Conclusion

Abstract

A key question that underpins this book, as well as one that has exercised many youth researchers over recent years, is the extent to which transitions from education to work have changed under the conditions of ‘late modernity’. This has been addressed explicitly by some chapters in the collection, but is an implicit theme in many of the others, too. Some of the empirical evidence presented in Chapter 1 suggested that there are reasonably clear ways in which transitions from education to work in contemporary society differ from patterns observed in earlier decades. These include later entry to the labour market, as young people stay in full-time education for longer periods of time; a contracted youth labour market, with relatively few jobs available for those who choose to end their formal education at the minimum school-leaving age; and the emergence of the ‘training state’ as a means of managing both unemployment and specific-skills shortages. In addition to these changes, this collection has highlighted a number of other important ways in which transitions in the twenty-first century may be considered qualitatively different from those of previous decades. Some of these are discussed further below, including the new spaces and places of transition which have opened up as a result of some of the trends noted above, and the considerable extension of the age range at which people make transitions from education to work — no longer can these be seen as the preserve of the young.