Croatia

1. Croatia Project Jobnet

2. Introduction

3. May 2013 • There are 4 284 889 residents in Croatia... • 333 249 person is recorded on Croatian Employment Service as UNEMPLOYED... • 59 985 person is younger than 24...

4. Due to this disturbing numbers, members of the research team in Local Democracy Agency Sisak, decided to participate in an international comparative audio-visual project JOBNET related to solving the problem of rising youth unemployment in many European countries.

5. LDA Sisak • LDA Sisak operating since 1996 precisely in order of democratization of society in local, to promote active citizenship and human rights, and all this with one very important aspect which is the international cooperation and connectivity.

6. What inspired us to get involved in the project JOBNET? • We noticed that in Croatia there is neither systematic research that asks young people, meaning those in which this problem affects the most, which are the causes why they can not exercise their fundamental human right - the job.

7. Reasons of youth unemployment • In Croatia particular problem is structural unemployment, which means consequences of mismatches between supply and demand with respect to interest and skills of the unemployed and the requirements of employers and the difficulties in trying to change the job regardless of their previous jobs. • Risk of unemployment is higher for youth with vocational education. • The main reasons of early school leaving (school drop-out) are related to poor initial conditions, poverty and poor educational status of the parents. • Young people from lower social status families are forced to acquire a qualification and early enter in Emloyment Service.

8. Legal backgorund • In Croatia, there is a labour law that is dealing with labour relation in details. A worker is an individual employed that perform a particular job, and the employer is an individual or entity that employs the worker for whom the employee performs certain tasks. • The first step is to undertake by the employer is to sign a work contract with the worker, listing the scope of work. The contract can be long-term and short-term. If the contract is not stating its duration, it is considered as long-term.

9. A person under 15 years of age or a person 15 or older than 15 but younger than 18, attending compulsory primary education, can not be employed. A minor shall not be employed in jobs that may endanger their safety, health, morals or development. • During the contract signing a probation work may be agreed but it must not be longer than 6 months. Persons employed for the first time in occupation for which they were educated, employer may employ as apprentice. Training of an apprentice may not last longer than one year, upon the apprentice takes professional exam.

10. Mearsures for youth unemployment decrement • The state financed hiring of young, educated workers need working experience as a precondition for taking the obligatory exam on competencies and to be able to enter working world. Labour officea will finance competence training without employment for those with no master craftsman exam, for architects, planners, lawyers, attorneys, notaries and for • One to be entitled to get funding of obligatory professional practice for the period of one year in the amount of 1.600,00 HRK and paid social services must be registered in unemployment register for at least six months, but there is an age limit. High school graduates must be younger then 25 years, while collage and university students younger then 29 years.

11. Questionnaresurvey

12. Questionnare survey • 3important cities facing a crisis in central Croatia and their surroundings Population in 2011: • Sisak - 33,049 (with surrounding - 49,699) • Petrinja-15,480 (with surrounding – 24,786) • Kutina-14,814 (withsurrounding - 22,815) • 4 groups of examinees: students, employed students, employed youths and unemployed youths (16 – 24 years old) • Total of 370 respondents

13. Table 1: Distribution by gender and age of the interviewed

14. most of interviewed were 24 years old (18%), and over 80 % of respondents were 19 or older. • Only 3% of them were 16 years old • There were 219 (59%) females and 151 (41%) males • The relative majority of these females were 23 years old, as for the males the most common age of those questioned was 24 years

15. Distribution by city

16. The relative majority of interviewed are coming from : • Sisak (53%), because it is the biggest and most developed of those three cities. • 27% of respondents were from Kutina and • 20 % were from Petrinja

17. Distribution of unemployed by level of education

18. The relative majority (43%) has got secondary graduation, but the rate of vocational certificate is also high (25%); bachelor degree in higher education (BA or BSc): 17%; only primary education: 5%; more than primary education: 2% ; master degree in higher education (MA or MSc): 6% (Figure 16). • It is very concerning that there are 25% of those with vocational education. They should all work in little mills or shops, using their hands and knowledge. It is not a secret that most of them are on black market, using their skills under the price, and avoiding paying taxes. That also costs the state

19. Distribution by year of unemployment

20. All in the relative majority of interviewed have become unemployed for 1 or 2, maybe 3 years(Figure 17) . Most of them have work experience (58 heads), and lots of them do not have (49 heads), usually that was Fixed term contract (25 heads). • From these data It seems that it is not relevant for being unemployed if you have work experience or you do not have.

21. Distribution by the interviewed opinion according to own reasons of their unemployed status (heads)

22. 28 % thinks that lack of enough jobs is the main reason, and also 28% thinks that the lack of their work experience is the reason, but we saw before that there is almost the same number of those who are unemployed and have work experience and those who do not have this experience. • It is maybe possible that those work experiences are short or not in a profession in which they are trying to find a job. • 15 % thinks that this crisis is responsible for their situation. • 5 % have not known how to get a job and in her/his opinion that is why she/he is unemployed. Based on this we can stated that most of the interviewed know how can find a job.

23. Students (49%)

24. They were mostly 20 years old (20%); male students were mostly between 19 and 21 (18% of each), and female were a little bit older (between 19 and 23); and most of them were 23 (22%)

25. Distribution of students by level of education

26. Mostof students had secondary graduation (67%), so we can conclude that they are at college at this time, taking degree in higher education BA, just as those 5 % with vocational certificate. • very few of vocational graduates go further to college. It is like that because it is a little bit complicated for them to apply on college and get points on exams, because of lack of general knowledge. • 19% of them are currently taking degree in higher education MA. • 7% is in high school (5 % with more than primary, and 2 % only primary) • Mostly students are from Sisak (59%), 27% of them are from Kutina, and 14% from Petrinja

27. Student had to answer some additional questions for students, like since when they are studying and ‘Your formal education can get you a white collar job, but you do not find one. What do you do?’. • We couldn't get good results on first question, because people get it wrong. Some of them wrote when they started primary school, some of them secondary, and some of them college, so it's very hard to know correct year for correct school for each person. These results are unusable.

28. Distribution of answers no question 'Why didn't you find a white collar job with their previous education?

29. On question why did not they find a white collar job with their previous education they mostly answered other (N=166). When we analysed that 'other' answers, we saw that most of them left this space empty. They just did not find right answer on this. We have to pay attention on this after in study, while taking interviews • Those who gave answers mostly continue studies and do vocational training (N=96). • It is very low number of those who volunteering (N=6) and those who would not take a blue-collar job, remain unemployed (N=6) • They are showing interest in any kind of work

30. Distribution of answers for all respondents on Question 'What are the possible reasons for youth unemployment in your country?

31. Most of respondents chose two answers: Companies and institutions do not employ young people with no experience (N=250) and effects of the economic crisis (N=249). That is quite true in our country. There are no economic resources in country and no one is opening new mills or shops or other drive where young can find a job. And not just young people. • Other answers appear much less and they are all equally

32. What would be the most relevant ‘best practice’ on combating youth unemployment? • Most of the respondents thinks that best practice would be making the labour market more 'youth friendly' (N=168). Lots of them also thinks that Cooperation of local business sector and education to train young people for specific job (N=147) and wants more internship programs in local and national authorities. The answer Initiating a regional youth guidance program (N=85) is rarest elected. • These responses are expected. Ourselves, we started from the assumption that the cooperation between schools and craftsmen should be better, that to those who are educated should be allowed to use what they learned, and that everyone in state should be more friendly to youth employment.

34. / • We should say that our government investing effort in solving this problem in last 2 years, and today there are over 10 different modules that should help young to get their first job. Some things can be improved, but it is still great that they started co combat with this problem. They consist that is the fact, It is just a question how good are public and youth familiar with those modules

36. Socials problems here mostly means financial problems. It is a good question to ask why do they sense this lack of motivation. Is it because of bad professional orientation or something else? This should be better investigated and easy solved

37. 5 statements: 1. A career guidance program that involves parents and young people can reduce youth unemployment • Peoplemostly agree with this statement (mostly students and unemployed). It is interesting that more employed respondents do not agree with this statement (N=23), than agree (N=18). This may indicate that the unemployed and students hope that this program could be effective. Those who are employed probably see the solution in something else. Men and women have similar views regarding this statement

38. 2. An internship program can leave young people with excellent preparation for the world of work • A great number of them are strongly agreed. • When we look at the differences in responses by gender, we can see that though more male than female respondents disagreed with the statement. Maybe males have some problem with being internship

39. 3. Highly qualified youth prefer to be lower – paid white – collar worker than to be blue – collar worker for higher wages • Most of employed and unemployed agree with this statement, but also that students mostly disagree. Maybe the responses of those who are employed have more sense because maybe some of them can be in that described situation.

40. 4. Young people rather stay unemployed than working for lower wages (which is not appropriate to their qualification) • Peoplemostly disagree with the statement • This can be interesting from the point of view that youngsters said about themselves that they would not be satisfied being unemployed. And maybe some of employed persons think that they work for lower wages

41. 5. Formal school education system can be the reason for the grown number of unemployment as it does not give pragmatic knowledge. • People mostly strongly agree (students especially) and agree with this statement . • If you ask if there is enough pragmatic knowledge, almost anyone in Croatia will say no. Some students also disagree. When we look at the distribution of answers by gender, we can notice that in answer disagree there are more males then females

42. Conclusion • To sum up, listed results show that youths are aware of this problem, they think about possible solutions and they continue their education in hope that additional competency will help them.

43. Interview JobNet

44. Interviews with young people and employers from April to June 2013. Case study involved 26 people

45. PARTICIPANTS • five unemployed youth aged 17-22 • fiveemployed young people aged 19-22 • sevenexperts who have experience in working with young unemployed people • five representatives of non-governmental organizations • five people in public and private sectors that have an impact on the employment of young people

46. WE ASKED THEM ABOUT... • unemployment • education • professional training for work • good practices • non govermental organisations • social issues and dropping out of school

47. UNEMPLOYED YOUTH 1.

48. UNEMPLOYMENT Answers of unemployed youthabout... • lots of retiring people limit up to the age of 65 • problem of personal connection • the lack of knowledge, money and education • are willing to acept a job outside their profession • crisis did not help their situation one of the biggest problems of unemployment

49. ABOUT EDUCATION, „PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR WORK ”, SOCIAL ISSUES AND DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL... • education need more practice • too many educated people for the same profession market saturation • (PTW)- program with a lot of disadvantages • social issues- unemployment leads to thebad habits (spending parents money, doing drugs) • youth are dropping out of school not motivated, have financial or family problems

50. GOOD PRACTICES • „McDonalds”, „Mill and bakery” and„DrogerieMarkt” good practice for employing young people