ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the internal and external factors 'at play' in shaping the attitude taken by every adolescent to the adult world of 'work' and how this in turn plays an important part in the formation of their identity as an adult. The information revolution has led to a recognition, or at least a re-emphasis, by government of the crucial role of education in preparing young people for the adult world of work by familiarising them with the 'technology of the age'. From a clinical standpoint, what young people manage to create for themselves is every bit as important as what society seems to be offering or might seek to impose on them by way of its institutions. The identity taken on by a young person as they approach the world of work in their late teens or twenties has, and has always had, a crucial bearing on their identity as an adult in later years.
