demands.
Deputy State Secretary for Tertiary Education and Science Policy Zoltán Maruzsa also underlined the importance of forging closer relations between schools and employers as well as of practice-oriented training. He stressed that educational institutions should get predictions of the labour market on demands expected in four-five years’ time, as the accreditation and launching of a new type of course needs at least half a year, but the preparatory period may be as long as one-and-a-half years.
Speaking about the teaching of foreign languages, the Deputy State Secretary said that tertiary education is also responsible for and capable of improving professional language competences.
(Ministry for National Economy)
