Page 150 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

support measures and learning opportunities provided are suitable. Young
people should be integrated into the review process as it provides opportunity to
highlight their successes and encourages them to take responsibility for their own
learning.
Strengthening a young person’s ability to deal with problems and barriers is
important to strengthen their ability to understand that they are likely to face
setbacks. This is particularly important for those young people who are
unsuccessful in their chosen activities, since they can often find that their
expectations have been raised but not fulfilled. In addition, the costs associated
with continued disengagement are high.
While assisting a young person to become re-engaged is a key output of
guidance, it is only part of the process. Ensuring that they remain engaged is
vital. Despite the importance of after-care, the research has shown that it is not
always available. This is often the case where guidance providers have been
contracted to provide a service that has a clear end point. Should this occur,
community outreach workers and personal advisors from career information
centres who provide a holistic service to young people can provide after-care. It
is important that any support measures provide young people with the details of
where they can get further help, or equip them with the skills they need to find out
where support can be accessed.
The reintegration journey highlights that guidance is a continuum which
provides support for the passage from disengagement to re-engagement. It is
through appropriate support measures, tailored to the needs of the individual and
delivered by a range of actors, that young people can be re-engaged and
subsequently make the transition into the labour market.

7.3. Education-to-work transitions

The demographic time-bomb is also important in terms of the time taken to make
education-to-work transitions. In the future, this process may need to speed up
as the retiring baby boomers leave the labour market in greater numbers.
Transition comprises two interrelated elements that help young people take
career decisions: the development of career management skills and the
opportunity to familiarise oneself with the world of work.
Helping young people to develop the skills to manage their careers and take
decisions that allow them to access and operate in the labour market throughout
their working lives, at a level commensurate with their skills and abilities, is
critical to shortening the time taken to make the transition from education to work.

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