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ABSTRACT
Considerable concern has been expressed over the plight of those young people who, on leaving school, fail to enter a training programme or a job. However, very little systematic research has been carried out on these jobless — or, as we put it, ‘Status Zero’ — school‐leavers. This paper begins to report the results of a study, carried out in a single TEC/LEA area in industrial South Wales, which aims to fill this gap. On the basis of extended interviews with a small group of young people, it shows that, even amongst a group of 16‐ and 17‐year‐olds who experienced extremely disadvantaged post‐school careers, the reasons for their not being in education, training or employment are rather complex. Whilst there are clear continuities between earlier family and educational disadvantage and their post‐school experience, there is no inevitability about these relationships: diversity and contingency are also key elements. Moreover, although there is clear evidence that these young people are distanced from conventional forms of education, training and employment and they ‘make out’ by adopting forms of economic activity which prioritize short‐term rewards and the particularities of the local context, this does not imply the emergence of an ‘underclass’, wholly cut off from the mainstream of social institutions and the social relations they make possible. This, in turn, has important implications for the development of more effective policies.
