Irwin, S orcid.org/0000-0001-9591-147X (2020) Young people in the middle: pathways, prospects, policies and a new agenda for youth research. Journal of Youth Studies. ISSN 1367-6261
Abstract
Recent decades have seen important changes in education to work transitions in the UK. For secondary and further education leavers there are extensive challenges in accessing jobs with prospects. Recently, policy makers have renewed their focus on this middle grouping who are not bound for HE or NEET. However, there is a relative paucity of research into the experiences of these young people and surprisingly little youth researcher engagement with vocational pathways and their framing in policy. The paper interrogates changing experiences and opportunity ‘in the middle’ and linked policy framings and interventions. Policy remains framed in individualising terms which focus on young people’s capacities and positions them, and represents their interests, in very specific ways. School mediated employer engagement is an interesting exemplar here, and is contrasted with alternative interventions which seek to restructure opportunities more fundamentally. The paper argues for a new agenda for youth research which would hold a mirror to experiences in the middle, critically interrogate assumptions embedded in policy and practice and enhance understanding of differentiated pathways and prospects for young people.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of an article published in Journal of Youth Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Youth research; missing middle; employer engagement; labour market inequalities; transition; vocational policy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jul 2020 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jan 2022 01:38 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13676261.2020.1792864 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:162968 |