Employability pathways for young adults: lived experiences of learners and practitioners in Youth Guarantee programmes

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Young adults
• employability
• in-depth interviews
• Europe
• training interventions

Acknowledgments

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; Concepción Maiztegui-Oñate, 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 Studená, Zuzana Kožárová - Prognosticky Ustav Slovenskej Akademie Vied; Günter Hefler, Eva Steinheimer, Janine Wulz - 3S Unternehmensberatung GMBH; Marti Taru, Tanel Vallimäe, Triin Roosalu, Rain Järv - Tallinn University; Gosia Klatt, Anne Suryani, John Polesel - University of Melbourne; Francesca Rapanà, Sandra Vatrella - Università Degli Studi di Verona.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

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.

Notes on contributors

Ellen Boeren

Ellen Boeren is Professor in Adult Education at the University of Glasgow.

Alan Mackie

Alan Mackie holds a PhD in Education from the University of Edinburgh where he currently works as a teaching fellow.

Sheila Riddell

Sheila Riddell is Director of the Centre for Research on Education, Inclusion and Diversity at the Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh.