Almost a third of young Spaniards have only completed ESO. And that’s a huge pay problem.

28% of young Spaniards between 25 and 34 years old do not have studies higher than ESO. This data, double the OECD averagehas been released in the report ‘Education Outlook 2021. The analysis also indicates that 22% of Spanish young people between the ages of 18 and 24 neither study nor work, placing Spain as the second country in the EU with the highest rate of ‘ninis’, only surpassed by Italy with 25, 5%.

missing students. The report also indicates that only 23.6% of the entire Spanish population has completed post-compulsory secondary education (Bachillerato and Intermediate Vocational Training), a figure far from the averages of the OECD (42.5%) and the EU (46%). ). On the other hand, 39.7% of the adult population between 25 and 64 years of age have university studies or Higher Level Vocational Training, a figure similar to that of the OECD (40.3%) and higher than that of the EU (37 .6%). All this means that Spain has “a deficit of graduates in the second stage of secondary education”, which generates greater difficulties in accessing the world of work.

Different realities of the same country. The differences also occur at the national level: the Basque Country, with 56%, is the autonomous community with the highest percentage of people with university studies or higher vocational training, while Ceuta, with 25%, is the one with the least. However, the document recognizes the progress made by Spain in recent years: between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of the adult population that only had compulsory education fell from 47.1% to 37.1%.

Job opportunities are not a priority. On the other hand, the report reflects that barely 6% of students study a career related to Information and Communication Technologies, despite the fact that 88% of its graduates get a job. On the other hand, up to 20% of the new entrants chose the field of Business Sciences, Administration and Law, the most popular in Spain.

More studies, better work. And it is that the higher the degree, the greater job security: people with less education have been the hardest hit by the pandemic at the workplace, being young people, yes, the most affected age group. In this sense, the document states that “the level of training achieved is directly related to the employment situation.” Society is aware of this and that is why there is currently a great competition among skilled workers, whose number is increasing. However, it is the people with the highest qualifications who have the most options for obtaining a job: only 59% of young people who only completed ESO access a job, while that percentage rises to 78% in the case of university students.

work to do. It should also be noted that 60.5% of young people with a university degree are women, a percentage higher than the OECD (56.6%) and EU (57.7%) averages. However, they earn 81% of a man’s salary, and although it is true that this figure is higher than those of the OECD (77%) and the EU (76%), it is clear that no country manages to eliminate the gap of genre.

Image: Daniel Gonzalez/GTRES