Work and Education in the World Bank Agenda to Brazilian youth

Abstract

This paper analyses the World Bank agenda for the Brazilian youth. It discusses the narrative of the neet youth (Not in Education, Employment or Training); the recommendations for the State and the trends for education and work in the next decade. Based on the historical materialism, we assume that recommendations from the central nations are addressed to the periphery, leading political reforms harmful to the labor class. The control and education of the next generation are capital’s imperative. The counter reforms implemented in the last decades aims at preparing the work force to be available to be exploited, both as employees or an entrepreneurs. The World Bank refers to the unemployed youth as a social problem to be solved by new types of public policies. They recommend the labor de-regulation and propose a salary below the minimum wage for the youth. In the educational field, the policies lead to a downgrade of the workforce training costs, curriculum simplification and teaching flexibilization. The ideology of entrepreneurship is linked to these efforts mainly to shape young behavior through socioemotional competencies. Concepts such as "disengagement" and “human capital accumulation” are used to produce a new comprehension about unemployment, stressing the idea of unemployment as a student’s or the educational system’s disfunction.