November 02, 2015

New report finds young people’s routes from school to work has changed dramatically over the past 30 years

Young English people today on average take two years of additional non-compulsory education before entering the labor market, finds a new report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

The number of young people who directly transition from school to work has fallen from over 90% to 40% in recent years. Conversely, the percentage of young people transitioning from school to work by undertaking additional education has grown from 4% to over 50%.

This reflects the changes to the international labor market; there are fewer jobs, and increasingly jobs require additional educational attainment before a candidate is considered qualified to apply.

A successful transition into the labor market is very important for young people’s long-term economic success, and struggling to do so can have scarring negative effects on their future careers. At a time when there are 683,000 people aged 16-24 who are unemployed in the UK, 53% of Greece’s youth are not working, and a rate of 49% youth unemployment in Spain, there is evidently a need for policies to improve the school to work transition for today’s young people.

IZA World of Labor author Jochen Kluve has written about the effects of comprehensive skills-focused programs on reducing youth unemployment. Kluve finds that active labor market programs may be an effective tool for generating more and better youth employment, but “The key to a successful youth intervention program is comprehensiveness, comprising multiple targeted components, including job-search assistance, counseling, training, and placement services.”

Our author Werner Eichhorst, in his article on vocational training for young people, writes that institutions have a crucial role in structuring young people’s transitions from school to work. Eichhorst advises that, “Vocational training, in particular in a dual form combining vocational schooling and structured learning on-the-job, is often considered to be one of the most important policy solutions in combating youth unemployment.”

Related articles:
NIESR report: What young English people do once they reach school-leaving age.
Youth labor market interventions,
by Jochen Kluve
Does vocational training help young people find a (good) job? by Werner Eichhorst

Read more of our education and human capital articles.