Through the mechanism of the “social cohesion” the national politics should promote the redistribution of the produced wealth and the inclusion in the community and in the social and labour life for each citizen, above all disadvantaged people. One of the main challenge for each country, to combating poverty and exclusion, is to promote the access into the labour market. Between the instruments to promote social and economic inclusion, beyond reintegration programmes and financial compensations, training plays a key role. Is training really useful to support the inclusion in the labour market?

Unemployment Situation in Italy

In Italy the employment and training situation is a difficult one, as shown by the most recent unemployment data that shows an increase in unemployment rates in the last years. According to ISTAT (Italian statistics institute) data, on April 2011 the unemployment rate was around 9% but the worst situation concern the young people between 15-35 years and above all those between 15 – 29 (the so called 'neet': not in education, employment or training) who are out of the labor market and looking for a job are stuck in the education and training system and still financially depending from their families (Social Cohesion Report, ISTAT 2010).

In Italy, according to European data, the Italian unemployment rate figures are aggravated by the fact that the transition from academic education to employment is more prolonged than in other European countries, and is often complicated by long periods of unemployment and temporary employment, followed, in many cases, by a return to unemployment. The principal disadvantaged groups are as follows: the young, unqualified workers, immigrants, ethnic minorities, and persons engaged in temporary or atypical employment.

Impact of training programmes on employment

In Italy each year quite one million of people, that is 4% of the labour force, is involved in training activities (Isfol, 2005).

The European Social Fund (FSE) is the main found co-finances training programmes organized by public and private training centres and firms. These programmes aim at improving base-skills in order to increase workers employment chances.

"In my opinion training doesn't contribute very much to promote the inclusion in the labour market" states Roberto Elvetico, training project developer and coordinator. He remarks "training programmes are too often not enough connected with the needs of the labour market. Sometimes it occurs that training bodies are interested only in collecting public funds by organising training courses not very useful to integrate people in job market".

However some researches and studies showed the importance of lifelong learning to promote social and economic inclusion. "As regards employment outcomes, training has a positive effect on youth employment chances and decreases the need for informal channels, such as family or social networks, to find a job" state Eliana Baici and Giorgia Casalone, authors of a research by the Economic Department of the University of Novara (Università del Piemonte Orientale) carried out in 2007 and based on a Isfol (Institute for the Development of Vocational Training for Workes) survey collecting information on individuals aged 21 and31 years old.

The research's results show a higher and even robust effect of training on employment chances: having attended a long-lasting training program (at least for 100 hours,) increases the probability to be employed by around 7%.

Training, increasing the skills of the youth, makes them more competitive in the labour market and "attractive" for the employers. This interpretation is supported by the previous result on the higher employment chances of the trained. But training courses, independently from the provided skills, could also represent a source of information on the more effective ways to find a job or, also, could help the matching between workers and employment.

More effective Training

"Training policies could be more useful to integrate people in the labour market if will be more connected with enterprises and participants needs" states Rita Lucido, orientation and training expert. "For the disadvantaged group, as migrants, it is very important to insert, in the training programmes, orientation hours to help them identify the different ways to look for a job, and meetings with a job placement. For immigrants orientation can also be useful to combat the back work" explains yet the expert.

"There is a need for reorientation, towards an approach intended to provide training incentives. In other words", Antonello Scialdone, head of the social politics for the National Institute for vocation training (ISFOL) remarks, "if we are to be successful in achieving the social integration and employment inclusion of the target groups concerned, the more vulnerable categories of persons involved will required supervision, for the purpose of preventing them from losing contact with the job markets and subsiding into inactivity. For this reason, persons participating in reintegration programmes and receiving compensation must be encouraged to maintain an active attitude of mind; they must participate in training programmes and actively search for work, because if they do not, they may forfeit their social and economic support.

The development of skills and the utilisation of training opportunities will help people to entry and to stay in the labour market. But in the meantime it very important evaluates the efficacy of training policies focusing on the characteristics of people involved and on their outcomes in terms of skills acquisition and employment.