Is transition support a hurdle to getting a job?

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of school to work transition support for young disabled adults. We specifically examine the claims of what we have termed the ‘hurdle theory’ of transition support, which dominates Norwegian disability research. The fundamental assumption of this theory is that there is a negative relationship between transition support and employment outcomes. We use a cross-sectional sample of 245 young disabled Norwegian adults to examine this assumption, and find that transition support in the form of labour market programme (LMP) participation is negatively associated with employment outcomes, even when we control for other significant background variables. However, due to limits in our data and the non-arbitrary nature of transition support, we cannot rule out that there might be other explanatory variables that account for this association. Therefore, we also point to other potential explanations of the negative association and research designs better suited to investigate these claims.

Keywords:

• disability
• employment
• transition
• transition support
• welfare services

Acknowledgements

This study is sponsored by ‘NAV Farve’ and The Ministry of Labour in Norway. Thanks to the anonymous referees of this journal for their valuable comments.