ニート : フリーターでもなく失業者でもなく : not in education, employment, or training

Young people who are not in full-time education, employment or training (NEET) are the subject of continuing policy concern. The Scottish Executive is committed to reducing their numbers, to extending their opportunities for education or training and to improving support services. It is believed that many young people who are NEET are from disadvantaged backgrounds and experience disadvantage in later life. However little research on the problem has been conducted in Scotland. This Briefing summarises a study which used the Scottish School Leavers Survey (SSLS) to examine the number, backgrounds and activities of NEET young people in the late 1990s.

Young people not in education, employment or training

The last 50 years have seen profound changes in how young people experience early adulthood, reflecting more fundamental alterations in economy and society. For three decades after the end of World War II, the majority of young people left school and entered full-time work at the first opportunity, and youth transitions were perhaps at their most condensed and unitary in post-war Britain (Jones 1995, p.23). Most school-leavers were able to find the types of work they expected and, for the majority, leaving home, marriage and parenthood took place soon thereafter. A small minority of mainly middle-class young people went on to higher education, but lengthy periods of study at college or university were quite rare amongst working-class youth. Day-release at a technical college often formed part of the apprenticeship programmes which — especially in construction, engineering or manufacturing industry — were prized by many school-leavers, especially young working-class men. However, few young people in unskilled or semi-skilled work experienced post-compulsory education and there was often considerable pressure from family and friends to leave education and start earning as soon as possible (Goodwin and O’Connor 2005, p.214).

Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training

This paper draws on an analysis of one of the UK’s most prominent longitudinal datasets: the British Household Panel Survey The panel was used to enquire about, and track the realisation of, job aspirations of young people born in the early 1980s and entering the workforce in the 2000s The study compared the aspirations of young people growing up in socio-economically disadvantaged areas with those growing up in non-disadvantaged areas The analysis confirmed strong differences in the occupational preferences and choices of young people in these two types of areas Young people in disadvantaged areas more often sought manual occupations, often following their parents’ example; they were also more likely to become unemployed, reflecting economic tertiarisation and decreasing availability of manual jobs in those areas However, the study also found evidence of young people from disadvantaged areas using repeated changes in jobs to achieve employment in higher-level occupations, which was related to greater job satisfaction The same was not the case for young people in non-disadvantaged areas The research demonstrated that growing up in disadvantaged areas did not prevent the proactive construction of career biographies per se, but it required greater effort, exposing additional barriers to job satisfaction

Leaping off the track: comparing the experiences of first jobs of young people living in disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Britain

In the last decades, young people not in education or employment have become the focus of policy-makers worldwide, and there are high political expectations for various intervention initiatives. Despite the global focus, there is currently a lack of systemic knowledge of the factors supporting policy-making. Therefore, using scoping review methodology, a systematic literature overview of research findings in 2013–2021 on young people not in education or employment will be provided. The research revealed five categories to consider from a policy-making perspective: “NEET” as a concept, the heterogeneity of the target group, the impact of policies for young people, possible interventions, and factors influencing young people's coping strategies. Based on analysis, the target group requires applying the holistic principle where the young person is a unique person whose involvement in service creation supports the service's compliance with the actual needs of young people. To support young people, it is important to consider differences within a single social group; the interaction between the different site-based policies; young people's sense of self-perception and autonomy in entering support services; possible coping strategies and the need to provide support in a time and place-based flexible and caring environment through multidisciplinary teams. The study's results support the importance of implementation and the identification of existing opportunities of the EU's reinforced Youth Guarantee guidelines and point to possible future research topics related to the target group.

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Policy responses to real world challenges associated with NEET youth: a scoping review

The influence of living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood on young people’s transitions from education to the labour market has not received much attention in past research. This study examines the ...

Magdalini Karyda

Papers

The influence of neighbourhood crime on young people becoming not in education, employment or training