In a Changing World of Work, Cooperatives Provide Security and Meaningful Jobs to Young People, New Study Shows

Summary

CICOPA, the international organisation of industrial and service cooperatives, has published today a new “Global Study on Youth Cooperative Entrepreneurship”, as part of its campaign “We own it! The future of work is ours”.

The study is based on desk research and on an online survey involving 64 youth cooperatives in the five continents, and shows how – in a world of work deeply reshaped by demographic changes, globalization, technological innovations and youth unemployment – cooperatives can be a concrete tool in the hands of young people for improving their work and entrepreneurship conditions.

The study reveals a quite fresh and dynamic picture of youth cooperatives who took part in the survey. They are primarily active in the service sector, and are highly involved in activities requiring a certain degree of training, specialized knowledge and skills (e.g. telecommunications and information technologies, programming, legal and accounting activities, management, consultancy, research, marketing…). In most cases, they are micro or small-sized enterprises and have reported a positive economic performance and increasing or stable trends in job creation in recent years. They reveal gender equity in management positions and are extremely keen to implement new organizational methods in their business practices (e.g. workplace organisation and governance practices).