ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on young people in jobs without training (JWT), young people who are everywhere around us but often neglected and almost invisible. This is a group that has been identified as an area of priority concern by policy makers and is targeted within the 14-19 agenda. Whilst these young people are not placed at the bottom of the hierarchy of social concern, like those who are totally NEET (not in education, employment or training), they are seen as having low levels of life and vocational skills and pose a threat to the government’s expressed aim that all young people be in education and training up to the age of 18. According to the DfES they ‘may be difficult to contact and identify’ (2006, p. 2), are often unaware of statutory training entitlements and are sometimes reluctant to discuss them with their employers. The chapter draws on a longitudinal qualitative research project conducted from 2006-2008 that sought to locate the problem of JWT within its broader social and educational context (Quinn et al. 2008). The research was funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the European Social Fund (ESF) and also by the Connexions service, whose personal advisers (PAs) worked directly with young people to provide them with information, advice and guidance in respect of learning and employment opportunities. The research project had a regional flavour being concerned specifically with young people in the south west (SW) of England. The aim of the project, based within the University of Exeter, was to explore issues and questions relating to young people’s lack of participation/involvement in work and training, from the perspective of the young people themselves and of policy makers and other stakeholders. A second but no less important strand of the project has been to raise capacity and promote improved understanding and practice amongst front-line delivery staff. In both strands it draws upon participative methodological approaches previously developed by Quinn and colleagues (2006). The research charted patterns of transitions amongst young people and explored and analysed their meanings and the implications that arose from them. It investigated how young people perceive themselves and are perceived by those who advise them.
