Vocational training: a transition towards the employment of young job seekers in Brussels with limited education?
Noten van de redactie
This is the press release related to the article from Matthieu Veinstein et Isabelle Sirdey, published on February the 29th 2016. Read the article.
Many young people leave the education system with low (or no) qualifications, which makes their integration on the job market difficult, especially in Brussels. Professional training aimed at job seekers is therefore a key element in the fight against unemployment. Many policies focus on bringing the qualifications of job seekers closer to the needs of companies. In Brussels more than elsewhere, continuing structural unemployment which is less and less sensitive to the economic climate leads us to question the room for manoeuvre of professional training in dealing with employment issues.
Training is a vector for the mobilisation of job seekers. As such, it can play a role in reducing unemployment. But the source of unemployment may also be a shortage of jobs. In this case, unemployment is not explained primarily by a mismatch between supply and demand, even if on an individual basis the training of an unemployed person may help with reintegration. Finally, it must also be borne in mind that professional training may also have wider purposes than simply meeting the requirements of the job market: it can be a means of empowering citizens or an instrument for the equalisation of opportunities between social groups.
A way of seeing things more clearly is to examine the extent to which undergoing training guarantees access to employment. This was the focus of the 96th issue of Brussels Studies, written by Matthieu Veinstein, sociologist at Université libre de Bruxelles and Isabelle Sirdey, econometrician at Service Études et Statistiques de Bruxelles Formation. By following the pathways of unemployed job seekers with a low level of education who have undergone training coordinated by Bruxelles Formation, the two researchers were able to measure the equality of access to vocational training, and for those who have taken these training courses, the equality of access to stable employment.
They observe first of all that the professional training system in French-speaking Brussels significantly improves the opportunities for the professional integration of participants. This reflects the effectiveness of a training offer which adapts continuously to the needs of companies, at least for participants who have reached the end of their training. Early school leaving is also seen here and deserves to be examined more in depth.
The authors have also observed that vocational training is accessible in an equitable way to undereducated young people. The possible impact in terms of a ‘second chance’ is however reduced by recruitment practices following vocational training. Generally speaking, while companies favour those who have taken these training courses, other criteria are taken into consideration, such as their educational pathway. The differential stands out especially if we consider the rapid recruitment associated with the possibilities of job stabilisation in the post-training period. With respect to this criterion, those with the lowest level of education benefit less from vocational training.
The most vulnerable groups therefore benefit from training, but via slower and more chaotic pathways to access employment. Professional training alone does not guarantee success. The abundance of job seekers allows companies to greatly reduce risks from their point of view, which often takes place at the expense of job seekers with the lowest qualifications.
The results of this study therefore reinforce the idea that in order to fight unemployment in Brussels, it is above all necessary to ensure economic development which generates enough jobs likely to be filled by inhabitants of Brussels. This is the only way that professional training can be truly effective at individual as well as collective level.
References
Veinstein, Mathieu and Sirdey, Isabelle, “Vocational training: a transition towards the employment of young job seekers in Brussels with limited education?”, Brussels Studies [Online], General collection, No 96, February the 29th 2016. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/1329
Contact
Benjamin Wayens, Senior Editor: bwayens[at]brusselsstudies.be



