Employment and training needs in Liguria (2001)

The chosen survey methodology envisaged interviews with privileged witnesses, selected based on their ability both to collect descriptions “from above” of the focus of the survey and to express opinions that lie at the boundary between the various significant segments of the world of employment and training. The choice of the systemic approach arises from the now unavoidable need for constant and deep interaction between the main social actors of the training-employment system: institutions, the school world, the subjects in charge of providing vocational training and the entrepreneurial world.

What emerges is a snapshot of a region, Liguria, where there is work and the economy, although in a transitional phase, seems to be on the way to a new equilibrium. This is made possible by the awareness that we are at a turning point and the desire to manage change. However, the availability of jobs does not automatically mean employment. On the contrary, demand, especially among young people, moves in a way that is, if not inconsistent, at least independent of supply, based on deep socio-cultural sediments. Incidentally, it should be noted that the resistance of demand to adjust to supply is also an indication of widespread prosperity, which eventually puts most job seekers in the position of being able to choose or at least to wait for a job they like.