Giving painkillers to a dying patient educational and training policies as treatment for youth unemployment during the greek economic crisis

This chapter highlights key issues of the current situation in the field of unem-ployment and especially youth unemunem-ployment in Greece, drawing the image of reality on vocational edu

Chapter 8

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9455-2.ch008

ABSTRACT

The issue of unemployment and especially youth unemployment is one of the most urgent and gloomy issues in the European Union In the case of Greece, in particular, this phenomenon is closely linked to the financial, fiscal and debt crisis creating extremely negative conditions and prospects for the Greek economy and society This chapter highlights key issues of the current situation in the field of unem-ployment and especially youth unemunem-ployment in Greece, drawing the image of reality on vocational education and training (initial and continuing) It also shows the diachronic ineffectiveness of policies concerning educational and vocational training in Greece Finally, the chapter proposes the context of

a critical and institutional framework for the development of a realistic policy for vocational training and education and social cohesion in times of crisis.

INTRODUCTION

The question of confronting unemployment and especially youth unemployment constitutes one of the most urgent issues in the European Union In the Greek case in particular, this phenomenon is closely linked to the ongoing financial and debt crisis, which creates highly unfavorable conditions and prospects for both Greek economy and society However, that finding is not only substantially based on

statisti-Giving Painkillers to

a Dying Patient:

Educational and Training Policies as Treatment for Youth Unemployment during the Greek Economic Crisis

Nikos Fotopoulos

University of Western Macedonia, Greece

Argyris Kyridis

Aristotle University, Greece

Maria Pavlis-Korres

Hellenic Open University, Greece

Christos Zagkos

Center of Educational Policy Development

(KANEP/GSEE), Greece

cal data concerning unemployment during the period of crisis It is also linked to timeless pathogenic structural features of the Greek society that led to phenomena such as the «brain drain» (Theodoro-poulos, Kyridis, Zagkos, & Konstantinidou, 2015) or other, equally disturbing phenomena such as the increasing emergence of young people “Not in Education, Employment, or Training” (Neets) (Drakaki, Papadakis, Kyridis, & Papargyris, 2014), or the rise of the extreme right within the Greek society All the pre-mentioned phenomena basically demonstrate the correlation and interaction of a number of economic, political, educational and ideological factors that determine the context in which the crisis is taking place within the Greek society

In particular this chapter highlights:

• The key aspects of the current situation concerning unemployment and especially youth unem-ployment, as they were developed in the era of crisis and especially in the period after the entry of Greece into the Memorandum era

• The key elements of vocational education and training in Greece, illustrating the unfortunate time-less political ineffectiveness in that specific field, within an economic and social context where vocational training could otherwise become an effective active policy for promoting employment

• The relatively recent introduction of the institution of Educational Vouchers that aimed at tackling youth unemployment Our view on Educational Vouchers is directly critical, since this policy as

a measure within the context of the neoliberal response to the crisis complicates things further: Greek society appeared to be totally unprepared for the introduction of such measures

• The context of a critical and at the same time institutional framework of a road map of realistic policies for vocational training, educational policy and social cohesion within the era of crisis

CRISIS, EMPLOYMENT, AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY

It is particularly important to look through a holistic prism the way in which training and employment policies are formed in times of crisis, and especially under the conditions of neoliberal globalization To the extent that the globalization of multinational markets and the rapid pace of technology and science are characteristics of a brand new social situation, our interventions must by definition be shaped taking into account all the objective and lateral components of that new international reality Undoubtedly, within this international competitive and conflictual context, along with the all the policy Drafts and the non-papers

of various committees, there is a need for rational and socially sensitive analysis of phenomena such as increasing inequalities(Schwartz, 2010; Jenkins, Brandolini, Micklewright, & Nolan, 2011; Atkinson, 2009), scalable deindustrialization (Cazes, Khatiwada, & Malo, 2012; Aleksynska & Schindler, 2011; Wilkinson, Wood, & Deeg, 2014), reduction of growth rates(OECD, 2014; Sutherland & Hoeller, 2012), shrinkage of the welfare state (Morel, Palier, & Palme, 2012; Diamond & Lodge, 2014) and deregulation

of employment relations(OECD, 2010; Townsend & Wilkinson, 2011) In fact, the interpretation of these phenomena needs to be construed as a result of the dominance of the economic sphere over the political one and as a consequence of the hegemony of free market values over social reality It is clear that the hegemony of the economic sphere exerts strong pressures upon the field of educational policy, which undoubtedly is not carried out neutrally or without influence from the sociopolitical context Referring

to the issue of education as a broader whole, an initial impact is the enslavement of formal education, lifelong education and vocational training within a system dictated by the rules of the labour market

So, in the context of economic crisis and recession, institutional obsessions which consider the formal educational system ineffective, wasteful, and unproductive appear to have an increasing influence over society For all those reasons it is necessary to recall and mention some axioms essential for clarifying the role and the mission of education and training in these times of a major socioeconomic crisis

In particular, formal education as an eminent public and social good must be provided freely to all citizens without discrimination and without exclusions, all the way from preschool education up to uni-versity Moreover, formal education should primarily produce well educated and accomplished citizens, and secondarily follow the needs of employers for human resources In other words, vocational education and training may provide an important policy tool which must be clearly oriented towards the needs and requirements of employment and of the labour market, but without ignoring the contentment of broader cultural and social objectives that satisfy the real needs of citizens and the ideal of an integrated society

In recent years, Europe and especially the countries of the South, has experienced a tremendous crisis that has spread to nearly all the fields of social relations Thus, while the crisis had as a starting point the economic sphere, it did not take long to affect every aspect of social life such as family, education, culture and politics It seems that the “great transformation” that Polanyi (1944, 2001) described nearly

70 years ago found its full implementation as a negative consequence of the dominance of economy over social everyday life Undoubtedly, all these major economic and consequent social changes have caused significant impacts, including the integration of young people into the labour market, a fact that has resulted in youth unemployment rates in Greece nowadays reaching the percentage of 60%

Already in 2005, when the monitoring framework of the Lisbon Strategy was released, the European Commission remarked that high percentages of young people began to acquire new alarming character-istics which could lead to significant changes both in education and workplace (e.g high dropout rates, delay in entering the labour market etc) Especially, the case of delayed inclusion in the labour market creates a new social category that can be divided into two distinct subsets:

1 Young people who do not progress their studies to acquire higher qualifications, which under certain conditions could contribute to income gaining and growth in domestic GDP and

2 Young people who, despite the continuation of their studies in higher education, do not succeed in entering the labour market and are forced to migrate and search for a better fortune abroad

So, essentially, what we call the brain drain phenomenon is inflated (Theodoropoulos, Kyridis, Za-gkos, & Konstantinidou, 2014; Baldwin, 1970; Grubel & Scott, 1966; Kelo & Wachter, 2004; Özden,

& Schiff, 2005; Stark, Helmenstein, & Prskawetz, 1997; Stark, 1991)

Without ignoring the severity and long-term negative effects of the brain drain phenomenon, we will focus mainly on the first subset of young people because this particular group faces the greatest risk of social vulnerability and social exclusion (Kyridis, 2014) The specific target group composed of young men and women who have completed primary and secondary education and are seeking employment without actually being carriers of certified knowledge, abilities and skills necessary in conditions of high unemployment and free competition So what they really need is to be systematically trained and certi-fied in order to strengthen their individual portfolio and increase their possibilities to find employment However, If they do not join training structures, or continue to be out of education and employment, they place themselves deterministically in a situation of social invisibility, thus constituting a social group

called Neets i.e young people “Not in in Employment, Education or Training” (Drakaki, Papadakis, Kyridis, & Papargyris, 2014; Hutchinson, Korzeniewski, & Moore, 2011; Inui, 2009; Sachdev, Harries,

& Roberts, 2006; Simmons & Thompson, 2011; Kyridis, 2013; Papadakis & Kyridis 2014) This term is used for young people belonging to the age group of 15-24 years who are not involved in education, train-ing or employment and can be found in several researches as “absents”, “quitters”, “escapists”, “settlers”

or “rebels” among various terms (European Commission, 2010; Papadakis, 2010; Fotopoulos, 2013.b) The process of moving from education to employment is just one of the many that young people may need to undergo during their working lives Undoubtedly, it is a very important one because it can catalytically affect the range of their opportunities for work, education and training throughout the rest

of their lives (OECD, 1998, in Papadakis, 2013.b) The issue of transition from education to work is

as old as the connection between education and employment in terms of the adjustment of the educa-tional system to the main mechanism for the provision and certification of knowledge and skills that the labour market needed in order to operate However, during the 70s this debate became more intense and systematic, especially after the consolidation of the human capital theory (Schultz, 1961, 1963) Furthermore, the increasing unemployment and the dramatic changes in the labour market are forcing young people to be confronted with structural changes in the employment system, such as the extension

of the various forms of “temporary” or “part-time” employment, changes which do not guarantee quality and duration in their professional life (Smyth, 2001; Salladarre & Hlaimi, 2014; Card, Kluve, & Weber, 2010; Choudhry, Marelli, & Signorelli, 2012)

Taking into account the developments in the international environment and the pressures which national education and training systems receive in a globalized world, the reflection on the transition

of young people from school to employment under the constant threat of unemployment, was placed in the spotlight by various educational institutions and international organizations dealing with education policy The discussion initially focused on the problems faced by young people who leave school early and the effectiveness of VET systems (Smyth, 2001, in Papadakis, 2013a) The Lisbon Strategy, which essentially failed to achieve its aims, had sought to implement public policies in order to facilitate access

to employment for young people, support of the relevant scientific research, as well as promotion of edu-cation and training, with the vision to make the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, by 2010 (Lisbon European Council, 2000) However, this effort is not abandoned as the European social policy focuses mainly on the question of unemployment (Esping-Andersen, 1999; Taylor-Gooby, 2004) aiming at development, competitiveness and social cohesion The main reason for this specific strategy appears to be linked to factors such as the systemic debasement of traditional family structures, gradual deregulation of labour relations, inefficient institutional structures of employment and growth of the socially excluded, symptoms that pose significant risks and undermine the future of E.U in general In particular, the degradation of labour relations due to job insecurity and the consequent employment instability made large masses of the population socially and economically weakened R Castel (1995) correctly notes that the increase of job insecurity has led to the destabilization of employees who previously felt safe, significantly lowered the quality of their everyday life and created populations that were repelled almost permanently from the labour market If we accept the statement expressed

by G Esping-Andersen (1999) that the European system of social protection has not aligned with the changes that took place in the working field, then we have to accept that modern state social structures are not able to offer what they were made for, social protection and cohesion

Ranci (2010) considers that Europe nowadays has to deal with five main problems:

1 The growing rates of “total poverty” The visible effects of this spread of poverty in Europe are social phenomena such as family structure breakdown, increasing rates of stress, greater exposure

to diseases, etc (Layte & Fouarge, 2004; Paugam, 1997)

2 The spreading deprivation of basic housing standards and the significant losses in quality of the basic conditions of housing The main reason for this phenomenon is the economic weakness of families to maintain their houses

3 The expansion of jobs and professions that generate job insecurity

4 The difficulty of women to successfully combine their work life with the raising of their children

5 The increasing numbers of family dependents (Jacobzone, 1999; Oesterle, 2001; Finch, 1989; Costa

& Ranci, 2010; Rys, 2001; Thévenon, 2008)

In recent years, Greece has been facing an extremely deep financial crisis Table 1 illustrates all the changes that took place in Greek economic performance

Apparently, all the fundamental economic factors relating to development have been significantly reduced while all the factors relating to recession have increased The economy has tumbled to a dire con-dition In the last five years, Greece saw the adoption –or rather enforcement of– extreme and particularly harsh austerity policies which, although called “reforms”, literally disintegrated the labour market and led important parts of the population to unemployment Living standards collapsed and the welfare state not only lost its basic orientation, but confined itself to merely observing the total disintegration of the social web Under these circumstances, education policy was directly linked to the attempted reforms since the education system, besides being considered partly responsible for youth unemployment, introduced a

Table 1 Greek economic performance during the crisis

Economic Performance Time Period Change

Loss 19.7 million units

Non-performing Loans (Red Loans) 2013

series of drastic changes associated with practices such as vocational training, apprenticeships, vouchers

of training, certification of diplomas granted by private post-secondary education and training providers etc In particular, throughout this period, memorandum governments in Greece have been attempting to directly connect the provision of vocational training with the tackling of youth unemployment

Aspects of the Connection between Employment

and Vocational Training in Greece

Vocational training, operating as a subsystem in the context of non formal education, holds a special place in the provision and development of skills of the workforce In Greece, however, the planning, implementation and utilization of Vocational Education Training (VET) programs do not seem to have yielded the expected results Consequently, the output of this system seems to have (a) a low connection with employment, (b) a feeble link with job retention, (c) a low degree of relevance between the training and job content Specifically, according to the research carried out by the Center of Educational Policy Development (KANEP/GSEE) (Fotopoulos, 2013.a):

• Only 15.7% of the graduates of continuing training and 21.85% of the graduates of initial training programs found a job within the first 6 months after completion

• 81.5% of the continuing training graduates and 81.2% of the initial training graduates were once again unemployed 18 months after completion

• There seems to be a very low relevance of the training subject with the profession or subject of actual employment for those who finally managed to find a job (27% for the graduates of initial training and 31% for the graduates of continuing training)

Furthermore, the results of the research showed the following:

• There is a general frustration among trainees due to the obvious weakness and inefficiency of the VET system to provide access to work, as well as to the low use of knowledge obtained from the training in the workplace Nevertheless the trainees seemed satisfied with their participation in the VET programs, appearing not only to trust but also to expect much more from the field of non-formal education

• Only 37.7% of initial training graduates who participated in the research stated that they managed

to obtain the accreditation of their training required for further professional use

• 8 out of 10 graduates of VET declared that they would accept a job even without prerequisites such as health insurance, satisfactory salary or full employment

It is evident that vocational training in Greece does not seem to produce the expected positive results, thus perpetuating the inefficiency of a key subsystem of education, which could contribute significantly

to the development of workforce and to the drastic reduction of unemployment

The Problem of Unemployment and the Practice of Vouchers

Within the social nightmare of youth unemployment and the consequent social vulnerability that accom-panies the ineffectiveness of employment and VET policies in Greece, in last two years training vouch-ers were introduced in order to tackle unemployment through promoting theoretical training, practical

training and acquisition of professional experience In fact, education & training vouchers do not form

a new policy tool in the western world On the contrary, it is a practice which has been applied mainly

in the US at the level of formal educational system, in the Nordic countries in programs of non-formal education and training, and in the UK since the period of M Thatcher Use of educational vouchers seems to be a practice that neoliberal governments use to respond to recurring issues such as the fund-ing of education and trainfund-ing, in order to ensure quality and maximum utility of the resources invested

in the field of VET Even though, even today, we are not yet in a position to infer a complete picture of valuation and evaluation for the implementation of the policy of vouchers in training, we will attempt to outline the framework for a series of “gray zones” that form the current situation within Greek society during the crisis era Our basic assumption is that if, after two decades of vocational training in Greece

we have the disappointing results of the survey released by KANEP / GSEE (Fotopoulos, 2013.a), it is almost certain that the implementation of vouchers not only does not solve the structural and temporal problems of VET, but on the contrary will create conditions which manipulate the social mission of education at a time when the pressure for high qualifications is more intense than ever (Cedefop, 2012) Before analyzing the effects of the introduction of vouchers in Greek educational system, it is important

to take into account the ideological framework within which vouchers were introduced One of the cen-tral demands of neoliberalism in the field of educational policy is the free choice of school by students and their parents (parental choice), aiming to improve quality and enhance competitiveness between schools, since funding is not provided collectively to educational agencies and organizations, but on an individual and personal basis In the neoliberal rhetoric, students and parents are perceived as ‘users’

or ‘consumers’ of educational services that are offered in the free educational market Consequently, their ability to choose the “provider” of each educational service is a measure that ensures: a) the right

to a free choice through the use of vouchers of education b) improvement of schools competing with each other in order to attract more and more “consumers”, leading in turn to the improvement of their education services (Therianos & Fotopoulos, 2013) Overall the results of voucher introduction have been controversial since that practice contributed to the closure of several schools, redundancies of thousands teachers, mutation of the role and mission of education, altering of the character of training organizations, spread of unfair competition practices, indirect financing and strengthening of private schools through the pretext of free choice and, finally, development of new forms of social exclusion (racism, discrimination, etc.)

In the case of Greece, Educational Vouchers would normally lead to distortions and increased irratio-nality, as the background of the crisis and economic recession, besides requiring other policies to tackle the problem of unemployment, also forms favorable conditions for the thriving of client relationships and practices Thus, in conditions of poverty and social deprivation, the provision of a training check seems like a painkiller to a patient that is virtually agonizing

Undoubtedly, the process of fiscal adjustment in Greece has brought intense upheavals in the domestic educational activity, since factors such as:

• The financial crisis, the debt crisis and the country’s dependencies

• The underfunding and systematic degradation of public education

• The inability of an effective and successful interconnection of educational curricula with employment

• The rapid intensification of educational inequalities and the alarming increase of dropout phenom-ena from school and from LLL activities

• The adverse developments in the labour market.

• The soaring unemployment (especially among young people) contribute to the creation of nega-tive context, forming favorable conditions for the development of “discussions” concerning new and “innovative” funding policies of education and training and the implementation of policies relating to terms such as “educational checks and coupons” (Goulas & Kordatos, 2013)

Conclusively, the risks of the implementation of the practice of educational vouchers in Greece are summarized in points such as:

• The cultivation of a totally instrumental culture concerning learning, education, training and life-long learning

• The promotion of an extreme commercialization of learning

• The development of a customer relationship between the educational voucher and the award of the desired diploma or qualification

• The inability of effective control of the quality and validity of such a system, particularly under conditions of financial crisis and economic recession

• The strengthening of individualism at the expense of collegiality and collaborative culture

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Educational Policy, Vocational Training, Social Cohesion:

Conditions and Prerequisites for a Realistic Connection

There is no doubt that in a period of tempestuous changes, rearrangements and alterations within the frame of the global labour market, it is necessary that the institutional operations take into account all the parameters of social reality In the case of Greece, the structures of vocational training and general adult education are funded and have functioned for the last three decades, more or less, in the frame-work of co-funded programs The picture of this period shows elements of feeble evaluation, doubtful effectiveness and, in general, the profile of a systematic devaluation of the work provided in all these years Therefore, it is clear that the attempts to reform the programs for vocational training through the import of institutions and practices from other countries cannot be hasty, absolute, unilateral, bureaucratic and institutionally authoritative without the necessarily wide understanding and the requested social consensus between stakeholders

In this direction, the activation of systemic procedures for social dialogue is mandatory, with a sub-stantial and structural participation of the social partners, the representatives of the citizens’ society and the scientific community At the same time, the request for organizing a substantial and constructive dialogue is strongly proposed for targeted applications, as well as for actions of effective evaluation and feedback for the function of the new system of training and lifelong education through specialized and appropriate structures, either public or of a social character

The prerequisite of readiness at a high degree and the contribution of the public sector in the design and implementation of the “educational voucher” programs, at a moment when the public institutions are in great turbulence through reform, rearrangement and painful merger or annulment procedures

(with the public servants in the vortex of crucial salary reductions and labour insecurity), bears intense dangers of failure for the whole operation and its transformation in a mechanism of quality reduction and “financial exchange” (Goulas & Kordatos, 2012)

In any case, a necessary condition for their successful implementation, especially in the cases of vocational training and lifelong education, is the continuous cultivation of values, perceptions and at-titudes orientated towards learning, collectivity, critical thinking, quality upgrading of education and educational innovation, elements that have not been developed either in the wider social process, or in the more specific educational one

It is evident that in conditions of crisis and general financial recession, with the problem of youth unemployment touching 60%, the vouchers policy may appear as a fragment of “optimism” or a comple-mentary policy which will relief, even temporarily, young persons brutally hurt by social exclusion The introduction of severe social criteria in the choice of beneficiaries, the true freedom of learners to choose the subject of training, the formation of a transparent, publicly and socially controlled frame of operation of the institution based on merit, would summarize only a few of the basic prerequisites for the gradual and pilot implementation of such practices

It is also evident that neither vocational training, nor educational vouchers for the jobless can resolve unilaterally the problem of unemployment This finding is practically a clear answer to all who believe that the solution to the financial crisis and the resulting unemployment will be given through lifelong learning programs or practices Nevertheless, it is necessary to examine the policies against youth unemployment

as a whole, in conjunction with the necessary reforms in the production tissue of the Greek economy Vocational training as well as the accompanying measures must primarily form a public policy for the reinforcement, specialization and updating of the skills of the labour force in a development model which is strategically obliged to create jobs and not to bury the economy into recession and production decay (Fotopoulos, 2013.a) The issue of unemployment, anyhow, as well as the role that vocational training can play is not only a Greek concern In the European Union the matter of youth unemployment

is one of the most urgent and at the top of the priorities agenda, hence vocational training is called to play

a primary role in employment policies and practices of redefinition of qualifications, jobs descriptions and professional rights (Fotopoulos, 2013.a)

It should also be pointed out those international practices such as apprenticeship, traineeship, edu-cational vouchers etc cannot flourish in Greece for as long as these are circumventing the real problem without confronting the generating root To be more specific, practices like reduction of salaries, black and unpaid labour, targeted deletion of jobs through the creation of positions for “virtual apprentice-ship”, the buyout of educational vouchers by entrepreneurial groups and the creation of private training industries aiming to profit without the social effectiveness and optimum use of the financial resources they receive, are pathogenies which, apart from contributing to the misuse of workers, reproduce and reinforce unemployment, underemployment and the occupational exploitation of youth At the same time they remove social trust from any measure or policy for the confrontation of unemployment, re-sulting in unreliability of institutions and institutes involved in these procedures and, finally, in labour and social chaos

Therefore, it is more necessary than ever to develop a national strategy for lifelong learning in a way that vocational training is seen as a contemporary and socially reliable educational choice and not as an opportunity for the absorption of funds or profitability for certain individuals, inherent in the systemic

weaknesses of the Greek state to shape effectively the terms of function for this field It is absolutely necessary that vocational training stops functioning in an erratic way or strictly for the benefit of private interests (all these years there has been no substantial evaluation of the funds spent or of the results achieved) and becomes a credible pylon of the Greek educational system so that, within a strong public system of formal education, it will develop into a conscious educational choice leading to employment and therefore to the development and social cohesion of the country (Fotopoulos, 2013.a)

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

The exploitation of learning technology could facilitate learners who live in remote and inaccessible areas, such as small remote islands or mountainous villages all over Greece, to access educational and training programs At the same time, e-learning could help decentralize education from the cities which present high population concentration and congestion of educational institutions

Given that in Greece, since 2006, the General Secretariat for Lifelong Learning of the Hellenic Min-istry of Education and Religious Affairs has designed and implemented effective and popular e-learning programs addressed to Greek citizens within the framework of non-formal general adult education (Pavlis-Korres, 2013), further implementation of relative public policies in training and vocational programs addressed to young adult learners could produce positive results

In addition, if the aim is to form effective European and National policies addressed to youth unem-ployment, it is very important to take into consideration the attributes of the Generation Y -also referred

to as Nexters or Millennials (Kyles, 2009) - born from 1980 to 1999, which constitutes a huge part of the current and the next workforce and whose members are very comfortable with the internet and technological advances (Cennamo & Gardener, 2008) In the field of education, some theorists refer to today’s students as Net-generation or D-(for digital)-generation, while Prensky (2001) calls them “digital natives” as he supports that they are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet As he very accurately mentions, the students belonging to this generation have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age Prensky concludes that computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are an integral part of their lives

Wagner (2009) suggests that various methods of knowledge transfer should co-exist, accommodating formal education and training, apprenticeships, simulations and games, storytelling and conferences, blogs and papers to address effectively the different styles among generations represented in the work-force Helm-Stevens (2010) supports that technology allows the use of what might be more appealing to Millennials, as they may feel more comfortable utilizing Instant Messages, blogs or podcasts to transfer their knowledge to others in the workplace

If educational policies should reflect the modern era, it is crucial to find the ways to engage learners

in educational and training processes through educational tools and methods familiar to them Further research is needed towards this approach in order to provide policy makers and stakeholders with infor-mation and knowledge to promote a clearer understanding of developments which affect education and vocational training, thus enabling them to take proper decisions for future action