Expanded Summary

Youth is increasingly becoming the main driving force of the modern world. This is somewhat related to the growing demand for creative and communicative workers in the field of information technology in the rapidly developing digital economy. An important part of them objectively consists of young people. Therefore, it can be said that in the modern world, those (mostly developed) countries that improve and realize the human capital of young people have a certain strategic advantage.

Unfortunately, in many places (including our country), youth still belong to the vulnerable category, which faces significant difficulties when looking for a job, and this is primarily related to the ineffective state employment policy, which limits the realization of the labor potential of young people, hinders the growth process of the national economy, and The level of political, social, technological or cultural competitiveness of the country as a whole decreases.

I think that solving the problem of employment of young people is the most important and painful issue that worries the population of Georgia. Consequently, determining the modern trends created in the labor market and the causes of youth unemployment should become one of the main concerns of the effective management of the labor resources of our country.

The relationship between education level and youth employment is well known - the higher the level of education in the country, the greater the probability of young people joining the labor market (the statistical data provided below further support the validity of this statement: it is calculated that obtaining a full secondary education among young people aged 20 to 24 years reduces the unemployment rate to 7.4% on average contributes; for the age group of 25 to 29 years, this figure is 6%).

What is the situation in Georgia in terms of receiving education? Let's be honest: over the last 3-4 decades, the situation in this regard has worsened: knowledge - the level of education has fallen catastrophically, there is a shortage of highly qualified personnel in almost all areas of activity, and such a situation needs to be corrected urgently.

First of all, it is necessary that the government establishes the principle of prioritizing funding of education and science in state expenditures. In reality, unfortunately, such a mood - an approach to budget expenditure planning is not widely felt in our country - in 2024, the ratio of planned education budget expenses to the gross domestic product amounted to 3.7%, and this is still the lowest rate both in the EU countries (there is a minimum of 4.1% - Slovakia, a maximum of 6.9% - Malta), and in the former Soviet Union countries (the highest in Moldova - 8.6%). It is particularly unfortunate that the commitment taken by the Georgian government - to increase the financing of the education sector to 6% of GDP in 2024 - was postponed until 2028.

In addition, in order to raise the level of education in the country and, accordingly, to reduce unemployment, it is no less important (I would say even crucial) to eliminate the mental illness established in Georgian society so-called “diplomamania” (the desire to receive a diploma confirming education instead of the desire to acquire knowledge in an educational institution).

If the above-mentioned problems are not solved in time and the desire of the youth, the society as a whole, does not turn to the attitude of obtaining real knowledge, mastery of the profession at a high level, I think that only increasing funding for education and science will not be enough.

In addition, it is necessary to break the public stereotype, according to which applicants (or rather their parents), choosing the future specialty (for their children), do not rely on the state of the labor market or the objective abilities of the young person, but are often guided only by the prestige of the higher institution. Irrational decisions related to this do not only burden individual households, but ultimately lead to significant public costs. 

If the above-mentioned problems are not solved in time and the desire of the youth, the society as a whole, does not turn to the attitude of obtaining real knowledge, mastery of the profession at a high level, I think that only increasing funding for education and science will not be enough.

The issue of youth employment is significantly complicated by the contradictions between the socio-professional orientations of job seekers and the requirements of companies (organizations) for the workforce. This is related to the deep discrepancy between the competence of the trainees and the client's requirements; as well often the graduates themselves refuse the conditions or salary offered by the employer; also the solution to the problem of long-term employment is complicated by the recently established trend, according to which young people increasingly prefer to take a temporary (short-term) job, because they think that frequent job changes will improve their practical skills and help them find the best employment option in the future.

The structural contradictions discussed above in the labor market, which significantly reduce the efficiency of youth labor use, are directly related to the unsatisfactory quality of education, the improvement of which, although it is extremely difficult, but not impossible: the solution to the task of raising the level of education in the country (alleviation of the mentioned problem) is possible, on the one hand, by perfecting the multifaceted process of providing educational services (here, I think, a special emphasis should be placed on improving the issue of permanent training of pedagogical staff and specialists in all directions, which requires the development of new approaches and their implementation in life), and, on the other hand (at the same time), by taking measures to improve the quality of knowledge acquisition (especially by making an educational policy that ensures the reduction of the agitated demand for diplomas not supported by knowledge in the society - for example, by introducing mandatory unified state graduation exams for the graduation of specialists in public and private higher education institutions of the country, similar to the unified national exams for enrollment in higher education - this measure will contribute to the growth of the demand for acquiring real education among young people, increase the motivation to acquire knowledge and lead to a qualitative improvement in the quality of education in the future).

In developed countries, various forms of cooperation in education, science and production are actively being stimulated by the state; the practice of direct state financing of the enterprise-based education system is quite common there; large-scale state-wide reforms of training and retraining of the workforce and specialists are intensively carried out; a continuous training and qualification improvement network is created for the workers of companies and enterprises, where different methods of student stimulation are widely used in the learning process.

I think that it will be useful for our state, which is on the path of education development, to thoroughly familiarize with the above-mentioned (and many other) experiences of advanced countries, understand them wisely and implement them. I hope that the modest opinions of the author mentioned in the article will be shared in scientific circles, will find a response among specialists in the field and will help the vital work of education development in the country.

Keywords: education and employment; problems of education; increase in education; diplomacy youth employment; youth unemployment; diplomamania.