While policy-makers in Britain can justifiably lay claim to creating the term NEET to define young people who do not engage in formal learning, training or employment, the high number who fall into, and remain in, this category continues to challenge them. This, in part, is attributable to the extended use of the term NEET to capture all young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who fail to make sustained transitions, as opposed to the 16-18 year old cohort the term was initially designed to measure. This article will provide a discussion about the continued relevance of the term NEET to articulate, define and quantify youth disengagement in England. It will also explore a recent government-led policy intervention that has been introduced to tackle the issue. A particular focus will be the growing profile and involvement of the private sector in designing and leading NEET programmes. Within this, there will be a discussion about who should be taking the lead and whether a relinquishing of responsibility by government for the ownership of NEET programmes and their delivery is appropriate, given the current restrictions on the public purse. Of importance here is what this trend means for young people themselves with regard to the provision of positive and sustained opportunities on a scale that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse and persistent population.
Over recent years, a central concern of policy has been to drive up post-16 participation rates in full-time education and address the needs of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). As a result, young people who enter work which is classified as 'without training' at 16/17 have largely been ignored. However, the decision to Raise the Participation Age (RPA) for continuing in learning for all 17-year olds from 2013 and for all 18-year olds from 2015 in England, together with a growing unease about the impact of the current recession on youth unemployment rates, have revived interest in the 'jobs without training' (JWT) group. This paper draws on the findings from two studies: first, a qualitative study in two contrasting local labour markets, of young people in JWT, together with their employers and parents; and second, an evaluation of the Learning Agreement Pilots (LAP), which was the first policy initiative in England targeted at the JWT group. Both studies reveal a dearth of understanding about early labour market entrants and a lack of policy intervention and infrastructure to support the needs of the JWT group throughout the UK. From this, it is concluded that questionable assumptions have been made about the composition and the aspirations of young people in JWT, and their employers, on the basis of little or no evidence. As a consequence, a policy 'quick fix' to satisfy the RPA agenda will not easily be achieved. If the decision to raise the participation age is adopted also by the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, similar challenges may have to be faced. (DCSF, 2009). This is a far cry from 1972, when the statutory schoolleaving age was raised from 15 to 16, and nearly two-thirds of all young people left school as soon as possible, with the vast majority moving directly into work (Roberts, 1995).The position in the UK can also be contrasted to those in other countries. For example, Ryan (2001) pointed to there being significant differences between European countries, both in terms of their levels of youth unemployment and with regard to the quality of work in which young people are employed. Ryan attributes such cross-national differences to structural factors, such as variations between countries in their levels of economic performance, cyclical trends in unemployment rates and youth cohort sizes. Recent empirical evidence also suggests that national differences with regard to employment protection legislation, as well as the level of support for vocational education, significantly impact on young people's labour market entry patterns, depending on their levels of academic attainment (Wolbers, 2007). Wolbers' study found that deregulated labour markets, such as the UK, were more likely to increase the likelihood of unemployment or inactivity once young people had entered the labour market and to reduce the quality of their first employment. However, protective employment practices were also found to benefit young people with higher levels of education in highly deregulated labour ...
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