An interview with Carmelo Cutrufello – President at Associazione Ulisse

Credits: Young Entrepreneurs Succeed

Which is the classical profile of the young unemployed that you support?

Young unemployed from Sicily have a common feature: their profile in terms of education and training is typically poor. They need to strengthen their competencies in order to enter the labour market in a proper way, and to meet the companies’ needs.

Which are the main barriers for the young generations, which have a negative impact on the access to the labour market?

The labour market is generally a global market, and there’s a strong asymmetry between company’s requirements and needs at EU, national and local level, and the level of education of youth who live in specific areas, especially in remote ones. Today, young people live on school, university and professional education, based on “craft”. Big companies, and corporations, need specialized training and competencies in innovative sectors, such as IT, or data evaluation. Today, all these elements are completely missing in the Southern Italy scene.

Which are the main means of access to the labour market?

There are two classic ways to enter the labour market. The first one is represented by the word of mouth, which is typical in the southern regions. The other one, common in the North and at a EU level, Is represented by the employment agencies. A form of support to the South may be represented by a enhancement of the network of employment agencies, which could address youth also through specific private training programmes in order to achieve a better match between the companies’ needs and youth’s training profiles and personal traits.

Which kind of cooperation and collaboration between public and private entities could improve the efficiency of the access to the labour market?

The best solution to bring a breath of fresh air to the southern regions’ labor market, could be financing in a more structured way the employment agencies which operate in the territory: in this way they may have the chance to guide young people in training programmes tailored on the basis of companies’ needs and demands on a local, national and EU level. Today our youth do not know what to do in order to match the labour market exigences: once they finish their school or university career, they grope in the dark: they do not have clear evidence on which is the necessary specialized training path to attend, in order to approach the labour market in a competitive way.

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