La région et la réforme administrative

Young people who are simultaneously disengaged from the education and employment sectors, classified under the acronym NEET – 'Not in employment, education or training' – now account for more than 16.3 per cent of individuals aged 15 to 29 years old in France; the European average is 15.7 per cent. Although the structure of unemployment varies by country, these figures are not merely symptomatic of serious economic difficulties: they also reveal the growing ineffectiveness of educational systems.

Since unemployment disproportionately affects young people with low skill and education levels, addressing the issue entails improving educational services. This volume compares the performance of different programmes for education, training and prevention that are offered to children, adolescents and young adults in various European countries as well as the United States. In particular, it illustrates that measures seeking to extend and prolong access to general education, as well as training and prevention programmes offered in early childhood to disadvantaged families, are among the most effective tools for improving workplace entry and ensuring continued employment for youth.

Francis Kramarz is the director of the Centre de recherche en économie et statistique (Centre for Research in Economics and Statistics - CREST). Martina Viarengo is a professor of economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and a research fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Development.