The Jobs for the Youth Plan, as it is known, adopted by the regional government, is a training program which will use 5.4 million euros to entice out-of-work, out-of-school youngsters (ni-nis**) back to school.
While Catalans are getting tax increases and constant cuts in education and health, the government of the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha will give a thousand euros to each of the five thousand unemployed people between 18 and 25 who finish Secondary Education (ESO*) next year. They will also give a thousand euros to all unemployed students who finish vocational school and to those who want to attend high school.
Castilla la Mancha has 33 centers for adult education and 81 classrooms for adult dependents, where they will teach courses to the five thousand students who might want to study and complete ESO*, and to the one thousand who wish to obtain a vocational school title. Unemployed youngsters, who already have compulsory education and who might want to obtain a higher degree, will also receive the same amount in aid.
There will be one more ‘scholarship,’ also worth one thousand euros, destined to 1,500 young people, out of the 20,000 in the lists of the Department of Education, who are enrolled in the INEM*** and might want to get an elementary education title through free admission tests.
Spain is the country with the highest school dropout rate in Europe. Catalonia is the community with the second worst results, with 22% of students that do not graduate, and 26% who never finish ESO*. Also, we should point out that this figure has decreased by seven percentage points in the last five years.
In the last quarter of 2012, there was an increase of 1.6% in the unemployment rate among people between 16 and 29, leaving it at 38.4%. For the fourth consecutive quarter, youth unemployment has reached its highest level since the crisis began. In absolute numbers, there are 261,300 unemployed youngsters in Catalonia.
* ESO: Compulsory Secondary Education
** ni-nis : Spanish expression to refer to young people who are neither (ni) working, neither (ni) studying.
*** INEM: National Institute of Employment
I urge you to add a few lines to explain why this story matters.
I suspect that what you haven't said is that you think the program in Castilla-LaMancha is a waste of money, or that it is being funded by Catalans. Or perhaps both.
I don't see the link to Catalunya.
Are you trying to say that the program in Castilla-LaMancha is a waste of money, or that it is being funded by Catalunya? Or both?
Dear Ed,
Catalans pay, Spanish spend.
As usual.