PROVIDING TRAINING TO UNEMPLOYED OR OTHERWISE DISADVANTAGED RURAL YOUTH IN WESTERN ROMANIA

Abstract

The high rate of school dropout (high schools, vocational schools), the increasing number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and the low participation rate of rural residents to training programmes in agricultural activities are among the most relevant specific agricultural issues at Romanian level. Though unemployment in Romania in the population aged 15-29 is rather low (4.96%), Romania needs to help young unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged adults in rural areas find employment or develop their own businesses in agriculture-related fields. One way to do so is to train rural youth in agriculture-related fields suitable for their area. A study was conducted to identify the most suitable agriculture-related topics to teach to young unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged adults in Western Banat, Romania. Both the quantitative research (online survey) involving employers in agriculture and educators from prisons and the qualitative research (in-depth interview) involving academics from the BUASVM from Timisoara, Romania, identified the same topics – Apiculture, Horticulture and Organic agriculture – but ranging them differently for different reasons. The study shows the importance of proper analysis of data before deciding the topics to teach and the field in which to train young unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged adults in rural areas.