Early Occupational Aspirations and Fractured Transitions: A Study of Entry into ‘NEET’ Status in the UK

Abstract

There has been significant recent research and policy interest in issues of young people's occupational aspirations, transitions to employment and the antecedents of NEET (not in employment, education or training) status. Many have argued that changes to the youth labour market over the past 30 years have led to transitions to work becoming more individualised, complex and troublesome for many, particularly those from poorer backgrounds. However, little research has examined the connection between early uncertainty or misalignment in occupational aspirations and entry into NEET status. This paper draws on the British Cohort Study to investigate these issues, and finds that young people with uncertain occupational aspirations or ones misaligned with their educational expectations are considerably more likely to become NEET by age 18. Uncertainty and misalignment are both more widespread and more detrimental for those from poorer backgrounds. These findings are discussed in the context of recent research and debates on emerging adulthood and the youth labour market.

The changing determinants of UK young adults´ living arrangements

“…The extent to which emergent adulthood is a legitimate concept across all sections of society has been rigorously debated (Arnett 2007;Bynner 2005;Hendry and Kloep 2007). Some contend that young adults are more accurately experiencing "structured individualization" (Côté and Bynner 2008;Furlong and Cartmel 2007) with opportunities and pathways to adulthood still strongly influenced by young people's original location in the social structure, despite a greater sense of individual autonomy (MacDonald et al 2005;Roberts 2009;Schoon 2007;Yates et al 2010).…”

Young people and UK labour market policy: A critique of ‘employability’ as a tool for understanding youth unemployment

“…Reasons include the expansion of full-time places in higher and further education, the raising of the school-leaving age, and the collapse of the traditional rapid entry into employment in manufacturing and heavy industry within post-industrial cities (Pollock, 1997;Yates et al, 2011). In the mid-1970s 'two-thirds of teenagers went straight into employment at age 16, at the end of the 1990s less than one in ten 16 year-olds looked for work as they completed compulsory schooling' (McDowell, 2002, p.42).…”

Testing times: careers market policies and practices in England and the Netherlands

“…Alongside this, there is a growing body of evidence on the long-term penalties for individuals when career ambitions are uncertain or unrealistic (Yates, Harris, Sabates, & Staff, 2011). It has been shown that 6 D. Hughes et al young people who were uncertain or unrealistic about their career ambitions at 16 went on to be three times more likely to spend significant periods of times being NEET, compared to their peers.…”