06 October 2015 – The Philippine Embassy in Rome, in cooperation with the Associazione Stranieri Lavoratori in Italia (ASLI) or the Association of Foreign Workers in Italy, organized a “Seminar for Inactive Youth” on October 04, principally targetted at Filipino youth migrants from 15 to 29 years old who fall under the category of NEET or “Not in Employment, Education and Training.”
The seminar presented, in detail, how the Italian government is implementing the EU Council decision to establish a “Youth Guarantee” program in all EU countries to ensure that the youth receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeship or traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.
In his opening remarks, Philippine Ambassador to Italy Domingo P. Nolasco stated that the Embassy, in organizing the seminar, takes cognizance of the challenges faced by Filipino youth migrants, specifically in the education and labor sectors. The Ambassador conveyed the Embassy’s commitment to facilitate and support initiatives and projects that directly assist young migrant Filipinos in their integration efforts in the Italian society.
Ambassador Nolasco also provided an update on current migration realities to Italy such as high unemployment rate among youth, continued restriction in the entry of foreign workers due to the economic crisis and the entry of increasing number of dependents or holders of family reunification visas, rather than working visas.
ASLI President Pia Gonzalez highlighted the importance of the Integration Agreement and provided a situationer of the Filipino youth in Italy. ASLI Executive Information Officer Flora Ventura explained the administrative function of Centro per L’Impiego (Center for Employment of the City of Rome) in facilitating not only unemployment benefits but also job-seeking efforts. ASLI’s Liza Bueno elaborated on the Italian Youth Guarantee Implementation program, its objectives and step-by-step processes.
John Michael Caputol, a youth representative, also shared with the participants his experience and success in securing employment through the program. At the end of the seminar, ASLI assisted the youth-participants to register online for the Youth Guarantee program.
In his closing remarks, Ambassador Nolasco reminded that, in this era of globalization, the traditional path of education from primary to university is not the only key to finding a job. He advised the youth to be globally competitive by (1) enrolling in online courses to develop skills responsive to the needs of the labor sector, and (2) putting value on multilingualism –that is, fluency not only in Italian but also retaining Filipino and learning English. The need to sustain engagement with young Filipinos in Italy, with increased participation of their parents and/or guardians, was acknowledged. In this regard, the Ambassador assured there will be future seminars and interventions for the Filipino migrant youth. END
