GLI STRUMENTI DI INGRESSO NEL MERCATO DEL LAVORO: FORMAZIONE, INSERIMENTO E MISURE DI CONTRASTO ALLA DISOCCUPAZIONE GIOVANILE.

This study is focused on the instruments set forth by the Italian labour law to promote young people entry into the labour market and to contrast youth unemployment, which worsened after the recession started in 2008. In particular, the research provides an overview of the labour market legislation regarding training contracts and work placement contracts, both enforced particularly in the past two decades, pointing out the reasons of the interventions and the effects on the implementation of these contracts. With reference to training contracts, the analysis of the legislative development of the apprenticeship shows that its traditional training function has been gradually devalued with the aim of converting the apprenticeship into a placement contract. However, despite the endeavours of the national legislator to make the apprenticeship the main port of entry in the labour market, different reasons are practically leading to a decline in its application. These include the division of legislative competence between the State and the Regions in the field of vocational training and the difficulty of the company to plan long-term workforce strategies. As to work placement contracts and with specific regard to internship, the present study analyses the practical critical issues caused by the existence of different types of internship and of several layers of legislation. The final part of the research examines the possible instruments (regulatory or not) that could have a strong impact in facing youth unemployment, considering the failure of the current training contracts and work placement contracts. Eventually, the study proposes to facilitate access to employment for young people either by easing the transition from education to work and by implementing vocational training. This latter could be deemed as an active labour-market policy and as a form of employee protection in the labour market (and not only in the employment relationship). In this perspective, vocational training could be enhanced by considering lifelong learning as a permanent contractual obligation for the employer in the context of a stable and permanent employment contract like the one introduced by Legislative Decree n. 23/2015 (so called “contratto a tutele crescenti” - contract with increasing protections).