The level of disorientation of young generations is growing in our modern society based on knowledge and complexity, expecially in time of crisis. One of the main evidence of this is the rate of NEETs in Europe. The term NEET is used to describe young people who are not engaged in any form of employment, education or training. The term has come into the policy debate in recent years due to disproportionate impact of the recession on young people (under 30 years old). The unemployment rate for those under thirty is nearly double the average rate. Some 14 million young people are not in employment, education or training across the Europe. There are great differences among regions and countries. Rates vary widely from around 5.5% of 15-24 year olds in the Netherlands to 22.7% in Italy (Eurofound - http://eurofound.europa.eu/it/emcc/labourmarket/youth).
For young people from an immigration background the risk to become NEETs is 70% higher than nationals. Also having a disability or health issue could be also a strong risk factor.
The economic cost of not integrating NEETs was estimated by Eurofound at over €150 billion, or 1.2% of GDP. Some countries, such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Poland are paying 2% or more of their GDP.
The economic cost is not the only one. Young people not in employment, education or training are at higher risk of being socially and politically alienated.
Europe has taken seriously this problem and promoted some measures to front the conseguences of this disengagement, first of all with the launch of the Youth Garantee in many European Countries (http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1079). Also the improvement of career guidance services plays a crucial role to prevent early school leaving and disengagement from the job searching and vocational training.
The LEADER project www.leaderproject.eu is an European project aiming at improve career education and guidance in High Education, developing a common methodological framework and some innovative career resources based on ICT. Some example of these resources are: www.educaweb.com in Spain and www.educaweb.it in Italy, career matching systems as Careerscape in UK https://www.cascaid.co.uk/cs/ and Career4u in Romania www.career4u.ro and Sorprendo in Italy www.sorprendo.it.
