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The current study explores the efforts of one summer youth employment program to provide students with meaningful work experiences and the participants' perceptions of the meaningfulness of their work and its effect on their future orientation. Most of the students in the study were under the age of 18. The Youth Enrichment Services (YES) Summer Learn and Earn program provides students with summer enrichment, their first work experience, and meaningful opportunities to engage with work. The purpose of this study was to better understand YES participants' perceptions of the meaningfulness of their summer work experiences. A secondary goal was to investigate how participants' work experiences related to their future orientations. YES is a community-based organization in Pittsburgh that gives socially and economically disadvantaged youth opportunities to achieve success through its academic enrichment, alternative to detention, peer mentor certification, life skills, cultural enrichment, diversity awareness, workforce readiness, and wellness-based programming.

Research is needed that describes how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the employment of autistic youth. In this mixed-methods study, we present data on three cohorts of military-connected/dependent youth on the autism spectrum participating in a randomized, waitlist-controlled trial of Project SEARCH + ASD Supports to describe the potential effects of COVID-19 on employment. We also present three participant case studies to highlight challenges and opportunities faced during the transition process. Findings indicate the pandemic appeared to affect the 2019-2020 cohort most negatively, with employment outcomes lagging the previous cohorts by 29.1% to 48.2%. However, the case studies highlight approaches that effectively supported participants, including interagency collaboration, military and federal partnerships, skilled employment specialist support, and family involvement.

New Zealand National Party's 2022-2023 policy of Social Investment, which if adopted, will legitimise the management of young unemployed in the name of correcting and helping them. Zygmunt Bauman's (1989) concept of 'rational bureaucratic culture' is used to examine the aims to bring the 'abnormal' citizen into the tax-paying fold. The policy will 'manage and make productive' young welfare recipients to avoid them 'bludging' and encourage them into 'productive work', no matter how menial. Using philanthropic monies alongside funding through Vote : Social Development is a new development which removes the state's sole financing of its safety-net responsibility. It will see a new interpretation of Principal: Agency policy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic relationship between unemployment and higher education participation. By using panel data covering 40 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2020, we opt to use a well-developed dynamic panel generalized method of moments estimator. The findings show that the youth unemployment rate has an inverse relationship with higher education enrollment in SSA and more specifically in countries with a low level of human development, independently of gender considerations. However, youth unemployment has a positive but not significant effect on enrollment in the medium-/high-level countries. They also show that youth unemployment positively relates to students' dropping out. These results imply that improvement is possible in the higher education sector if policymakers would consistently target lower unemployment rates.

For noncollege-bound youth, swiftly finding a satisfying job upon exiting compulsory schooling might support adjustment. Yet, youths' own job perceptions have rarely been considered in school-to-work transition research. Sequence analysis of monthly occupational status over 4 years (ages 16-20) in a low socioeconomic status Canadian sample overrepresenting academically-vulnerable youth (N = 386; 50% male; 23% visible minority) generated five school-to-work pathways: two work-bound ones with jobs perceived as aligned with career goals ("Career Job," 10%) or not ("Fill-In Job," 26%), alongside three others ("Disconnected" [15%], "Prolonged Secondary Education" [25%], "Postsecondary Education" [24%]). Mental health was strongest in the "Career Job" pathway. Male sex and adolescent employment were precursors to this advantageous pathway, underscoring the crucial role of work experience.

Background: People with an intellectual disability and/or autism experience low employment rates compared to the general population. This study shows what the determinants of success are in getting this group of young people into paid employment. Method: The research is based on data collected on 1008 young people, aged 16-25, participating in the Engage to Change project across Wales, to support young people to achieve employment. A real-time data collection system was used from their engagement and throughout their journey to employment. Results: This research indicates an overall employment rate of 23% for the project to date, based on total referral. Young people who engaged in 'significant work experience', such as paid placement or supported internship, had a greater employment rate of 37%. Conclusion: Previous and current real work experiences increased the chances of young people of becoming employed, above the effect of supported employment and job coach support.

Much research on access to the higher education system overlooks the importance of a base factor: place. An 'education desert' is defined as an area in which residents are separated from the higher education system by geography and structural factors. This study employs a granular approach to locate education deserts within the state of North Carolina, and analyze the condition of higher education access across the state. By delineating the state into Census tracts (n=2184), the analysis draws more specific boundaries around deserts than did previous researchers. The analysis then goes beyond the binary classification of desert or non-desert, and ranks each census tract's access to the higher education system on a five-point scale. The data shows that approximately one-quarter of the state's population lives in an education desert. Various socioeconomic indicators, such as median household income and the rate of disconnected youth, are found to be significantly correlated with a census tract's access to the higher education system. Distance learning seems to be an apt solution; however, residents of higher education deserts have low rates of internet access, making online education impractical. Policy makers should recognize that gaps in access to higher education, and the subsequent benefits from a degree, have roots in geography and in infrastructure.

Racially and ethnically diverse youth with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits were randomly assigned to usual services, including available school and vocational rehabilitation (VR) transition services, or enhanced case management and transition services through the Wisconsin Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (PROMISE) federal demonstration grant. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis demonstrated increased age, being African American, having a psychiatric disability, and transition services predicted higher youth employment rates. However, enhanced PROMISE transition services were no longer significant in the presence of VR services, suggesting the effect of enhanced services was mediated by increasing engagement in VR. Limitations and implications are discussed regarding the relationship between school and state VR transition services and postsecondary competitive integrated employment outcomes.

Increasing engagement to school, employment, and community are strong predictors of reducing recidivism for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. This study examined what occurs at reentry upon leaving a youth correctional setting. This study comprised of qualitative semi-structured interviews of transition specialists (TSs; n = 7) and young offenders (n = 8) who participated in a 4-year reentry project in the Pacific Northwest. A total of 21 (13 TS and eight youth) interviews were thematically coded. Findings from this study included the important role of the TS in supporting a youth's school, family, and community reentry. Key themes are described around the services to support employment, school engagement, and independent living during a youth's reentry into a school setting.

Numerous studies show that there is a positive correlation between education and the economic development of the country. Strong education systems have a positive impact not only on the success of individuals but also on the economy of the entire country. Graduates equipped with the skills required by the labor market can easily find a place in this market. Knowledge and skills relevant to market demand increase productivity have a positive impact on economic growth and development. Unfortunately, COVID Pandemic has severely damaged the education systems. Governments, scientists, and experts provide us with statistical information daily around the world about both the slowdown in economic growth as a whole and the problems of individual sectors of the economy. These are the problems and numbers that are already visible and it can be said that the losses are easily measurable. However, the damage caused to the economy by education systems affected by the pandemic will be felt by countries and humanity years later, nor will it be easy to calculate. The problem is even more difficult in poor and developing countries. This paper aims to study the impact of the COVID Pandemic on the education system and economy in Georgia. The research examines the reports and studies of various international organizations, analyzing the secondary data obtained from them. Local policy documents, government reports and regulations, and papers of different researchers have also been studied, conclusions have been made and relevant recommendations have been developed.

Recently there has been an emphasis on how time spent outside of the classroom can affect student outcomes, including high school graduation, with the hope of closing academic achievement gaps along socioeconomic and racial lines. This paper provides experimental evidence regarding a particular type of out-of-school activity--early work experience--on high school academic outcomes for low-income inner-city youth. Using randomized admissions lotteries for students who applied to the Boston Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), we estimate the effect of being selected to participate on academic outcomes as measured by administrative school records. We find that SYEP lottery winners are 4.4 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school on time and 2.5 percentage points less likely to drop out of high school during the four years after participating in the program relative to the control group. These improvements appear to be driven by better attendance and course performance in the year after being selected for the program, with the program's impact on attendance persisting into the second year. Survey data suggest that the Boston SYEP may affect academic outcomes by increasing aspirations to attend college, gaining basic work habits, and improving social skills during the summer.

This study examined the connection between adolescent employment and future participation in postsecondary education in a sample of U.S. Latino high school juniors/seniors (n = 2164) from the 1992-2002 Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study. Employed and non-employed Latino adolescents did not markedly differ in academic performance, ability, or expectations, suggesting that, for U.S. Latino adolescents, employment may depend on the degree of constraint imposed by social and economic statuses. Results of multilevel binomial logistic regression suggest plausible sources of educational disparities and reveal that high-intensity work during high school may be a source of educational disadvantage for Latino children.

In 2019, Hjørring Municipality launched a comprehensive Youth Guarantee programme to ensure 'positive destinations' for the municipality's youth. The strategy was explicitly inspired by Edinburgh's interpretation of the Scottish Youth Guarantee. In this article, we conceptualize the Youth Guarantee as a policy instrument and unpack the transfer, translation, and transformation from the initial coincidental inspiration to the policy instrument developing a 'life of its own'. The instrument serves as a vehicle for creating a constituency centred on a value-based governing paradigm, alliances, and the enthusiastic spread of the Youth Guarantee spirit. The case serves as an example of how the transfer, translation, and transformation processes of a policy instrument into a foreign legal context can play out, as well as how dominating forms of governance centred on values, alliances, and common enthusiasm in the constituency -- and even the contours of a governance paradigm -- can be teased out through such an endeavour.

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected young people in relation to their mental health, educational provision, and social development, impacting their employment prospects and future prosperity. In response, the United Kingdom government implemented a range of formal policy solutions to address issues around youth employability. However, studies are yet to examine how non-formal or alternative educational approaches, such as sport and physical activity interventions, can be used intentionally to enhance employability and tackle the youth employment challenges brought about by the pandemic. This article draws upon interviews with 20 organisations working within the sport and youth employability sector to provide insight into employment issues that have been created or exacerbated by COVID-19 and outlines how sport-based interventions might help to address these challenges. Findings demonstrate that the intentional use of sport and physical activity offers an attractive means to (re-)engage young people with employability programmes and support their preparedness for work, especially those furthest from an employment destination. The article also highlights how sport-based interventions can generate broader social impact, to address young people's social and emotional difficulties, rebuild their confidence, and re-connect them with formal systems of education and training that many had become dislocated from during the pandemic.

High unemployment rates in many developing countries have prompted research to focus on sustainability and inclusiveness of employment in line with the sustainable development goal target 8.6. The democratic republic of Congo (DRC) in sub-Saharan Africa experiences one of the highest youth unemployment rates owing to its long-term socio-political and economic instability. Qualitative and quantitative research studies have linked low employability of university-educated youth in the DRC to tribalism, corruption, and insecurity. The current study sought to identify contextual factors that predict employability of information technology (IT) graduates in the DRC. The study surveyed 355 graduates (274 male, 81 female) using 43 questionnaire. Bartlett test was 3,930.05 for Chi[superscript 2] (p-value = 0.000) and KMO test scored 0.68. McDonald's Omega test of reliability of the instrument scored 0.77 with a total cumulative variance of 72.02%. Results of this study advance the conflict theory by pinpointing the true factors which influence the employability of IT graduates in unstable developing countries. This study has discovered that socio-political background of graduates, graduate academic competencies, graduate-employer relationship, and university employability strategies are the contextual factors that predict the employability of IT graduates in the DRC. The Cronbach's Alpha test of reliability for the retained contextual factors scored 0.78, 0.75, 0.63, and 0.53, respectively.

A strong link currently exists between entrepreneurship and use of technology and the Internet, primarily because young people increasingly use digital and online strategies to start and develop entrepreneurial initiatives. The goal of this document analysis is to propose a reference framework for digital rights in youth entrepreneurship based on selection and analysis of 20 documents with legislation, regulations, and reports that focus on guaranteeing safe, responsible digital environments. The study resulted in a framework for connecting digital rights and responsibilities with young entrepreneurs, based on three main points: rights to equality and participation; rights to freedom; and rights to development, creation, and sustainability. In addition to including concepts, practices, and applications in young people's initiatives, the framework is useful for educating young entrepreneurs, guiding future research, and helping public administrations to promote the guarantee of digital rights and responsibilities for all.

This study explores the role of the welfare state in reducing young people not being in education, employment, or training (NEET)s across 15 European countries. Using data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in combination with the Social Expenditure Database, we conducted cross-national analysis to reveal whether the increase in public social spending moderates the risk of being NEET at a young adult age, especially for socially disadvantaged young people. Our results highlighted that the rise of one percentage point of public social spending per gross domestic product, including social expenditure on education, active labor market, and unemployment, is significantly associated with decreasing the odds of being NEET. Furthermore, these social expenditures appeared to lower the NEET risk given socially disadvantaged backgrounds suggesting that young people with low educational levels, whose parents have low educational attainment levels, non-immigrant families, and females are likely to benefit given the robust social protection system. These findings suggest that public social spending may be an effective investment in promoting the social involvement of young people from socially disadvantaged background.

Educational reforms have been changing as each nation strives to improve its citizens through the implementation of a curriculum that provides acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes that will promote standard performance on the job. East Africa nations for a long time have implemented content-based curriculum which was criticized in preparing graduates who do not satisfy the employability trends, job market demands, and 21st-century skills on outsourcing skillful human power resource. Currently, many Africa nations have adopted a Competency-based curriculum as an education system to drive solutions to the attainment of the populace with the desired competency for job market performance. CBC emphasizes the achievement of competence among learners. This paper discussion has dwelled on aspects of CBC, the concept of competency, the role of the teacher in CBC to develop competency, and the importance of competency in the job market. The clear conclusion attests that education should emphasize the development of competence among graduates to curb unemployment in the Africa Nations.

Ensuring food security for a growing populace amidst an aging farmer population together with a decline in youth engagement in agriculture remains a global challenge. This is more distressing for developing countries, such as Uganda, that rely on subsistence farming to meet their food production demands, including job-creation for at least 75% of their populations. Therefore, the need exists to interest young people to lead innovative enterprises as agripreneurs to overcome poverty, food insecurity, and youth unemployment. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design was used in this study. The findings indicate that a statistically significant (p < 0.01) main effect existed between groups for perceived agripreneurship competencies depending on the instructional approach. Students in the treatment group had higher adjusted marginal mean scores for perceived agripreneurship competencies than members of the counterfactual group, which implied they benefited from a project-based learning approach. However, because the females had lower agripreneurial intentions than males regardless of group, additional research is needed on how to engage and inspire females to pursue agripreneurial ventures, i.e., increase their intentions, if doing such would improve the individuals' economic livelihoods.

One in three young adults with autism or developmental disability have never been employed within eight years of their leaving high school (Newman et al., 2011). These students graduate from schools and may then work with multiple services providers across agencies. Collaboration between these agencies is critical. This case study describes the successful efforts of a group of educational leaders, parents, individuals with disabilities, and service providers who came together to improve the transition outcomes of young adults with disabilities. The success of this large and complex effort was facilitated by the application of a developmental evaluation process which adjusted the networks efforts in real time. We present a case study of the first two years of the development and implementation of this regional educational network, as well as the theory and methods of developmental evaluation used to guide its implementation. We conclude with implications for building and leading effective collaborative networks in education.

Dual Vocational Training was introduced in Spain in 2012 with the purpose to reinforce training based on employment requirements and to promote youth employment within the labour market. Since its implementation, there has been continuous growth of the presence of this modality across every Autonomous Community, with Andalusia being one of the latest regions to dualize the Vocational Educational Training (hereinafter VET) educational scheme. From the outset however, this modality has faced a number of obstacles that question its sustainability. Without losing sight of these obstacles, and with the purpose of providing arguments that justify the suitability of this model in Andalusia, this study aims to identify--from the unique perspective of three Andalusian educational institutions--the strengths of this modality and the opportunities that the Andalusian context offers. To this end, we have used the SWOT technique to analyse the opinion of a group of teachers regarding their thoughts on the Andalusian Dual VET system, from both an internal and external perspective. Workforce insertion and the quality of skills gained through training are some of the strengths that characterize this model, with the greatest opportunities derived from the needs of the Andalusian business and productive sectors. Based on the scenarios drawn, we have suggested a number of guidelines to capitalize on some of the identified strengths and take advantage of the opportunities observed.

The relevance of this research is evident as the problems of the modern market economy and the financial system of the global world economy are highly pertinent to economic science. In the modern world, on its way to globalization, the ability to promptly adapt to the conditions of international competition is becoming instrumental for ensuring successful and sustainable development. The primary competitive advantage held by a highly developed country is related to the possibility of updating its human development index, which is largely determined by the state of its education system. Thus, this area is connected to the country's sustainable economic growth over the medium and long terms; the employment of fresh graduates is a complex, relevant and multifaceted problem, since it affects almost all segments of society. Currently, in view of the rapidly evolving situation in the labor market, the threat of unemployment for recent graduates is becoming extremely acute. Today's graduates replenish vulnerable social groups that are suffering from difficult life situations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the state of employment of university graduates, as exemplified by the employment of recent graduates, and to provide recommendations to assist in their recruitment. A combination of theoretical (analysis, generalization while establishing principles and patterns), organizational (comparison, longitudinal method) and empirical (sociological methods, observational methods, quantitative method of statistical processing of the collected data and interpretation method) methods was used in the research. As part of the study, knowledge regarding the primary factors affecting high school graduates' employment is defined and systematized. The practical and theoretical significance of the study lies in the recommendations developed for promoting university graduates' employment in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) [RS (Y)] based on the results obtained.

The inclusion of career guidance in the life orientation (LO) curriculum has posed a number of challenges for LO teachers in South Africa. LO teachers seem to experience confusion, feelings of incompetence, and insufficient training that points to a need for training and professional development. The purpose of this article is to explore the training needs of LO teachers in teaching career guidance at rural high schools in the Lephalale Municipality of the Waterberg District. A qualitative research approach was followed in this study. This study was a small investigation in which non-probability purposive sampling was used to select 2 secondary schools and 1 LO teacher per selected school. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were used to elicit responses from a purposefully selected sample of 2 Further Education and Training (FET) LO teachers at 2 rural high schools in the Lephalale Municipality. FET LO teacher training needs in teaching career guidance emerged as a major theme and is discussed in this article.

This paper presents some results of the research on 'Adult education resources to reduce youth unemployment', which is a part of the project 'Implementation of the European agenda for adult learning'. The research applies a mixed-method approach (quantitative and qualitative data analysis). The purpose of the paper is to identify the most/least-efficient non-formal and informal learning methods, forms, and initiatives to promote youth entrepreneurship and employability in Latvia as well as to show the relationship between the profile of young adults and their opinion on these methods, forms, and initiatives. The findings show that the young adults stressed the importance of cooperation with employers in organising educational activities, field trips as well as the necessity of having internships, projects, and meetings with entrepreneurs to learn from their experience. The most efficient non-formal and informal learning methods, forms, and initiatives to promote youth entrepreneurship and employability in Latvia are as follows: internship in a company or institution, projects, other persons' experience and success stories, and training enterprises. The least efficient ones are mentoring, business incubators, coaching, individual work/action plan for the young people, business clubs, and business start-up funds/grants. The opinion of young adults on all aspects of non-formal and informal learning methods, forms, and initiatives depends on their profile (gender, education level, employment status, learning experience, etc.).

Throughout the 1980s and 90s there was international interest in the UK's extensive experience (which began in the 1970s) with measures to alleviate youth unemployment. Today the UK attracts international attention on account of its low rates of youth unemployment and NEET, its (still) relatively rapid education-to-work transitions, and (according to the OECD) its sustainable system for funding mass higher education. This paper uses a transitions regime paradigm to overview the outcomes of 40 years of change in England's lower and upper secondary education, government-supported training, welfare provisions, economy and labour markets. We see how government policies polarise schools and young people into those who are achieving and those who are failing. Then, as employers become more influential, young people are re-sorted into the employment classes that have been formed during 30 years of change in the economy and labour market. Most from the former achieving group are pulled into the centre, between the smaller numbers on the one side who are embarking on elite careers, and on the other those who become part of a precariat class.