The economic crisis is encouraging young people in OECD countries to stay in education for an additional 15 years, according to a new report. While some commentators regard this as a good thing, those with lower education levels are suffering badly.
Educational mobility has ground to a halt and the percentage of people with lower educational skills than their parents is rising among young adults.
“Inequalities between tertiary-educated adults and the rest
of society are growing,” the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development's “Education at a Glance” report stated.
“The number of people with lower qualifications than their
parents is 9 percent among 55-64 year olds, to 12 percent among
35-44 year olds, and 16 percent among 25-34 year olds,” says
the report.
The report collated data from 34 OECD countries, in addition to
Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Latvia,
Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Surveys were taken from
the period between August 2011 and March 2012.
'National disaster': Spain sees 500 percent rise
in ‘very long-term unemployment’
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría spoke of the need to remove
the connection between social background and educational
opportunity.
“Education can lift people out of poverty and social
exclusion, but to do so we need to break the link,” he said.
He added that the biggest challenge to inclusive growth “is
the risk that social mobility could grind to a halt,” and
growing social disparities are posing a major challenge.
“Increasing access to education for everyone and continuing
to improve people’s skills will be essential to long-term
prosperity and a more cohesive society,” Gurría said.
Despite the growing inequality, the generalized economic crisis
is encouraging more and younger people to stay in education, says
the study.
A typical 15 year old in an OECD country may spend some seven
additional years in formal education over the next 15 years of
their life.
“Before turning 30, they could expect to hold a job for over
five years, be unemployed for nearly one year and be neither in
education nor seeking work for over one year.”
Despite the apparent expansion in opportunities for over 15s
wanting to go into tertiary education, subsequent work still
remains a problem.
“At the very same time, we have still a lot of unemployed
graduates looking for a job, and at the very same time employers
are saying they can’t find the people with the skills they
need,” said Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s director of
education.
According to the report, higher levels of education and skills
pay off “more than ever before – in employment and earnings,
and in many social outcomes, such as health. “
However, the gap between mid- and high- educated people has grown
twice as much between 2000 and 2012, the report says.
It points out that this means mid-educated adults “have moved
closer in income to those with low levels of education,” and
that the middle-classes “are falling further behind.”
Lost generations in S. Europe
University graduates in southern EU countries such as Spain or Italy are less educated and have more unemployment rates than those from north European countries or those outside Europe, such as Japan and the US, the report says.
Spain and Turkey have more so-called NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
Both Italy and Spain also were at the bottom of basic literacy
and numeracy skills rankings last year as well.
Spanish unemployment to take 10 years to recover – report
“Raising educational attainment is not only giving countries more income but it is also creating a greater degree of social cohesion,” Schleicher said. “Every business transaction [is founded] on trust. Trust in institutions is vital, trust in democracies. All of those aspects are vital for the functioning of societies.”