‘Dead end kids in dead end jobs’? Reshaping debates on young people in jobs without training

Re-engagement to where? Low SES students in alternative-education programmes on the path to low-status destinations?

“…For Bernie, acting does not appear to be a career path he can realistically foresee as a part of his future. While Bernie does not present in quite the same way as Quinn, Lawy, and Diment's (2008) 'dead end kids in dead end jobs' in the sense that they were going into work without any training, we think the young people in our study were destined to finish up in the same place -on a path that will 'all too easily solidify into low waged and insecure futures ' (192). There can be little doubt that such positioning 'does not do justice to their complex lives' and that for re-engagement programmes like Connexions to work we need to go beyond 'punishing them for not being linear … [in] the current highly structured and hierarchical educational [environment] ' (192), and instead: be willing to have our assumptions about what is a worthwhile job and a worthwhile life course challenged if we wish to respect young people on their own terms.…”

Making the most of the mosaic: facilitating post-school transitions to higher education of disadvantaged students

“…What teachers saw as a positive pedagogic focus on the 'unique individual' was found to mask how school practices may discriminate against groups who are not positioned for whatever reason as part of the 'norm' and may make invisible collective group experiences of inequalities which are discursively produced (Allard and Santoro 2008). So we should not write off students who have 'dropped out' of schooling to take up 'dead end' jobs without training, for research has shown many to be 'making a life' for themselves involving workplace learning (Quinn et al 2008). Further down the track they may take up the mosaic possibility of becoming a late entrant into further education.…”

“…This high-risk approach means the ''do-it-yourself' biography'' may become the ''breakdown biography'' (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002, p. 4)-something already experienced by many of the students surveyed. This underlines the role of schools and teachers in equipping students ''with the skills and attributes required for success under such circumstances'' (Alloway and Dalley-Trim 2009, p. 56), and in helping them cope with wider social circumstances which shape their opportunities and sense of self efficacy, or lack of it (Quinn et al 2008). …”

Playing the numbers game: Connexions personal advisers working with learners on entry to employment programmes

“…We used to say that employment without training wasn't a positive destination but employment with training was but now I think that if any young person … gets a job without training that would be a major breakthrough and very positive. [PA3] It is interesting to compare this view with the findings of Quinn, Lawy, and Diment (2008), that 'jobs without training' (JWT) are not necessarily 'jobs without learning' and may indeed be a positive outcome in certain respects. However, they also point out the serious structural inequalities faced by many of the young people in JWT and their need for continuing support and guidance if this initially welcome destination is not to solidify into a lifetime of low-waged and insecure working.…”