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Beating the Odds: Exploring the Impact of Social Risk on Young People's School-to-Work Transitions during Recession in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Kathryn Duckworth  and
Ingrid Schoon
Ingrid Schoon*
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
*
E-mail K.Duckworth@ioe.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Drawing on nationally representative data collected for two age cohorts in the UK, this paper a) assesses the effect of multiple independent socioeconomic risk factors in shaping the transition from school to work; and b) identifies potential protective factors enabling young people to beat the odds. By comparing experiences and findings across two cohorts we assess the generalisability of findings across contexts, i.e. the 2008 and 1980s recessions. The results show that some young people exposed to even severe socioeconomic risks avoid being NEET (not in education, employment or training). Factors that appear to reduce the cumulative risk effect in both cohorts include prior attainment, educational aspirations and school engagement, as well as the social mix of the school environment.

Keywords

Human capital skillsoccupational choicelabour productivityJ24
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 222 , October 2012 , pp. R38 - R51
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

The analysis and writing of this paper were supported by the PATHWAYS International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme for the Comparative Study of Productive Youth Development (Jacobs Foundation), and a grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): RES-594-28-0001 (Centre for the Study of Learning and Lifechances in the Knowledge Economies [Llakes]). Data from the 1970 British Cohort Study and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England were supplied by the ESRC Data Archive.

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