DOI: 10.17903/fk2/j8zkt9
title: The Barometer of the Absents. Detection, Classification and Empirical Establishment of policy proposals to combat a new form of social vulnerability: NEETs ((young people Not in Education, Employment or Training)

description: The project includes 9 workpackages and 23 deliverables. Their implementation contributed in the achievement of the three major goals that have been initially addressed, namely: - to form a NEETs composite indicator at a national level, - to record and map the new category of social vulnerability, which are the NEETs - to develop empirically established policy proposals to combat the social exclusion of NEETs as well as to contribute to their multilevel and sustainable social integration. The methodological strategy was based on a back 'n forth process among all collaborating partners in combination with the research processes, while in the meantime, the international experience concerning the NEETs phenomenon has been widely exploited. Two phases of quantitative and two phases of qualitative research in -an unusual for a social research project large number of subjects- have been implemented (800 and 3500 subjects respectively for the two phases of the quantitative and a total of 144 semi-structured and narrative interviews for the qualitative phase). The findings of the research set the base for a) the NEETs composite indicator, b) the establishment of an integrated policy proposal (in multiple levels of public policies and within different scenarios), c) the formation of the NEETs GIS, and d) the creation of a road map for an integrated intervention to prevent the social exclusion of NEETs (with actions deriving from the strategic environment of the intervention and act in combination so as to form the parametric environment), leading to an applied public policy complex. At the same time a) the main characteristics of NEETs problems have been recorded, b) their demographic and social characteristics have been analyzed, c) the main factors contributing to the characterization of a young person as a NEET (gender, age, urbanity, educational level, family income, nationality) have been examined, d) their views and attitudes in respect to education and training, employment, social welfare and the political system as well as their strategies regarding a way out of the situation they are suffering have been analyzed, e) the impact deriving from the expansion of the NEETs phenomenon at an economic and social level have been investigated, (impact assessment) f) research developing categories to address the profile of the NEET in Greece (in relation to the profiles of the NEETs in Europe) have been formed, g) integrated interpretations on this multi-perspective and complex phenomenon have been attempted. Essentially, NEETs have been 'mapped' in quantity (how many they are on the basis of their gender, age, urbanity, education, family income, nationality, characteristics, biography, attitudes, behavioral patterns, views and distribution at a regional and municipal level) as well as in quality. In a country where the percentage of the NEETs population reaches 16,9 % (one of the highest in Europe), and in which their basic characteristics are different than those of other national cases, the problem of the NEETs can't afford to be ignored, as is the case until today. For those reasons, the Barometer of the Absents is an innovative project for Greece, as it is considered the first research at a national level to address the major problem of NEETs (of young people "not existing anywhere"), and one of the few relating projects at a European level. This research has been implemented at a period when the management of the NEETs problem is considered one of the major policy priorities of the EU2020. Young people not in education, training or employment, that is, people absent from all basic activities of the Social State and job market, are worth of our attention. Not only because there are large in number, but mostly because they are at the ultimate level of social vulnerability in their most productive and dynamic age. The "Barometer of the Absent" is not only attempting to measure, analyze and interpret the problem, but it is mostly attempting to provide with an grounded proposal towards its effective management.