The Youth Guarantee in Spain: A worrying situation after its implementation

Abstract

This article presents a critical assessment of the application of the Youth Guarantee programme, oriented toward young people under the age of 30, in Spain from 2013 to 2018. It analyses the effectiveness of programme enrolment and coverage of young people classified as “NEETs” (not in employment, education or training), the adaptation of the catalogue of proposed measures to young people’s reality, and whether or not these measures have addressed different intersections, such as gender, social class and origin, as indispensable elements for integration into society that make it possible to shape young people’s experiences. Finally, through the 2017 Continuous Sample of Working Lives, which provides a representative extract of anonymised individual data through the non-parametric bootstrap sampling technique, this article will analyse the level of youth employment precarity by gender, educational attainment, and province. Overall, the conclusion is that the Youth Guarantee has not succeeded in changing the precarious position of young people.