CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Patterson, Graham Holland |
|---|---|
| Title | STATE SPONSORED VOLUNTEERISM: Lessons from the AmeriCorps program, and employability applications in the United States and European Union |
| Summary | In both Europe and the United States nearly fifty percent of young workers with bachelor’s and master’s degrees are accepting jobs which require less than their educational attainment, the highest rate of divergence ever recorded. While the fiscal crisis and high youth unemployment compounds the trend, the problem goes deeper and the diminished returns on education investment along with skill mismatches are changing the math for individuals and governments which invest in higher education. This paper looks at the possibility of using formalized volunteer programs such as AmeriCorps and the European Voluntary Service to help address both youth unemployment and the education-to-job disconnect. In order to ascertain the efficacy of such a plan, a survey was carried out which captured responses from 826 AmeriCorps alumni. In addition there was a thorough review of complimentary research focusing on the employability outcomes of program graduates. The results show increased skill sets, larger work-relevant networks and better financial outcomes for participants. Such programs however were also found to be quite divergent in their aims and methods, and the paper suggests that policy transfer of the most beneficial approaches would further assure beneficial outcomes. |
| Supervisor | Buller, Jim; Svensson, Sara |
| Department | School of Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/patterson_graham.pdf |
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