TY - JOUR
T1 - Employability pathways for young adults
T2 - lived experiences of learners and practitioners in Youth Guarantee programmes
AU - Boeren, Ellen
AU - Mackie, Alan
AU - Riddell, Sheila
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper reports on research undertaken under the project ?Encouraging Lifelong Learning for an Inclusive and Vibrant Europe? (ENLIVEN). This project has received European Governance in Adult Education [23] funding from the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 693989. We are grateful to the authors of the country reports that formed the basis of our analysis: Sharon Clancy - The University of Nottingham; Jolien De Norre, Katleen De Rick, Sofie Cabus, Heidi Knipprath - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Concepci?n Maiztegui-O?ate, Alvaro Moro Inchaurtieta - Universidad De La Iglesia De Deusto; Gabriela Yordanova, Pepka Boyadjieva, Rumiana Stoilova, Vassil Kirov, Petya Ilieva-Trichkova - Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge; Ivana Studen?, Zuzana Ko??rov? - Prognosticky Ustav Slovenskej Akademie Vied; G?nter Hefler, Eva Steinheimer, Janine Wulz - 3S Unternehmensberatung GMBH; Marti Taru, Tanel Vallim?e, Triin Roosalu, Rain J?rv - Tallinn University; Gosia Klatt, Anne Suryani, John Polesel - University of Melbourne; Francesca Rapan?, Sandra Vatrella - Universit? Degli Studi di Verona.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/3/12
Y1 - 2020/3/12
N2 - Until today, thousands of young adults still dropout of school with no or low qualifications and experience difficulties in entering the labour market. The European Commission offers funding and opportunities for young adults to enter employability enhancing training, often organised under its flagship initiative ‘The Youth Guarantee’. The aim of these programmes is to make young adults a work, training or educational offer within four months of their start into this initiative. In this paper, we critically explore the concept of employability and focus on the roles of both the young adults undergoing training interventions, but also of practitioners whose work is ideally embedded within the local context of the labour market and the economy. We were interested in the participation experiences by both groups to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of these programmes. Evidence from interviews demonstrated that learners and practitioners were generally satisfied with the interventions, although individualised support was preferred over group-based activities. Working with stakeholders was strongly recommended for this target group who tends to experience cumulative disadvantages. Long-term follow-up of participants’ destinations will provide better evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes.
AB - Until today, thousands of young adults still dropout of school with no or low qualifications and experience difficulties in entering the labour market. The European Commission offers funding and opportunities for young adults to enter employability enhancing training, often organised under its flagship initiative ‘The Youth Guarantee’. The aim of these programmes is to make young adults a work, training or educational offer within four months of their start into this initiative. In this paper, we critically explore the concept of employability and focus on the roles of both the young adults undergoing training interventions, but also of practitioners whose work is ideally embedded within the local context of the labour market and the economy. We were interested in the participation experiences by both groups to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of these programmes. Evidence from interviews demonstrated that learners and practitioners were generally satisfied with the interventions, although individualised support was preferred over group-based activities. Working with stakeholders was strongly recommended for this target group who tends to experience cumulative disadvantages. Long-term follow-up of participants’ destinations will provide better evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes.
KW - employability
KW - Europe
KW - in-depth interviews
KW - training interventions
KW - Young adults
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081732367&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02601370.2020.1728405
DO - 10.1080/02601370.2020.1728405
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081732367
SN - 0260-1370
VL - 39
SP - 119
EP - 131
JO - International Journal of Lifelong Education
JF - International Journal of Lifelong Education
IS - 1
ER -