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.