New Linkages between Training Systems and Labour Markets? Policies for the Young Unemployed in Britain and Germany.

Transitions from school to work are considered to be very 'vulnerable' transitions within the life course since the later career is heavily influenced by success and failure during the period of job entry. In recent years, Britain and Germany have implemented labour-market programmes for young people who failed to enter the job market. Referring to the current agenda of life course research these programmes, the New Deal for Young People (NDYP) in Britain and the Sofortprogramm gegen Jugendarbeitslosigkeit (Jump) in Germany are analysed from a comparative perspective. The programmes exemplarily show how different types of economies try to combat youth unemployment and foster increasingly fragmented transitions from school to work. Against the background of new institutional theories (Hall and Soskice) the paper illustrates that an erstwhile strength of the German training system - the strong linkages between labour market and training system - has now become a disadvantage, since the stronger regulation makes it more difficult to establish new instruments combating youth unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]