Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T01:00:41.832Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2010

SCOTT YATES*
Affiliation:
School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH
ANGEL HARRIS
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Center for African American Studies, Princeton University
RICARDO SABATES
Affiliation:
Department of Education, University of Sussex
JEREMY STAFF
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University

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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, P. (2001), Missing Data, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Arnett, J. (2006), ‘Emerging adulthood in Europe: a response to Bynner’, Journal of Youth Studies, 9: 1, 111123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, Z. (2001), The Individualized Society, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002), Individualization, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bynner, J. (2001), ‘British youth transitions in comparative perspective’, Journal of Youth Studies, 4: 1, 523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bynner, J. (2005), ‘Reconstructing the youth phase of the life course: the case of emerging adulthood’, Journal of Youth studies, 8: 367384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bynner, J., Ferri, E. and Shepherd, P. (1997), Twenty-something in the 1990s: Getting On Getting By, Getting Nowhere, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bynner, J. and Parsons, S. (2000), ‘Marginalization and value shifts under the changing economic circumstances surrounding the transition to work: a comparison of cohorts born in 1958 and 1970’, Journal of Youth Studies, 3: 3, 237249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bynner, J. and Parsons, S. (2002), ‘Social exclusion and the transition from school to work: the case of young people not in employment education or training (NEET)’, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 60: 289309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, B. (1995), Youth and Social Policy, London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Croll, P. (2008) ‘Occupational choice, socio-economic status and educational attainment: a study of the occupational choices and destinations of young people in the British Household Panel Survey’, Research Papers in Education, 23: 3, 243268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department for Education and Science [DfES] (2002), Estimating the Cost of Being ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’ at Age 16–18, Nottingham: DfES Publications.Google Scholar
Department for Education and Science [DfES] (2005), Youth Matters, Nottingham: DfES Publications.Google Scholar
Fergusson, R., Pye, D., Esland, G., McLaughlin, E. and Muncie, J. (2000), ‘Normalised dislocation and new subjectivities in post-16 markets for education and work’, Critical Social Policy, 20: 3, 288305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
France, A. (2007), Understanding Youth in Late Modernity, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Furlong, A. and Biggart, A. (1999), ‘“Framing choices”: a longitudinal study of occupational aspirations among 13 to 16-year olds’, Journal of Education and Work, 12: 1, 2135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furlong, A. and Cartmel, F. (1997), Young People and Social Change, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Furlong, A. and Cartmel, F. (2004), Vulnerable Young Men in Fragile Labour Markets: Employment, Unemployment and the Search for Long-term Security, York: York Publishing.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1991), Modernity and Self-Identity, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Harris, D. B. (1963), Children's Drawings as Measures of Intellectual Maturity, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.Google Scholar
Hobcraft, J. and Kiernan, K. (2001), ‘Childhood poverty, early motherhood and adult social exclusion’, British Journal of Sociology, 52: 3, 495517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treasury, HM (2007a), Policy Review of Children and Young People, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Treasury, HM (2007b), Aiming High for Young People, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Ianelli, C. and Smyth, E. (2008), ‘Mapping gender and social background differences in education and youth transitions across Europe’, Journal of Youth Studies, 11: 2, 213232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, D. and Young, R. (2009), ‘Improving the utility of imputed values in survey datasets’, JSM Proceedings, Statistical Computing Section, Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association.Google Scholar
Kerchoff, A. C. (2002), ‘The transition from school to work’, in Mortimer, J. and Larson, R. (eds.), The Changing Adolescent Experience: Societal Trends and the Transition to Adulthood, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Koppitz, E. M. (1968), Psychological Evaluation of Children's Human Figure Drawings, New York: Grure & Stratton.Google Scholar
Lawy, R. (2002), ‘Risky stories: youth identities, learning and everyday risk’, Journal of Youth Studies, 5: 4, 407423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Audit Office (2004), Connexions Service: Advice and Guidance for All Young People, London: National Audit Office.Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (2008), Youth Cohort Study and Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, Newport: Office for National Statistics.Google Scholar
Pollock, G. (1997), ‘Uncertain futures: young people in and out of employment since 1940’, Work, Employment and Society, 11: 4, 615638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, D. (1987), Multiple Imputation for Nonresponse in Surveys, New York: John Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, D. (1996), ‘Multiple imputation after 18+ years’, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 91: 473489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoon, I. (2007), ‘Adaptations to changing times: agency in context’, International Journal of Psychology, 42: 2, 94101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoon, I., Martin, P. and Ross, A. (2006), ‘Career transitions in times of social change: his and her story’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70: 7896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoon, I. and Parsons, S. (2002), ‘Teenage aspirations for future careers and occupational outcomes’, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 60: 262288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, B. and Stevenson, D. (1999), The Ambitious Generation: America's Teenagers, Motivated but Directionless, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shepherd, P. (1997), ‘Survey and response’, in Bynner, J., Ferri, E. and Shepherd, P. (eds.), Getting On, Getting By, Getting Nowhere: Twenty-something in the 1990s, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Social Exclusion Unit [SEU] (1999), Bridging the Gap: New Opportunities for 16–18 Year-Olds Not in Education, Employment or Training, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. J. (1992), ‘Post-16 options: young people's awareness, attitudes, intentions and influences on their choice’, Research Papers in Education, 7: 3, 301335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, S. and Payne, M. (2006), ‘Not so NEET? A critique of the use of “NEET” in targeting interventions with young people’, Journal of Youth Studies, 9: 3, 329344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar