Vocational training and labour market: inclusion or segregation paths? An integrated approach on immigrant trainees in Piedmont

Considering the multidimensional nature of employability, which is a latent notion, and its intrinsic connection with education and training policies, this paper uses a mix of quantitative methods to explore the integration of migrants into the Piedmont VET system (North-West Italy), and their subsequent transition into the labour market. In particular, four different approaches are developed: a macro one, investigating gross placement indicators; a micro one, investigating individual scores of integration into the labour market; a multivariate one, estimating a probit model that controls for individual characteristics; and a duration approach, analysing migrants' survival on the labour market. The counterfactual design allows to estimate the net impact of training. Generally, migrants appear to be disadvantaged with respect to EU nationals, but their gap is filled whenever considering foreign trainees. However, the duration analysis does not detect different paths for the treated migrants, but only different paths for migrants on equal integration levels. Hence, data fully confirm the role of Piedmont training policies to contrast and re-cover the disadvantage of target groups which appear weak on the labour market.