Careers of students completing undergraduate and graduate studies in Italy, as reflected in activities and studies undertaken by the AlmaLaurea Interuniversity Consortium

Abstract

The author discusses the careers of young people with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Italy based on results of studies initiated and conducted by the AlmaLaurea Interuniversity Consortium. Founded in 1994 at the Statistical Observatory run by the University of Bologna, the Consortium aims to help young people to enter the labour market. To this end, it established a communication platform for employers and university graduates as well as a university-based database with over 700,000 CVs of graduates from all Italian universities (46 in May 2006) which have joined the AlmaLaurea Consortium. One of the Consortium’s goals is to facilitate mutual contacts and share information between universities, graduates and enterprises on topics such as employers’ expectations and ways to match those in educational/vocational profiles of prospective employees. The monitoring of young peoples’ careers begins at the final stages of secondary education and ends 5 years after university graduation. The success of this project on the Italian market, reflected in the growing numbers of young people finding employment after graduation, encouraged the Consortium to promote the idea beyond Italian borders. Moving in line with European Commission’s guidelines which signalled insufficient information about the social and occupational situation of young Europeans, the Consortium is now operating as EuroAlmaLaurea.