Covid increases the NEET share: + 34% between 25 and 29 years and there are more women

ROME – Education and knowledge increase, there is an advance in the skill set but the pace is slow and Italy is unable to reach the levels of more modern countries. In twenty years – as explained by the OECD report ‘Education at a Glance – A look at education’ – the level has risen more slowly than the average for the countries of the Organization. Between 2000 and 2021, the percentage of young people aged 25 to 34 with an academic education increased by an average of 21 percentage points, in Italy by 18, from 10% in 2000 to 28% in 2021. Italy it also remains one of the 12 countries in which a degree is not the most popular qualification among those under 34. Covid, then, has had a heavy impact on training: the share of NEETs, young adults who do not have a job nor study. In the 25 and 29 age group it was 31.7% in 2020 and continued to increase to 34.6% in 2021, more young women (39%) than men.

Neet on the rise: Italy’s delay comes from afar

Italy’s delay comes from afar: the share of people between the ages of 25 and 64 is 20%, less than half the average for OECD countries. Yet studying is worthwhile: “The level of education – underlines the report, which photographs the degree of health of schools and universities in 38 OECD member countries and in some partner countries – affects not only employment prospects, but also wage levels “. Graduates on average earn twice as much as those who do not have a degree, in Italy a little less, 76% more. A speech that does not seem to be true precisely for those who work in the world of school, because the salaries of teachers are confirmed lower than other graduates (about 27% less in Italy, and a similar figure also considering the average value). It is not alone and it is not so much a question of spending, because if it is true that we invest 3.8% of GDP – more than one point less than the average of the countries (4.9%) – in absolute numbers per student, spending it is fully average. The total amount of funding per student aged 6 to 15 is $ 105,754, the average of $ 105,502. On the other hand, the gap in spending on university education is wide, in Italy of 12,177 dollars, against 17,559.

The data “is the scenario we faced when the government experience began, which must be seen in its entirety, including the fact that it was truncated,” he says. the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi, who claims the reform of ITS and the choice of having invested 4.9 billion from the NRR for children, but he takes his leave with the regret of not having been able to work on middle schools: “I didn’t get there, I needed six months”. “It would be necessary – underlines Andrea Govosto, director of the Agnelli Foundation – to rethink what is taught and how. And there is a need to attract the best graduates ”. According to Save the Children, which hosted the presentation of the report, “the analysis identifies critical nodes which must be placed at the center of the agenda of the new Parliament and Government ”.

Covid increases the NEET share: + 34% between 25 and 29 years and there are more women