Formerly NEET Young People's Pathways to Work: A Case-Study Approach

Abstract

The recession in the United Kingdom has had a disproportionate effect on young people's employment opportunities, rendering many of them, especially those with low-level qualifications, ensnared in insecure, low-paid work. Findings from two multinational private sector company case studies, incorporating the perspectives of management staff, young people working within them, career support service practitioners and Jobcentre Plus managers, reveal that many young people want to work, but have difficulty in finding and retaining paid employment. Previously NEET (not in employment, education or training) young people, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, tend to access work via informal pathways and obtain knowledge about the workplace via informal means, rendering them less likely to gain and retain secure, well-paid employment. Private sector employers, career guidance and support practices are progressively moving towards more formal routes of gaining and retaining staff. Integrated, holistic systems that support both the young person and employer are required to help previously NEET young people secure relevant job opportunities.

The realities of being young, unemployed and poor in post-industrial Britain

“…These included Assessment and Qualification Alliance (AQA) qualifications (from Entry Level to Unit 2), including topics such as ‘Shape’ and ‘Time’; Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR) Entry Level Certificates in Information and Communication Technology (Entry 3); and an Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) Bronze Youth Achievement Award. The young people in this research supported Wolf’s (2011) findings that low-level bite-sized qualifications do not hold the same credibility as more traditional academic qualifications, nor are they so readily recognised by employers (Russell, 2014). Indeed, many of the young people in this study had folders full of certificates and credentials that would take anyone a long time to sift through, understand and remember.…”

Economic Inactivity, Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) and Scarring: The Importance of NEET as a Marker of Long-Term Disadvantage

“…For example, Croxford and Raffe (2000) found NEET young people engaged in seeking work denoting a level of attachment to paid employment. Some young people are also able to access employment informally, a circumstance which is not captured by a NEET/non-NEET divide (Russell, 2014; Watts, 2010). Smeaton et al (2010) reported that young people were likely to occupy insecure employment and therefore to inhabit the NEET category periodically.…”

Do young people not in education, employment or training experience long-term occupational scarring? A longitudinal analysis over 20 years of follow-up

“…Roberts (2011) argues that the trajectories that young people take do not fit simply into definitions NEET or non-NEET. In addition, Russell (2014) highlights that young people are sometimes able to access employment informally. It is also the case that the experience of a severe illness, or disability, may make the classification NEET irrelevant (Furlong, 2007) because people have limited control over how they are affected by illness or disability (Statistics New Zealand, 2011).…”