Young People and Work in a globalised world

In May 2003, during a meeting of ICYCW International Chaplains - past and present – the lack of visibility of the ICYCW at international level was noted. From this came the idea of launching a big international survey on young workers.

 At the same time, during the 5th International Council in 2000, the International Secretariat had received a mandate to carry out research on “Young people in the face of changes in the world of work”. This research had been suspended after several attempts to launch it because of the amount of work involved.

The proposal of an International Survey responded perfectly to the need of National Movements to deepen their knowledge of this subject. It was a way of relaunching the research and tackling the subject with appropriate means and timetable.

During the 6th International Council in 2004 the Survey was proposed to all the national Movements who welcomed it with enthusiasm. They gave a mandate to the International Secretariat to set up the International Survey keeping in mind the comments of the National movements during the Council.

Why have an International Surey of young people and work?

The purpose of this research is to study the situation of young workers in the context of globalisation and to compare what happens in different parts of the world.

Objectives:

For the Church:

• To underline the need to reach out to young workers who still today are often distant from the Church;
• To appreciate the YCW as a concrete and suitable response to this need;

For Society:

• To promote a greater visibility of the ICYCW, especially wth regard to international institutions like the ILO, the international trade unions, national governments etc...
• To give the ICYCW the opportunity to commincate its message on the situation of young workers starting from the life and work of young people that the YCW is in contact with.

For the National Movements

• To have the experience of doing a survey at local and national level and to develop the practice of the Action Campaign in different countries;
• To developtools of knowledge and analysis of their own situation as young people in the world of work.

More specifically, to carry out a survey among young people is a form of active participation for YCW leaders, an invitation to enter into the reality of other young people of their age, an opportunity to be in contact with them and to propose the YCW Movement to them as a good experience.

It is not therefore just a scientific exercise which is to be superimposed on the life of the Movement but a working instrument which invites the Movement to go out to young workers, which opens up to them their experience and which makes the adult world more aware of what young people are facing today.

So, we are not asking you to propose the survey as something to be done in addition to your normal activities but rather to make it an integral part of your programme of activities throughout the year built into your educative process and plans for extension among young workers.

Minimum Target

In order to achieve the objectives of the Survey, each country which commits itself to the research will have to complete a minimum of 50 questionnaires to have the following totals for each continent:

• Africa: 1000 questionnaires
• Latin America: 1000 questionnaires
• Asia: 1000 questionnaires
• Western Europe: 1500 questionnaires
• Eastern Europe: 600 questionnaires
• Middle East: 500 questionaires
• Canada – USA: 600 questionnaires

If you complete extra questionnaires we can integrate them into the research without problem. With regard to the counties involved. where we are not present as a YCW Movement (especially in certain countries and areas) we can find partners to work with us and help us complete the survey (eg. CatholicYouth Service, Workers Apostolate, Social Apostolate, Caritas network, trade unions, associations...)

If you manage to complete a sufficient number of questionnaires (at least 200) well distributed between the different social and geographical contexts of your country, the survey will then be a means to analyse more closely the reality of young workers in your country. We will try to offer you the tools to help you with this.

The Questionnaire

The questionnaire, which is anonymous, comes in the form of 40 closed questions (that is questions for which an answer is chosen from a list provided) on the following themes:

A. Work Situation

B. Evaluation of Work and Prospects

C. Social and Religious Involvement

D. Personal Details

The Target Group for the Research

In order to be able to analyse and compare the results from different countries and continents we propose the following common criteria: (please follow as well as possible)

Age : age span: 

• 33% between 15 and 19,
• 33% between 20 and 24,
• 33% between 25 and 30 years old;

Young workers of the working class (unemployed young people can participate; “worker - students” surveyed should have a significant, continuous experience of work to be included in the research; excluding students; excluding workers with high professional qualifications.

• Sex: 50 – 60% male and 50 – 40% female
• A maximum of 25 % of the young people surveyed can be members of the YCW.
• Geographical division of the research in three areas :
  • Metropolitan and large urban areas (33%)
  • Medium sized and small towns(33%)
  • Villages, rural areas (33%)

The Calendar

• April – October 2005 : completion of the questionnaire in each country
• October - November 2005 : return of the questionnaires to the ICYCW International Secretariat in Rome.
• December 2005 : first results
• 2006 onward : presentation of the results et exchange between Movements within continents during the continental and sub-regional meetings