Young adults in Spain lack qualifications

A THIRD of young adults in Spain lack sufficient qualifications to enable them to find decent jobs, according to a new report.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that 33 per cent of people in Spain between 25 and 34 years of age had only completed secondary school studies, and some had not even got that far.

Spain more than doubles the 15 per cent average reported by the OECD for the European Union.

Studies on the total adult population in Spain (aged 25 to 64) found that 44 per cent of people gave up studying after secondary school, double the OECD averages for the EU.

“Countries have many good reasons to avoid young people falling into the trap of entering the job market and adult life without good qualifications,” said Dirk Van Damme, head of the OECD’s Innovation and Progress Indicator Department.

The report found that the risk of unemployment is much higher amongst adults lacking further education.

In fact, many countries have identified the problem of early school leavers as one of the biggest challenges education systems faces, according to Van Damme.

Spain managed to reduce the number of early leavers to 21.9 per cent in 2014 but was still far from the EU 2013 average of 12 per cent.