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This report explores how forms of social inequality are framed in adult education discourses across Europe and Australia. To achieve this goal, it presents an analysis of the concept of vulnerability in lifelong learning policies, at European level and national level (Austria, Bulgaria, England, Estonia, Flanders, Italy, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain and Australia). Methods of analysis include corpus-based critical discourses analysis of 68 European lifelong learning documents (1992-2018), interviews with policy makers (6), analysis of funding schemes (European Social Fund) and analysis of vulnerable groups in the lifelong learning policies of the nine countries forming part of ENLIVEN [Encouraging Lifelong Learning for an Inclusive and Vibrant Europe] including Australia.

Results show that the use of terminology related to vulnerability is not used uniformly throughout the period analysed. It is detected during the first period (1992-1999), documents refer to the most vulnerable groups as marginal or excluded. From the year 2000 the main vulnerability indicator seems to be the low labour capacities. The implicit motives suggested in relation to 'vulnerable groups' appear to be educational attainment (low qualified, early schools leavers, migrant background and age), to which are added structural motives related to their origin (people from disadvantaged social strata, poverty niches or disadvantaged areas) or to global factors (lack of employment, development of the learning society). Faced with this situation, the policies analysed propose, above all, to develop the basic skills and new competences needed to enter the world of work.

With regards to national policies, across all the countries studied within the EU as well as Australia, unemployment, alongside low levels of skills, were the most prevalent dimensions of vulnerability targeted by policy measures. By understanding the concept of vulnerability solely in relation to the labour market, young vulnerable young people are framed as lacking certain attributes - those that would enable them to be incorporated into the world of paid employment. Those attributes they do possess - however valuable to themselves personally, or to society - go unrecognized. In this context, the proposal that lifelong learning policies should focus on individual needs without addressing structural measures seems insufficient. Moreover, this situation constrains the rationale of adult education, forgetting its critical and creative dimension that seeks a deep analysis of reality in order to transform it.

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Moral panics relating to anti-social youth have accelerated in recent years, and there has been an increasing recognition that preventing problematic behaviour is more effective than sanctions once it occurs. Drawing upon General Strain Theory, this paper explores the social pressures that might stimulate anti-social behaviour and gang culture. It explores the impact of schools/youth work partnerships, focusing upon empirical data arising from a small-scale educational intervention involving vulnerable young people (aged 11-12) in Glasgow. The findings illustrate that the 35 young people who participated in the initiative gained an increase in social capital, changed their reactions to social strains and demonstrated a change in their self-reported participation in anti-social behaviour. However, the participants continued to view teachers and youth workers as two distinct groups with differing ideologies, and a collaborative 'border-crossing' pedagogy was never fully realised. The paper draws upon the insights to identify future implications for policy, practice and research.

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Education Links is an independent magazine that provides a radical critique of Australian education. For more than two decades it has been a voice for students, educators and community members working to bring about democratic and socially progressive educational change. The magazine presents a socialist analysis of a wide range of educational issues and is not affiliated with any political party. Education Links is produced by an editorial group of teachers, students and university staff.

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Contents: Editorial: education and social action; What's missing?: popular education and new discourses / Rick Flowers; Social Action Learning and Work, which contains: Why can't TAFE appreciate us?: resisting cuts in education: one story / Derek Waddell, Resisting cuts in education: using both industrial and political strategies / Keiko Yasukawa, Politicising learning in the workplace: context and method / Griff Foley, and Analysing workers' history through a 'learning lens' / Linda Cooper; Teachers Work, Students Lives and Access, which contains: The politics of education 'reform' / Richard Walsham, A facade for union bashing?: the Ramsey Report on teacher education in [New South Wales] NSW / Kelvin McQueen, 'Listen to me I'm leaving' / Robert Hattam and John Smyth, Scales of injustice: working with young people / Debra Hayes, Collaborating for social justice? / Lyn Tett, and Knowledge creation: a challenge for higher education in Ireland / Anne Ryan and Ann O'Brien; Cultural Action, which contains: From Freire to Boal / Hernan Flores, Risk and play: group devised theatre creation / Paul Murray, Theatre: art or action / Bridget Mary Aitchison, The anti-racism radio show / Ben Zion Weiss, and Kids locked up / Peter Slattery; Viewpoint: behind the rhetoric / Rowan Cahill; Loose links. Show less

This document presents an assessment and lessons on successful local approaches to support youth into employment, education or training from a series of case studies commissioned by the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Program. A number of key themes have emerged from the analysis of these case studies. The first one concerns the governance aspects of local youth employment strategies. The second theme regroups tools and approaches implemented at the local level that seem effective in addressing the [not in education, employment or training] NEET challenge and helping youth to progress in the labour market. Finally, two case studies are presented. The first one - Glasgow Youth Employment Partnership (YEP) initiated by the local authority and involving all of the key stakeholders - is an example of an integrated and comprehensive city strategy to tackle the NEET challenge. The second case study reviews the BladeRunners program - one of the most successful programs in Canada to support transition to employment of disadvantaged youth.

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The concept of social capital is very much an 'adult' concept, created by adults for adults, with children as the passive recipients of, primarily, parental social capital. The concept has been broken down into three particular subcategories - bonding (getting by), bridging (getting on) and linking (getting around). However, these subcategories equally do not relate readily to children and young people nor to different groups of young people. Young carers, for example, are a hidden population and their circumstances are relatively unknown, not least in terms of their social networks and access to social capital within the confines of their caring role. This article draws on a research study of 20 young carers in Scotland to explore the views and experiences of this particular group about their social networks and experiences of relationships with others, such as the family, friends and teachers. It concludes that young carers tend to keep their friends, family, and community networks separate from each other, and coupled with their perceived resilience and desire for self-sufficiency, this separation and protection of their individual social networks may result in reduced access to social capital in terms of getting on rather than getting by.

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[This] report examin[es] the residential care workforce in Scotland. It looks at what is known about the profile of the current residential workforce and makes recommendations for change and improvements so that the increasingly diverse and complex needs of children and young people can be better met.

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Youth unemployment is now one of the greatest challenges facing the UK with nearly 1.5 million young people currently not in education, employment or training (NEET), over one in five of all young people. The situation is exacerbated by the low levels of demand for young people’s labour and the structural nature of the UK’s youth unemployment problem, where even in times of economic growth, a proportion of young people are unable to find employment. The Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), the professional body for third sector chief executives, established a Commission on Youth Unemployment in September 2011 in response to widespread concern amongst voluntary sector leaders about youth unemployment. The Commission, chaired by David Miliband, consulted with people from across private, voluntary and public sectors, and young people themselves, revealing a shared concern about the problem and a desire to act to address it. The vision outlined in this report sees young people and private, voluntary and public sectors working towards a common goal - the abolition of long-term youth unemployment, with all young people able to make the transition from education to career without the risk of long-term exclusion from the labour market.

This report is in general about young people who have been long-term unemployed or NEET. The focus is primarily on England although some recommendations are made in relation to Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland, where welfare-to-work policy is devolved, was not covered by the Commission. Four priority areas for action are recommended: (1) young people need more job opportunities to be available; (2) young people need better preparation and motivation for work; (3) young people not heading for university need clear high-quality options for progression; and (4) young people need reform of the welfare state, including guaranteed back-to-work support. The report also includes summaries of the original research commissioned on the costs of youth unemployment, its spatial distribution, the NEET population in the UK, and the labour market trajectories of 16-21-year-olds.

Excerpts from publication.

The contents are as follows: Executive summary; About this report; The imperative to act; The current crisis and the structural problem; The immediate shortage of jobs; Preparation for work; The transition from education to work; Support in the labour market; Making it happen: vision and ownership; How do we pay for it?; Annex A: The cost of youth unemployment / Lindsey Macmillan; Annex B: Mapping youth unemployment across Britain / Eleanor Carter; Annex C: Beyond school-leaving age: the first five years / Paolo Lucchino and Richard Dorsett; Annex D: The NEET population in the UK / Jack Britton. Show less

The current unemployment rate in Scotland is almost three times the all age unemployment rate and double that of the best performing European countries. More than 50 per cent of school leavers don't go to university. Very few gain industry relevant qualifications while still at school. The breakdown of challenges facing youth in Scotland are as follows: less than 30 per cent of Scottish businesses have any contact with education, only 27 per cent of employers offer work experience opportunities, only 29 per cent of employers recruit directly from education, and only 13 per cent of employers have apprenticeships. The Commission's task was to make recommendations towards Scotland producing better qualified, work ready and motivated young people with skills relevant to modern employment opportunities, both as employees and entrepreneurs of the future.

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While measures to combat 'Early Leaving' (EL) have been widely adopted internationally, as a means of curbing rates of economic and social exclusion among young people, the term itself is not widely utilised across the UK. That is not to say that measuring and reducing the number of young people who drop out of education (or training) before meeting minimum age and/or qualification standards is not important. Rather, the emphasis has remained on maximising participation in learning and reducing NEET (not in education, employment or training) rates.

Drawing on a recent policy review which was conducted in the UK, this article examines variations which exist between the four UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) in terms of: compulsory education age requirements; capturing and measuring the number of young people who are defined as NEET and crucially, equality of access to support and intervention. It highlights that the four UK nations are increasingly pulling in different directions in terms of policy and practice. This has widespread implications for the opportunity structures that are available to all groups of young people across the UK.

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The aim of this study was to find out more about the lives of young people in the category ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). We worked intensively with 26 young people in four smaller groups, spending three days with each group. During our time with them we engaged in a variety of creative and artistic activities designed to help them to construct accounts of their lives for us with the purpose of gaining an understanding of what it was like to be NEET. Three significant issues that emerged from these life stories are discussed in this paper. These are the problematic nature of the discourse of NEET sub-groups; the challenges of school-exclusion policies and practices; and the myth of low aspirations.

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