Youth Employment and the Future of Work


Book Description

"Young people are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in economic trends. Youth employment is therefore high on the policy agenda of those concerned with promoting social inclusion. While youth-targeted employment policies tend to combine both demand-side and supply-side approaches, it is important to recognise that traditional notions of "work" have more recently been challenged and reconceptualised. The old assumptions about gender roles, "job security" and "planned careers" have thus been transformed by the profound economic and social changes of recent decades. The essays collected here were developed from papers first delivered at a research seminar on youth employment organised by the partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission in the field of youth. They represent a diverse and, at times, provocative collection of analytic snapshots of the position of young people on the European labour market. What emerges is a shared commitment to finding flexible responses to economic globalisation and a concomitant concern for promoting the rights, interests and welfare of young people in both training placement and in the workplace."--P. [4] of cover.




Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020


Book Description

This report on the global youth labour market situation shows where progress has or has not been made, updates youth labour market indicators, and analyses trends in youth population, labour force, employment and unemployment. The 2020 edition discusses the implications of technological change for the nature of jobs available to young people.




Protecting Youth at Work


Book Description

In Massachusetts, a 12-year-old girl delivering newspapers is killed when a car strikes her bicycle. In Los Angeles, a 14-year-old boy repeatedly falls asleep in class, exhausted from his evening job. Although children and adolescents may benefit from working, there may also be negative social effects and sometimes danger in their jobs. Protecting Youth at Work looks at what is known about work done by children and adolescents and the effects of that work on their physical and emotional health and social functioning. The committee recommends specific initiatives for legislators, regulators, researchers, and employers. This book provides historical perspective on working children and adolescents in America and explores the framework of child labor laws that govern that work. The committee presents a wide range of data and analysis on the scope of youth employment, factors that put children and adolescents at risk in the workplace, and the positive and negative effects of employment, including data on educational attainment and lifestyle choices. Protecting Youth at Work also includes discussions of special issues for minority and disadvantaged youth, young workers in agriculture, and children who work in family-owned businesses.




Reclaiming Community


Book Description

Approximately 2.4 million Black youth participate in after-school programs, which offer a range of support, including academic tutoring, college preparation, political identity development, cultural and emotional support, and even a space to develop strategies and tools for organizing and activism. In Reclaiming Community, Bianca Baldridge tells the story of one such community-based program, Educational Excellence (EE), shining a light on both the invaluable role youth workers play in these spaces, and the precarious context in which such programs now exist. Drawing on rich ethnographic data, Baldridge persuasively argues that the story of EE is representative of a much larger and understudied phenomenon. With the spread of neoliberal ideology and its reliance on racism—marked by individualism, market competition, and privatization—these bastions of community support are losing the autonomy that has allowed them to embolden the minds of the youth they serve. Baldridge captures the stories of loss and resistance within this context of immense external political pressure, arguing powerfully for the damage caused when the same structural violence that Black youth experience in school, starts to occur in the places they go to escape it.




Advancing Youth Work


Book Description

This path-breaking book brings together an international list of contributors to collectively articulate a vision for the field of youth work, sharing what they have learned from decades of experience in the training and education of youth workers. Carefully designed evaluation and research studies have legitimized the learning potential of youth programs and non-school organizations over the last twenty years, and recent attention has shifted towards the education, training, and on-going professional development of youth workers. Contributors define youth work across domains of practice and address the disciplines of knowledge upon which sound practice is based, reviewing examples of youth practitioner development both in and outside of academia. Raising critical questions and concerns about current trends, Advancing Youth Work aims to bring clarity to the field and future of youth work. Advancing Youth Work will help youth work practitioners develop a common language, articulate their field in one voice, and create a shared understanding of similarities and differences. This book is also an invaluable resource for higher educators, researchers, and students involved with youth work.




Youth employment and the future jobs fund


Book Description

The Future Jobs Fund (FJF) was established by the previous Government in April 2009 as an emergency response to the rise in youth unemployment in 2008 and 2009. Its aim was the creation of job opportunities for young people on Jobseeker's Allowance and adults on any benefit who lived in areas with particularly high rates of unemployment. The initial target was to create 150,000 temporary (six-month) posts by March 2011, to ensure no young people were left behind due to unemployment. The scheme was then extended and expanded with the aim of creating 200,000 temporary posts by March 2012. In May 2010, the Coalition Government cancelled the extension of the programme as a measure to address the public spending deficit, and announced that no new entrants would be permitted beyond March 2011. The new Government's view was that the FJF was a high-cost programme, with each job costing up to £6,500, and that similar results and job sustainability could be achieved through its new overarching welfare-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, to be launched in June 2011. The Committee states that it was too soon to assess whether the Future Jobs Fund has been successful in supporting unemployed young people in finding permanent employment. The Committee further states, that the Government needs to learn lessons from the FJF and ensure that the Work Programme includes sufficient levers and financial incentives to prevent providers ignoring young people who are more difficult to place in work. Also that apprenticeships may not be the most suitable route into employment for those young people at the highest risk of long-term unemployment and that alternative provision should be made available.




Youth Employment in Bangladesh


Book Description

This book brings together pioneering and evidence-based research that focuses on youth employment—one of the foremost development challenges of our time—and fills a critical research and knowledge gap alongside consolidating existing relevant literature. Comprehensive in scope, the book provides an overview of trends in youth employment in Bangladesh, empirically analyses the determinants of youth unemployment, covers relevant economic theory, and recommends policy measures for employment creation in Bangladesh. The new evidence from Bangladesh on the aforesaid issues will inform relevant and concurrent policy discourse, add value to related research in the field, and inspire future research. The insights gathered through this study will serve as an important lesson for other developing countries on what works and what does not in policy-making.




Youth Employment Programs in Ghana


Book Description

Unemployment and underemployment are global development challenges. The situation in Ghana is no different. In 2016, it was projected that, given the country’s growing youth population, 300,000 new jobs would need to be created each year to absorb the increasing numbers of unemployed young people. Yet the employment structure of the Ghanaian economy has not changed much from several decades ago. Most jobs are low skill, requiring limited cognitive or technology know-how, reflected in low earnings and work of lower quality. An additional challenge for Ghana is the need to create access to an adequate number of high-quality, productive jobs. This report seeks to increase knowledge about Ghana’s job landscape and youth employment programs to assist policy makers and key stakeholders in identifying ways to improve the effectiveness of these programs and strengthen coordination among major stakeholders. Focused, strategic, short- to medium-term and long-term responses are required to address current unemployment and underemployment challenges. Effective coordination and synergies among youth employment programs are needed to avoid duplication of effort while the country’s economic structure transforms. Effective private sector participation in skills development and employment programs is recommended. The report posits interventions in five priority areas that are not new but could potentially make an impact through scaling up: (1) agriculture and agribusiness, (2) apprenticeship (skills training), (3) entrepreneurship, (4) high-yielding areas (renewable energy†“solar, construction, tourism, sports, and green jobs), and (5) preemployment support services. Finally, with the fast-changing nature of work due to technology and artificial intelligence, Ghana needs to develop an education and training system that is versatile and helps young people to adapt and thrive in the twenty-first century world of work.




Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

"The series is sponsored by the Agence Francaise de Developpement and the World Bank."