ABSTRACT
This book considers the situation of young European citizens, aged between 18 and 25, who are unemployed. Many, whose stories we open up here, are currently labeled 'socially excluded'. This term first came from UNESCO and the EU as an attempt to direct,
At its core is an exploration of various vocational education, training, guidance and employment schemes across Europe that are meant to 'activate' these young adults, through their narratives as well as those of the professionals who are meant to help them. This book opens up insights into their joint and painful entanglement in a difficult - if not impossible - 'policy-practice dance'. On the one hand, these schemes are meant to ring-fence young adults from official unemployment statistics and to keep them gainfully 'active', either in work or some form of preparation for work. Such schemes are also meant to 'deliver' on social exclusion objectives and somehow, simultaneously, contribute to the 'integration' of these young adults.
