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Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe
emphasising open choice, while PES staff tend to focus on the more opportunity
structures available and stress realism in decision making (Sultana and Watts,
2005). Further, the delivery of career guidance to young people in schools may
be considered more an additional or extended function of the PES and, in times
of high unemployment, it is reduced or stops altogether. This has been the case
in Cyprus, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Another important point to note is the increasing focus on self-support.
Within the context of personalised services, there is greater emphasis on the
rights and responsibilities of jobseekers, acknowledging that individuals should
take responsibility for their own job-search activities. Selected groups, however,
may require additional support in identifying their skills and interests in the labour
market. The move to a self-service system has freed up time in PES to work with
more at-risk groups, including persons with low skills and early school leavers.
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