Brazil is the second country, out of a total of 37 analyzed, with the highest proportion of young people, aged between 18 and 24 years, who do not study and do not work. The country is second only to South Africa. In the age group considered in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, 36% of young Brazilians do not study and are out of work. “This leaves them particularly at risk of long-term disengagement from the labor market,” warns the 2022 Education at a Glance report, which assessed education in 34 of the 28 OECD member countries, as well as Brazil, South Africa and Argentina. Carlos Alberto Santos, 18 years old, is making an effort to change this situation. He finished high school last year and, more recently, a technical business course. He has been out of work for ten months, completed other complementary courses and is looking for a job market. “This period is even worrying because when I turn 18 in March, having left the internship, finishing the courses, sometimes we naturally feel a bit useless. On the one hand, you lose perspective, especially when you make a lot of effort, a lot of dedication. I signed up for several vacancies, I’ve been to many interviews in various places, both in São Paulo and here close to my city, and it’s really worrying”, says the young man, who lives in Ferraz de Vasconcelos, a city in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. From a low-income family, he lives with his mother and sister and keeps his father’s lessons, now deceased. “My father said to study and, if we wanted to fulfill our desires, it was important that we prioritize studying and make an effort. And my mother says the same thing, I don’t feel pressure, on the contrary, but I know it’s important to have a job, I want to have my space and I’m going to dedicate myself to that.” The young man is part of the Quixote Project, in São Paulo. There he took the courses Empreendendo o Futuro and Vivendo o Futuro. With the preparation, he still hopes to get a job. “I have so many dreams, so many desires and I believe that only in this way, finally, with a job, will I be able to fulfill it, because I have qualifications, I made an effort, I studied, I got good grades, in short, I think it is the best thing for me”, says Carlos Alberto, who also intends to study psychology in the future. “I would like to work in NGOs like Quixote to help young people. I believe it is important, because it was meaningful to me.” Among the courses offered by Projeto Quixote, Carlos Alberto participated in training for the world of work, which seeks to develop basic skills for work and encourage socially vulnerable teenagers to play a leading role. Causes The reasons and number of young people who were not studying or working vary according to family income, but this condition is found mainly among the poorest. “The situation of young people who do not study, do not work or look for work is related to their socioeconomic origin. It is common among young people from poorer families. The majority are young women, who had to drop out of school and did not work to be able to do housework, raise children or take care of the elderly or other family members, reinforcing this valuable work, which is not recognized as it should be. In the richest families, young people in the younger age group are in this condition, usually when they are preparing for college”, says sociologist Camila Ikuta, technician at the Inter-union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese). A diagnosis made by the Undersecretariat for Statistics and Labor Studies, of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, revealed that, of the 207 million inhabitants of Brazil, 17% are young people aged 14 to 24, and of these, 5.2 million are unemployed, which corresponds to 55% of people in this situation in the country, which, in total, reach 9.4 million. Among unemployed young people, 52% are women and 66% are black and brown. Those who neither work nor study – the so-called neither-nor – add up to 7.1 million, of which 60% are women, most with young children, and 68% are black and brown. Arte Agência Brasil Enid Rocha, an economist at the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and specialist in childhood and youth, reaffirms that the income inequality factor influences the condition of the nem-nem youngsters. “There is the factor of income, race and gender. They are women, they are black people – and black people are poorer in Brazil”, she points out. But she adds: “There are a number of vulnerabilities of these young people, who do not have access to more years of study, do not have access to professional training and most of them are women, more involved in domestic tasks and family care. With this, they free up another person in the household to look for work and they are responsible for unpaid work within the household.” Sociologist Camila Ikuta, a Dieese technician, adds that, in order to help young women to go back to studying and/or working, it is also necessary to take care of the children they care for. “To alleviate this situation, the country needs more public policies focused on youth, such as the expansion of public day care centers and health equipment, student permanence policies and improvement of qualification systems and professional intermediation in this moment of transition between school and work”, he defends. In the view of Ipea economist Enid Rocha, what is worrying is when young people disengage. “That is, he is not part of the workforce, he is no longer looking for a job and he has lost interest. It is even a young man who is difficult to find, because he is not registered in school records and in the National Employment System [Sine]”. Impacts The pandemic worsened the situation of these individuals, who had to interrupt their education and professional training. “They spent two years in that situation. And studies show that when young people stay at least two years out of the job market, without acquiring professional experience and without studying, they carry this professional ‘scar’”. The economist explains the term: “He returns to the labor market with this mark of not acquiring human capital during the time he was stopped. And when he accesses a job, he finds himself in worse conditions, with lower wages, with precarious insertion, that is, without formalization. This brings a ‘scar’ along their work trajectory. Companies, when comparing the trajectory of a young person who spent two years without working or studying with another, he is always passed over or receives lower wages”, explains Enid. In the article Young People Who Don’t Work and Don’t Study in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil, Ipea technicians Enid Rocha Andrade da Silva and Fábio Monteiro Vaz show that the negative legacy of the pandemic scenario can last for decades. But, in the view of specialists, there are measures that can be adopted for the reintegration of these young people. Public policies For the Ipea economist, it is necessary to make an active search for these young people who are disengaged. “Knowing where they are and offering what they are missing, offering a second chance at schooling. And the labor market should also look for these young people, give them an opportunity through, for example, the apprenticeship program of companies, which exist, but, in fact, give preference to young people with more education. It’s a program to encourage companies to hire these young people to acquire professional experience, but that’s not what happens. Active labor market policy should encourage the supply of jobs for these young people.” Young Carlos Alberto feels this lack of opportunities. “In addition to qualifying, it is really necessary to give the opportunity for a real vacancy. The person can be qualified during the period they are at work, young people can be helped, being qualified, but at the same time receiving some income to help their family members and help themselves in some way. It is not just focusing on qualification, courses alone are not enough. I find it very little and at the same time vague”, defends the boy. The Ipea economist also defends socio-emotional training and individual mentoring. “Another item of utmost importance is to train these young people with socio-emotional skills. These young people do not have the experience to participate in a job interview, prepare their resume. There are youth programs in Italy, for example, in services similar to Sine in Brazil, where young people write their CV with support, there are psychologists and people who train them for professional interviews. We need a range of policies, programs that support this young person who is already disengaged.” Popular Youth Lift spokesperson, Daiane Araújo says it is necessary to expand student permanence and assistance policies “Young people are living in a Brazil that has returned to the hunger map, with such a high unemployment rate. He enters the university, but he is the result of families that are now on the line of hunger, who are unemployed and who often have to do their best to have at least one meal a day. It is necessary to think about student permanence policies, so that young people can enter schools, universities and be able to remain.” The Levante Popular da Juventude is an organization of young militants dedicated to the mass struggle in search of the structural transformation of Brazilian society. Another measure, reinforces Daiane, are the policies aimed at the first job. “These young people only find jobs that are more ‘uberized’ or more precarious. It is necessary to reflect on a policy aimed at the first job, both for young people who are leaving high school, but also for young people who are leaving higher education today with academic training and the job market has not absorbed it”, analyzes Daiane Araújo, 26, a student of architecture and urbanism and also director of the National Union of Students (UNE). In the second article of this special, see how a project in Fortaleza helps to enhance trajectories and create opportunities for young people.
Agência Brasil
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