Measure off unemployment - whose responsibility is it?

 When a huge budget cuts pressure higher education institutions to perform more with less, they have to justify the different purposes they serve.

Whether it is training people for active citizenship, facilitating social mobility, improving skills required in the labor market or performing high-quality research, these activities are weighted against each other in competition for funds and creating a more efficient system of education.

The rising unemployment of recent graduates in Europe stressed the needs of the labor market in connection with the reforms of higher education.

Unemployment is not caused by education

Three arguments are used to explain the need for reform.

One says that there is a mismatch between skills and labor market requirements. Another says that there is oversupply of graduates from certain areas. Then some simply claim that the high unemployment rate is enough to reform the education system reason.

A thorough examination of other factors that can influence or be the cause of these problems is lacking. The root causes of graduate unemployment should further explore and understand, such as extending beyond the content or quality of education.

Several questions related to the debate about graduate unemployment. They include requirements for employers that students have previous work experience in their sector and the fact that graduates are often offered temporary contracts, paid less and fired more easily.
A number of issues contribute to the problem, which is often structural, including taxation policies, the lack of incentives of employers and poor economic performance.

Initiatives to improve employability

Education should not be used as a scapegoat to fix graduate unemployment - barriers that exist must be recognized and addressed and all stakeholders must accept their responsibility in addressing these problems.

There are many initiatives that are taking place in the European, national and local levels that aim to improve the employability of graduates.

They range from the recent communication of the European Commission, the consideration of the National Education and reforms to employment, including graduate as an indicator of the decisions concerning the financing of higher education on the development of career centers within universities.

There is a willingness to do something, but we need to ask in whose conditions it works.