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The 1st edition of Xarxa FP Mobility Impact Study was launched last 15th of February in Barcelona.
Mr Jordi Castillo, Secretary General of Xarxa FP, presented the highlights of the study which analyses the effects of mobility on the employability, career prospects and competences of Xarxa FP students that did an internship abroad between 2012 and 2015.
Some of the key findings of the study are:
Women take more part in international mobility actions than men
68.7% of the participants in the study are women. Conversely, the share of women among upper secondary students enrolled in vocational education and training in the European Union is only 44%[1]. Therefore, even though there are fewer women enrolled in vocational education in Europe, they take more part in European mobility actions than men.
Doing an international internship is a key factor to access the labour market
93.1% of the participants believe that having done an internship abroad has helped them to entry the labour market. In particular the survey reveals that 66% of participants consider that undertaking an internship abroad with Xarxa FP as a key factor to help them access the labour market. A proof of that success is that 15.4% of total respondents were offered a job contract by the company after their internship.
The increase in the student’s transversal competences is higher than in technical skills
Even if the focus or target of the mobility activity is professional (i.e. doing a work placement / internship), students value more their improvement on a personal level (88,7%) than in the acquisition of technical/professional skills (75,9%), showing the decisive role and importance of key competences in people’s career development.
0% unemployment rate
Among the total responses of participants, only 7.5% is looking for a job. Remarkably, this low unemployment rate coexists in a context where the youth unemployment rate was 20.7% in the Euro Area in August 2016 (at the time when students replied to the survey) according to OECD statistics[2], with countries like Spain, which provides more than half of the students that participated in the study (51.7%), and Italy (16.3%) with exceptionally high youth unemployment rates (43.2% Spain, 38.8% Italy).
What is more, this percentage experiences some variations with regards to the time passed after the internship took place. Thus, among the participants that finished their internship between 1 and 2 years ago (in 2014 and 2015) reflect the highest values of job searching, of 10.5% and 10.2%, respectively. However, among those who were finished more than 2 and 3 years ago (in 2012 and 2013) present the lowest rates of job searching, being 0% and 4.8%.
Youth Exile rate
16% of participants are currently working in another European country. An interesting figure to withdraw from the survey is that, out of those students who are currently working abroad, 1,5% of them have not considered this option if they have had career opportunities in their respective home countries, which give us the so-called “youth exile” figure, meaning young people that need to move to another country to seek either better career prospects or just a job. If we analyse the answers only from Spaniards students, the biggest national group of students currently working abroad, this rate goes up to 3,7%.
The event also counted with the participation of Mr. Miquel Àngel Essomba, Education Commissioner of Barcelona, Mr Mark Jeffery, Head of Communications of the European Commission Representation in Barcelona and Mr Guy Tchibozo, Project Manager at CEDEFOP, who presented the Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET) Mobility Scoreboard. This tool provides for the first time detailed country information on the conditions for IVET learner mobility in Europe: analysing weaknesses and shortcomings; identifying good practices; and suggesting reforms.
For more information you can download the presentation and the infographic of the study.
[1] Eurostat, 2014.
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