Vocational Training, Employment and Labour Participation

Abstract

This article is the result of a study aimed at measuring the impact generated by training activity in Italy. This study focuses on training promoted and implemented at a regional level, with particular attention to actions co-financed by the European Social Fund. From an empirical point of view, the most immediate difficulty is related to the political nature of decisions on expenditure. Also, there is the need to determine not a simple correlation between the variables, but a precise bond of causality. The role played by vocational training was analysed within structural models where labour supply and demand are considered as exogenous. The estimates and results obtained show that the regions with the greatest level of investment in training are not those less developed, benefiting from Community financing according to the goals of the European Social Fund. On the contrary, the European Social Fund main beneficiaries are the regions already well advanced with positive labour market indicators.