Throughout the 1980s and 90s there was international interest in the UK’s extensive experience (which began in the 1970s) with measures to allev.
- Pub. date: June 15, 2019
- Pages: 1-11
- 637 Downloads
- 1362 Views
- 0 Citations
Throughout the 1980s and 90s there was international interest in the UK’s extensive experience (which began in the 1970s) with measures to alleviate youth unemployment. Today the UK attracts international attention on account of its low rates of youth unemployment and NEET, its (still) relatively rapid education-to-work transitions, and (according to the OECD) its sustainable system for funding mass higher education. This paper uses a transitions regime paradigm to overview the outcomes of 40 years of change in England’s lower and upper secondary education, government-supported training, welfare provisions, economy and labour markets. We see how government policies polarise schools and young people into those who are achieving and those who are failing. Then, as employers become more influential, young people are re-sorted into the employment classes that have been formed during 30 years of change in the economy and labour market. Most from the former achieving group are pulled into the centre, between the smaller numbers on the one side who are embarking on elite careers, and on the other those who become part of a precariat class.
Keywords: Education, labour markets, vocational training, youth.
0
References
Armstrong, M. (2019, February 21). When the milestones of adulthood are reached in the UK. Retrieved from www.statistica.com
Augar Report. (2019). Independent panel report to the review of post-18 education and funding. London, UK: HMSO.
Avram, S., & Harkness, S. (2018). The NMW/NLW and progression out of minimum wage jobs in the UK. London, UK: Low Pay Commission.
Baxter, J. L. (1975). The chronic job changer: a study of youth unemployment. Social and Economic Administration, 9(3), 184-206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9515.1975.tb00573.x
Belfield, C., Britton, J., Buscha, F., Dearden, L., Dickson, M., Erve, L. van der, … & Zhu, Y. (2018).The Impact of Undergraduate Degree on Early-Career Earnings. London, UK. Institute for Fiscal Studies
Boliver, V. (2015). Are there distinctive clusters of higher and lower status universities in the UK? Oxford Review of Education, 41(5), 608-627.
Brooks, G., Giles, K., Harman, J., Kendall, S., Rees, F., & Whittaker, S. (2001). Assembling the fragments: A review of research on basic adult skills - Research report 220. Sheffield, UK: Department for Education and Employment.
Bursnall, M., Naddeo, A., & Speckesser, S. (2019). Young People’s Education Choices and Progression to Higher Education- Discussion Paper 496. London, UK: National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
Carter, M. P. (1962). Home, school and work: A study of the education and employment of young people in Britain. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
CEDEFOP (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training). (2018). Skills forecast: Trends and challenges to 2030. Luxembourg , Luxembourg : Publications Office of the European Union.
Clark, T., & Heath, A. (2014). Hard times: The divisive toll of the economic slump. Cambridge, UK: Yale University Press.
Confederation of British Industry (2019). Getting apprenticeships right: Next steps. London, UK: Confederation of British Industry.
Department for Education. (2017). Employment and Earnings Outcomes of Higher Education Graduates by Subject and Institution: Experimental Statistics Using the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) Data, Department for Education, London.
Department for Education. (2019). Key Stage 4 Including Multi-Academy Trust Performance 2018 (revised). London, UK: Department for Education.
Dolphin, T., & Lanning, T. (Eds.) (2011). Rethinking apprenticeships. London, UK: Institute for Public Policy Research.
Droy, L., Goodwin, J., & O’Connor, H. (2019). Liminality, Marginalisation and Low-Skilled Work: Mapping Long-term Labour Market Difficulty Following Participation in the 1980s Government-Sponsored Youth Training Schemes, Occasional Paper 7, School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester.
Egerton, M., & Savage, M. (2000). Age stratification and class formation: a longitudinal study of the social mobility of young men and women, 1971-1991. Work, Employment and Society, 14(1), 23-49. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170022118257
Felstead, A., Gallie, D., Green, F., & Inanc, H. (2013). Skills at work in Britain. London, UK: Institute of Education.
Felstead, A., Gallie, D., Green, F., & Henseke, G. (2018). Productivity in Britain: The workers’ perspective - First findings from the skills and employment survey 2017. London, UK: Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies, UCL Institute of Education.
Field S (2018). The Missing Middle: Higher Technical Education in England. London, UK: Gatsby Foundation.
Fleckenstein, T., & Lee, S. C. (2018). Caught up in the past? Social inclusion, skills, and vocational education and training policy in England. Journal of Education and Work, 31(2), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2018.1433820
Franzen, A. M., & Kassman, A. (2005). Longer-term labour market consequences of economic inactivity during young adulthood: a Swedish national cohort study. Journal of Youth Studies, 8(4), 403-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260500431719
Friedman, S., Laurison, D., & Miles, A. (2015). Breaking the “class” ceiling? Social mobility into Britain’s elite occupations. Sociological Review, 63(2), 259-289. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12283
Friedman, S., & Laurison, D. (2019). The class ceiling: Why it pays to be privileged. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Furlong, A. (2006). Not a very NEET solution: representing problematic labour market transitions among early school-leavers. Work, Employment and Society, 20(3), 553-569. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017006067001
Harrison, N. (2019). Students-as-insurers: rethinking “risk” for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England. Journal of Youth Studies, 22(6), 752-771.
Henseke, G., Felstead, A., Gallie, D., & Green, F., (2018). Skills Trends at Work in Britain: First Findings from the Skills and Employment Survey 2017. London, UK: Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies, UCL Institute of Education.
High Fliers Research. (2019). The Graduate Market in 2019. London, UK: High Fliers Research.
Hodgson, A., Howieson, C., Raffe, D., Spours, K., & Tinklin, T. (2004). Post-16 curriculum and qualifications reform in England and Scotland: lessons from home international comparisons. Journal of Education and Work, 17(4), 441-465.
Holford, A. (2017). Access to and Returns from Unpaid Graduate Internships, Discussion Paper 1ZA. Bonn, Germany: Institute for Labour Economics.
Hoskins, B., Leonard, P., & Wilde, R. J. (2018). Negotiating uncertain economic times: youth employment strategies in England. British Educational Research Journal, 44(1), 61-79. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3318
Ingram, N., & Allen, K., (2019). ‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions. Sociological Review, 67(3), 723-740. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118790949
Kelsall, R. K., Poole A ., & Kuhn, A. (1972). Graduates: The Sociology of an Elite. London, UK: Methuen.
Lee, D., Marsden, D., Rickman, P., & Duncombe, J. (1990). Scheming for Youth: A Study of YTS in the Enterprise Culture. Milton Keynes, Open University Press.
MacDonald, R., & Coffield, F. (1991). Risky Business: Youth and the Enterprise Culture. Lewes, England: Falmer Press.
Maguire, S. (2018). Who cares? Exploring economic inactivity among young women in the NEET group across England. Journal of Education and Work, 31(7-8), 660-675. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2019.1572107
McDowell, L. (2019). Looking for work: youth, masculine disadvantage and precarious employment in post-millennium England. Journal of Youth Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2019.1645949
McGurk, P., & Meredith, R. (2018). Local employer engagement or distant elites? Local enterprise partnerships and employment and skills in England. Journal of Education and Work, 31(7-8), 692-714.
McIntosh S (2007). A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Apprenticeships and Other Vocational Qualifications, Research Report RR834. Nottingham, England: Department for Education and Skills.
Montacute, R., & Cullinane, C. (2018). Access to Advantage. London, UK: Sutton Trust.
Montgomery, T., Mazzei M., Baglione, S., & Sinclair, S. (2017). Who cares? The social care sector and the future of youth employment, Policy and Politics, 45, 413-429.
Office for National Statistics (2019). Graduates in the UK Labour Market: 2017. London, UK: Office for National Statistics.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2015). Education Policy Outlook: United Kingdom. Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Paton, G. (2014, January 17). Graduates earning less than those on apprenticeships. Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10578118/Graduates-earning-less-than-those-on-apprenticeships.html
Raffe, D. (2008). The concept of transition system. Journal of Education and Work, 21(4), 277-296.
Raffe, D. (2014). Explaining national differences in education-work transitions: twenty years of research on transition systems. European Societies, 16(2), 175-193.
Roberts, K., Noble, M., & Duggan, J. (1982). Youth unemployment: an old problem or a new lifestyle? Leisure Studies, 1(2), 171‑182.
Roberts, K., & Parsell, G. (1992a). The stratification of Youth Training. British Journal of Education and Work, 5(1), 65-83.
Roberts, K., & Parsell, G. (1992b). Entering the labour market in Britain: the survival of traditional opportunity structures. Sociological Review, 40(4), 726-753. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1992.tb00409.x
Roberts, S. (2011). Beyond ‘NEET’ and ‘tidy’ pathways: considering the ‘missing middle’ of youth transition studies. Journal of Youth Studies, 14(1), 21-39.
Shildrick, T., MacDonald, R., Furlong, A., Roden, J., & Crow, R. (2012). Are ‘Cultures of Worklessness’ Passed Down the Generations? York, England: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Smith, D. J. (2009). Changes in transitions: the role of mobility, class and gender. Journal of Education and Work, 22(5), 369-390.
Standing, G. (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
Sutton Trust (2014, August 11). Higher apprenticeships better for jobs than university degree say public – new polling for Sutton Trust/Pearson summit. Retrieved from www.suttontrust.com
Taylor, N. (2017). A job, any job: the UK benefits system and employment services in an age of austerity. Observatoire de la Societe Britannique, (19), 267-285.
Trade Union Congress. (2013). Four in five jobs created since 2010 have been in low paid industries. London, UK: Trade Union Congress.
Tumino, A. (2015). The Scarring Effect of Unemployment from the Early ‘90s to the Great Recession (Working Paper 2015-05, Institute for Economic and Social Research). Colchester, UK: University of Essex.
Universities UK (2012). Patterns and trends in UK higher education. London, UK: Universities UK.
Vasagar, J. (2011, January 18). Third of graduate jobs will go to people with work experience, poll shows. The Guardian, Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/jan/18/third-graduate-jobs-work-experience
Wakeling, P., & Savage, M. (2015). Entry into elite positions and the stratification of higher education in Britain. Sociological Review, 63(2), 290-320. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12284
Walter, A. (2006). Regimes of youth transitions: choice, flexibility and security in young people’s experiences across different European contexts. Young, 14(2), 119-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1103308806062737
White, M., & Knight, G. (2018). Training, job mobility and employee satisfaction. Journal of Education and Work, 31(5-6), 447-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2018.1513639
Wilde, R. J., & Leonard, P. (2018). Youth Enterprise: the role of gender and life stage in motivations, aspirations and measures of success. Journal of Education and Work, 31(2), 144-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2017.1421311
Williamson, H. (2004). The Milltown boys revisited. Oxford, UK: Berg.
Wolf, A. (2011). Review of vocational education: The wolf report. London, UK: Department for Education.
Yates, S., & Payne, M. (2006). Not so NEET? A critique of the use of NEET in settings targets for interventions with young people. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(3), 329-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260600805671