“Young people think education is not relevant to get a job”

Spain is improving its school dropout rates but it still ranks at the bottom of Europe when it comes to youngsters who never complete their high school or vocational studies.

The trend is alarming because it condemns unqualified youths to a life of unemployment, say international organizations.

According to Unesco's Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work report, released on Tuesday, Spain is one of the developed countries most affected by rising unemployment among unqualified youths. Last year, 26.3 percent of Spaniards between 18 and 24 years of age dropped their studies without obtaining a high school or vocational school diploma. In 2010 that figure was 28.3 percent, which places Spain at the top of the list of European countries with the greatest dropout rate after Malta and Portugal. Yet that rate has been dropping since 2009, and last year's was the lowest on record.

Experts agree the economic crisis is behind this return to the classroom for people out of a job. But Pauline Rose, director of the Unesco study, notes the extremely high jobless rate among Spanish youth - over 50 percent - "reduces confidence in the value of education and could mean more dropouts."

One of the reasons why young Spaniards abandon their studies earlier than in neighboring countries could be the nature of the business fabric, explains José Saturnino Martínez, a professor of sociology at La Laguna University. "Unskilled jobs carry a lot of weight," he says. "Youngsters knew that if they didn't finish their studies, they'd always find a job as a waiter or in the construction sector."

In the boom, unmotivated students found unskilled jobs very attractive"

Lucía Álvarez, a professor of education science at Oviedo University, agrees. "School education as an investment for the future never really took hold here," she says.

"Unmotivated students found it very attractive to be able to earn money fast with an unskilled job."

Experts insist that the real estate bubble caused the rise in dropout rates, while the ensuing crisis has brought a lot of jobless youngsters back to the classroom. So says a June report by the Instituto de Estudios Económicos, which analyzed dropout rates in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Unesco warns of the risks of such a high jobless rate among the young. "Young people think that education is not relevant to get a job," says Rose. This could lead to a loss of value of the education system as a springboard to a decent job, and thus result in even higher dropout rates.

Yet the Active Population Survey shows that in 2011, 51.4 percent of people between 20 and 24 with only elementary school studies were out of a job. That rate went down to 34 percent among people with a higher level of studies. The crisis therefore hits those with fewer qualifications the hardest.