Over the past two decades youth and higher education (HE) graduates’ unemployment have soared in Southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. This led to a growing awareness of the need for public policies that boost their employability and the number of active labour market policies (ALMPs) targeting young people has increased in these countries, especially following the 2008 economic crisis. These policies were supported in the social investment paradigm (Hemerijck, 2018) which is particularly attractive in Mediterranean countries (Amable, 2003). However, there are marked differences between countries in the priority given to graduates in policy design. To explain these different approaches, the paper argues that the narrative around the transition towards a knowledge-based economy, in which HE graduates play a key role, was more influential in some of these countries while in others, namely Italy and Spain, ALMP’s were more aligned with the industrial sectors’ needs and tackling youth unemployment through vocational education and training (VET).

This work was financed by Portuguese funds through FCT through project no. 030016, “BRIGHET- Bringing together Higher Education, Training, and Job Quality”, PTDC/SOC-SOC/30016/2017; and the Youth Employment Observatory UIDP/03127/2020 at DINAMIA’CET