NEET Young People and Training for Work: learning on the margins

by: Robin Simmons and Ron Thompson

ISBN: 9781858564838

Price: £19.99

Quantity:

182 pages
234 x 156mm
September 2011


The number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) is rising to alarming levels. Being NEET seriously affects the life chances of many of these young people as they face the possibility of long-term unemployment, isolation and social exclusion. Re-engaging them in training is therefore a priority for policy-makers and practitioners.

This book examines the experiences of a group of young people in the post-industrial north of England attending Entry to Employment, a work-based learning programme for those who have been NEET or risk becoming so in the future. It critically appraises the discourse on NEET young people and its social, economic and political context, and it challenges conventional stereotypes of 'the NEETs' as dysfunctional and lacking aspiration. Drawing on a detailed ethnographic study of young people and the practitioners working with them, it explores the complexities and realities of learning on the margins.

A key resource for students and academics on higher education courses on youth work, the book provides valuable insights for teachers, youth workers, careers advisers and others working with young people who are concerned with social justice in education.

Author Details

Robin Simmons is Reader in Education at the University of Huddersfield. His research focuses on social justice and education policy.

Ron Thompson is a principal Lecturer in Education at the University of Huddersfield. His Research interests are in the sociology of post-compulsory education.

Reviews

an extremely timely and valuable book. - Warwick University Centrelink

A textured picture of NEET provision for FE teacher educators and for practitioners involved in NEET provision or transition to work ... and important reading for policy makers. - Post-16 Educator

This book is definitely not superseded by the disturbances ... and will be particularly useful for anyone who works with socially deprived learners - especially the new generation of managers required to make strategies operational - (and) for MPs, Ministers and Civil Servants - Teaching in Lifelong Learning

Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction

NEET or Not?
Individualisation, structural inequality and social reproduction
Work-based learning and Entry to Employment
Ethnography: a distinctive analytical mentality
Researching E2E: an ethnography of work-based learning
Outline of the book

Chapter 2 - Knowledge, Economy and Social Exclusion

Globalisation and social change
Education and the neo-liberal state
Knowledge, economy and education
Employability and labour market returns
Individualisation, risk and the state
Social exclusion in the UK
Widening participation
Work, training and welfare

Chapter 3 - Sixty Years of Youth Transitions

Youth transitions in the post-war era
Crisis, change and shifting transitions
School to work in the 21st century
Conceptualising contemporary transitions
Young people, class and social exclusion

Chapter 4 - Young People not in Education, Employment or Training

Too young and too precious to waste
Estimating the numbers of NEET young people
Structure of the NEET population
Being and becoming: underlying risks of becoming NEET
Educational achievement and educational disadvantage
Self, family and neighbourhood
Educational disaffection
Consequences of being NEET
Constructing a problem category: the discourse of NEET
Cultures of worklessness?
NEET and the dynamics of social exclusion
Supporting to learn and paying to learn: Connexions and EMA

Chapter 5 - Entry to Employment: Young People, Learning and Agency

E2E: origins and curriculum structure
The E2E curriculum
E2E providers and selection of the case-study sites
Young people and E2E programmes
Learning environments
Learning activities
Agency, culture and constraint

Chapter 6 - The Tutors' Story: Professional practice and pedagogy in E2E

Teachers and tutors in further education
Biographies of tutors - becoming an E2E practitioner
Developing the E2E workforce?
Tutors' constructions of E2E learners and learning
Working with parents?

Chapter 7 - Conclusion: what does research say to policy?

NEET discourse and progressive practice
Employment, economy and social justice
Re thinking learning

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