Enhancing Vocational Training Effectiveness Through Active Labour Market Policies

Italian vocational training policies are effective in strengthening the human capital of the weak subjects. In fact, they are principally targeted towards school drop-outs, low educated adults, migrants, and other groups characterized by social exclusion. Nevertheless, such result does not automatically translate into increased employability and higher integration into the labour market. This paper explores the synergic effect of vocational training and other active labour market policies to enhance the employment of the disadvantaged targets. It is based on the results of a CATI survey on a representative sample of vocational training students in Piedmont (North-West Italy), including a proper comparison group. The net impact evaluation provides a positive impact of the training courses on individual's employability, and it suggests a sort of "multiplier effect" whenever the trainees experience a well-designed set of active labour market policies downstream the training. Hence, it is strongly recommended that policy makers design a conjoint strategy to accompany more disadvantaged targets, overcoming the customary departure between education and labour market policy, and embracing a global programming idea centred on the individual and his multiple needs. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.