The transition from education to working life

Transcription

1 The transition from education to working life Key data on vocational training in the European Union Cedefop Reference series Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001

2 5 Introduction Contents Chapter A conceptual framework for the analysis of young people s school-to-work transition 1 12 Presentation of the theoretical foundation of the analysis proposed in the publication. Description of the aims of public policies designed to facilitate the transition. General education, vocational training: the institutional characteristics of national educational systems 2 20 Presentation of some of the main characteristics of education and training systems in the context of the transition of young people to the labour market: contact with the workplace during training, the predominance of general education or vocational training in upper secondary education, breakdown of students by level of education. Where does the transition process begin? 3 28 This chapter presents indicators for the ages at which transition begins and ends. They tend to demonstrate that these ages are closely dependent on the national context and may even vary sharply within each country, depending on the type of education and training frequented. The unprocessed use of age groups in research on school-to-work transition is questioned, even though it gives a reasonably good idea of the profiles of progressive integration into the labour market in the various countries. Labour-market entrants 4 46 This chapter is devoted to those starting out on the labour market. Their position is compared with the position of their elders (seniors). Consideration is given to their vulnerability in terms of employment, the type of jobs they do, the breakdown of sectors and occupations, etc. The influence of gender and level of education on the various integration methods is taken into consideration. Transition from school to work in central and east European countries 5 82 The aim of this chapter is to provide a description of the transition from school to work in the 10 central and east European countries applying for accession to the European Union. The position of young people in education and training and on the labour market is analysed in the context of the fundamental socioeconomic change being experienced by those countries over the past 10 years. The integration of young people into working life and Community policies This chapter describes the Community policies and programmes set up by the European Commission, mainly within three of its Directorates-General (Education and Culture, Employment and Social Affairs, Research), to promote the integration of young people on the labour market in the European Union. Annex List of indicators Construction of the variable highest level of education and training attained (ISCED) based on the European labour force survey (ELFS) Education and training: standard module and ad hoc module on transition in the European labour force survey Theoretical ages of obtaining diplomas according to OECD Tables of graphs Typology of forms of labour-market entrants regulation by country and educational attainment General bibliography 162 Inside front cover Categories of labour-market entrants and seniors Inside back cover International Standard Classification of Education (1976 and 1997)

3 12 Key data on vocational training in the European Union The transition from education to working life A conceptual framework for the analysis of young people s school-to-work transition

4 A conceptual framework for the analysis of young people s school-to-work transition 13 1 Over the past 20 years, the issue of school-to-work transition has gradually entered into the political and social debate in the various European Union countries. Interest in this question has arisen from concern about the difficulties being encountered by young people on the labour market, a factor that emerged at the end of the 1970s in some countries, later in others. For example, youth unemployment made its appearance in Germany and Sweden later than elsewhere; it was linked with the economic situation and concentrated among less-advantaged groups. At first it was thought that the difficulties encountered by young people would be offset by the combined effects of the declining size of generations arriving at adulthood, technological change (which it was assumed would favour new arrivals on the labour market) and the marked rise in the level of education of young people, encouraged by active educational policies. In the event, however, this was not to be the case (European Commission, 1996; OECD, 1999). Although school-to-work transition is now regarded as a major social issue, we are

5 16 Key data on vocational training in the European Union The transition from education to working life The main concern of this publication is to determine the specific place that employers allocate to labour-market entrants, a group whose essential characteristic is lack of experience on the labour market, and the resulting effects on the occupational pathways taken when embarking on working life. Do labour-market entrants face particular difficulties in finding jobs? Once they are in a job, does the content of the job they do (listed by the type of enterprise taking them on, the nature of the post) differ from that of more experienced adults? In each individual country, is the employment of labour-market entrants more or less polarised in certain types of enterprise and posts? Do the employment conditions of labour-market entrants differ from those of the working population with job experience: are they more likely to be hired for fixed-term or for parttime jobs?