Circa 45 million euro disbursed for projects to support young people in the period 2011-2014. This is the amount of funding that Company and family foundations surveyed have allocated in favor of what has by now become one of the weakest sections of the labor market: young people. The annual amounts are constantly growing and for some Foundations there are future commitments that exceed one million euros.
These are the main findings that emerged from the survey of theInstitute for Social Research (IRS) presented in Rome during a meeting hosted by the Senate at Palazzo Giustiniani in the presence of the Minister of Labor and Social Policies Giuliano Poletti, the President of the XI Permanent Commission on Labor and Social Security of the Senate of the Republic Maurizio Sacconi, the President of the Bracco Foundation Diana Bracco, of the Director of the Labor Market and Production Systems Area, Manuela Samek Lodovici Institute for Social Research, of Francesco Ferrante of the AlmaLaurea Scientific Committee and of Alberto Castori of Censis.
It was a preview to the institutions and the press of the results of the ambitious project conceived by the Bracco Foundation, launched together with the Italian Accenture Foundation, the Adecco Foundation for Equal Opportunities, the De Agostini Foundation, Enel Cuore Onlus, the UMANA MENTE Foundation of the Allianz Group , UniCredit Foundation and Vodafone Italy Foundation. The survey will be presented in its entirety on May 20 at the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan on the occasion of the general assembly of the European Foundation Centre, the largest international philanthropy network.
For the first time, the role of corporate foundations is highlighted, which have taken up the challenge of a national emergency, youth unemployment. To do this, they networked by creating a system and promoting the transparency and measurability of its initiatives.
The young people who, directly or indirectly, have benefited from the interventions surveyed are 40 thousand. The interventions supported are very varied and complementary: from technical education to economic support with scholarships, from school inclusion to civic education, from artistic-sporting activities to professional training, up to company internships and more innovative measures such as business incubation and start-ups, competitions for ideas, international exchanges, etc.
The situation of young people in Italy has significantly worsened due to the economic crisis. There are two problems weighing heavily on this segment of the labor market: the first is the difficulty of entering the labor market, as evidenced by the very high levels of youth unemployment and the growth of NEETs (Not in Employment Education and Training), with a concrete risk of impoverishment of social and human capital which, in the long run, could affect the very competitiveness of our economic system. The second is the mismatch between the skills acquired during the course of study and those that the production system, in rapid and continuous transformation, needs.
Also for this reason the research, conducted in this phase through numerous interviews, has several objectives: to map the tools put in place by Foundations in support of young people, analyze the interventions and their outcomes in terms of employment and acquired skills, identify the success factors and any difficulties, and finally offer suggestions to strengthen the intervention system. The panorama that emerges is of profound interest due to the significant contribution of ideas, projects and resources put in place and for the possible indications in terms of policy making and strategies to favor an integration between training and work in the company.
The degree of consolidation, sustainability and replicability of the projects has also brought out intervention models that can offer useful indications for the implementation of policies for young people, for example by reinforcing the strategic European Youth Guarantee Program which on based on the huge resources available, amounting to 1,5 billion euros, has generated important expectations for the improvement of youth employment.
