ABSTRACT
The defining feature of the globalising pressures is one of accelerating technological change. With the advent of computer-based information technology, the nature of employment had been rapidly transformed. The standard transition from school to work, which up the end of the 1960s two thirds of young people made at the age of 16, was replaced ten years later by one in which one third were leaving school at the minimum age. In 1994, another development was announced, the modern apprenticeship, which re-established the traditional means of training young people for jobs, but through a much shortened two year period of work- based training combined with education. In 1992, a sample survey of 1,650 cohort members was undertaken by social statistics research unit, to investigate the forces and circumstances which influence young people in their transition from full-time education to employment. The cohort members completed questionnaires, kept two four-day diaries, and undertook educational assessments.
