ABSTRACT
In the last decade there have been major changes in the way young people make the transition from school. In the 1950s and 1960s sociologists were primarily concerned with the transition from ‘school to work’ based on the assumption that the vast majority of school-leavers would find employment. Since the late 1970s this transition is achieved by a minority of school-leavers in many parts of the UK, whilst the majority now enter government-sponsored Youth Training Schemes (YTS).1
