Connecting with younger profiles and building their loyalty, a key challenge for current cooperativism

We live in a context of global instability that is felt strongly among the younger generations. In Catalonia, as in the rest of the territories, the accumulation of economic crises in recent years has called into question an idea that for decades was not questioned: that institutions act with neutrality and watch over the general interest. For many young people, this trust has cracked, and to this is added a growing sense of precariousness that widens the distance from the system.

The data are a symptom of this malaise. A survey from the Center for Opinion Studies shows that 8% of generation Z –between 16 and 26 years old– places itself on the far right, compared to 4% of millennials and 3% of generation X. A trend that invites reflection, since today's young people will be the ones who, in the future, will occupy the spaces that are now in the hands of adults. Cooperativism has much to offer in this context of disaffection and lack of horizon, but also a path to travel, and it is precisely the youth that it needs to approach more than ever.

Shortening distances as a key goal

One of the challenges for Catalan cooperativism involves knowing how to connect with young profiles and retain them. Today, however, the relationship between youth and cooperativism is weak, marked by a deep cultural and informational distance. People under 30 are the ones who know the model the least, according to a Takticom study conducted in 2025.

And it is not because the values do not connect: many young people describe cooperativism with words like collaboration, community, democracy, or horizontality, and associate it with experiences that are close and committed to the common good. The problem is that this image remains in the realm of an ethical ideal, almost like a non-profit association, and it is not fully visualized as a future career option.

The labor priorities of youth—flexibility, a decent salary, a good environment, and a sense of purpose in their work—coincide with cooperative values. But many do not consider working there, nor would they know where to look: economic uncertainty weighs on them, as it is perceived that a cooperative implies more risk, less stability, and lower wages, and a lack of information weighs on them, because cooperativism often does not appear in job offers nor is it taught in classrooms.

When someone arrives there, the story repeats itself: no one had spoken to them about it before, and they discover it when they were already looking for another way to live and work. Once they enter, they recognize the values that make them stay: belonging, coherence between ideas and work, collective work, flexible hours, and a will for social transformation.

Structural type ignorance

The diagnosis is clear: the lack of knowledge about cooperatives among young people is structural. It is not present in the education system, nor in vocational training, nor in youth employment policies, and when young people do encounter it, they do so through indirect paths. The main challenge is to turn this identification of values into real involvement: to demonstrate that cooperativism is a tangible, accessible, and contemporary experience that combines ethical coherence with economic viability and organizational flexibility.

If there is one area from which this change can begin, it is education: knowledge of the cooperative model must reach secondary school, high school, vocational training, and university in a generalized way, especially in specialties linked to business and entrepreneurship. From the Confederation of Cooperatives of Catalonia, we promote projects in this direction: in secondary education, the Educational Itineraries of Social Economy and Ethical Finance offer modules to introduce students to the model within the classroom; in the university sphere, the Summer University of Cooperativism (UESCOOP) creates a space for training and debate for students and cooperativists; and the sector also offers postgraduate courses in theoretical and practical training in social and solidarity economy.

Bringing cooperativism closer to young people is not just a matter of communication, but of building, from an early age, the role models that are currently missing: a challenge that is also an opportunity to show that another model of business, and of society, is possible.