In Italy graduates are not considered a resource. At the end of their University path, indeed, unlike most of their fellow students in Europe, it is much more difficult for them to enter into the labour market and find a job. Many of the Italian graduates have unstable jobs, are underpaid, but when they will get old, they will (maybe) earn more money than in other countries.
Compared with other European countries, Italy has one of the lowest University education rate for people at an age of 25 to 64. Only Turkey reached worse values in the continent. That is what emerges from Education at a Glance 2011, a report published by OECD (Table 1), but the datum is confirmed by other organisations as well, such as Eurostat, according to which in Italy the percentage of graduates from ages 30 to 34 is higher only than those registered in Slovakia, Rumania, Czech Republic and Turkey.
Table 1. – Graduate percentage and unemployment rate of people from ages 25 to 64.
Source: OECD Indicators Education at a Glance, 2011.
As emerges from the data published by the Statistics Department of MIUR (the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research), in Italy the number of graduates has been lowering for four years, with a drop of 3% between 2005 and 2009. In this way Italy departs from the Europe 2020 Strategy according to which, by ten years, at least 40% of 30-34 years olds should have completed tertiary or equivalent education.[1]
What is more, this datum will increase in the future, especially if we consider the drop of matriculations registered throughout the country over the last six years. From 2004 to 2010, indeed, matriculations decreased by 12% and, if we take into account the matriculations of high school graduates, the datum is not reassuring as well; in 2005 around 73% of them enrolled at University, while in 2009 only 66%.
It is evident that the Italian University system is losing its appeal to high school graduates and, from the data on the employment condition of University graduates, it is quite simple to understand why.
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[1] The EU plan for higher and University education involves a number of goals that national governments have to achieve, such as increasing the number of 30-34–year-olds completing third level education, from the current 34% of active population to 40% by 2020.
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