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VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon

PREVENTING SICK LEAVE AND MARGINALIZATION IN YOUNG ADULTS

Alternative title: Marginaliserte unge

Awarded: NOK 7.5 mill.

There are 14 million youth aged 15-29 who are not in education, employment or training - so-called NEETs - in Europe. In Norway, more than 11 percent of youth 15-29 was NEET in 2020, an increase since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. There is a lack of knowledge about which early factors are associated with falling out of education and employment and what happens with the life trajectories to young people who have first become NEET at a stage in their life and what might prevent long-term adverse consequences. Work package 1 uses register data on the entire Norwegian population to investigate whether competencies (such as early work experience and school achievement) and societal factors/welfare solutions can protect young people from falling out of employment for longer periods of time. We will also study pathways into the labor market for those who have fallen out of the labor market, such as what predicts future stable employment for those who have been NEET, and which jobs former NEETs enter. In work package 2, we evaluate a program that uses a "supported employment/education" method for vulnerable young people in upper secondary school. Here, we have interviewed young people and their support persons at two points in time to identify potential inhibitors and facilitators of the program's "effect". We have analyzed the impact of early work experience in adolescence on later NEET risk among vulnerable groups. In an article published in 2022, we found that early work experience in adolescence was associated with lower NEET status for young adults, using national register data. The importance of early work experience was a protective factor for young people who did not complete upper secondary school or who had disabilities. The findings support that early work experience may be an important protective factor against later exclusion from work and education, especially among more vulnerable groups. Reference: Gottschalk, J.B, Heglum, M.A, Nilsen, W, & Bernstrøm, V.B. (2022) Can adolescent work experience protect vulnerable youth? A population wide longitudinal study of young adults not in education, employment or training (NEET), Journal of Education and Work, 35:5, 502 520, DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2022.2099534 It is often taken for granted that there is a lot of variation in how young people's lives develop in the transition from school to education/work. However, few studies examine how the transition from school to higher education and work has changed over the past 30 years. In an article published in 2023, PhD candidate Mari Heglum follows 20 birth cohorts from age 22 to 31, from 1993 to 2017, using Norwegian register data (N = 1 081 702). Heglum has used theories of difference and change to look at what happens to young adults in Norway in young adulthood over time. The findings challenge the usual perception that young adults generally go through increasingly uncertain school-to-work pathways, in that the developmental pathways over time actually become somewhat less complex. However, there are subgroup differences. Female pathways are somewhat more complex and uncertain compared to male pathways but show improvements in the 1990s. Among men, especially those with low social origins, however, labor market trajectories become more uncertain over time. Reference: Heglum, M.A. (2023). Transformed 'postmodern' life courses? Continuity and change in young adults' labor market trajectories in Norway. European Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcad043 It is important to investigate where young people who have previously had NEET status can gain work experience. In a recently accepted paper, we use microdata to investigate which organizations are hiring young people who have previously had NEET status. Reference: Alves, D.E., et al. (Accepted 2023). Which companies hire NEET? Organizational characteristics of hiring NEET in a Norwegian full-population registry study. Journal of Youth Studies. Accepted November 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2023.2290112. We have also conducted a qualitative close-up study of 4 youth pathways, to investigate what kind of work- and school-oriented support the young people have received through an SE-based intervention located in an upper secondary school. In short, the intervention is perceived by the youth, their families and the support system involved to have a number of positive effects on "soft factors" such as better coping, well-being and support, while "hard factors" such as permanent employment or completed schooling are more difficult to achieve. This article is under peer review. Reference: Frøyland, K. (in review). Inclusion of vulnerable youth in school or work - How can individually tailored professional support contribute? Submitted to Children and Youth Services Review.

Despite the increasing costs of early school leaving and failures to integrate into the adult workforce, it is still unknown what the determinants to unhealthy school-to-work transitions are. The NEET-group (not in education, employment or training) currently consisting of 14 million youth aged 15-29 only in Europe, is at particular risk for long-term morbidity and labour force exclusion. With the recent financial crisis and steadily aging population, it is of increasing importance to guide a healthy school-to-work transition. Lacking robust knowledge on early determinants of being and becoming NEET makes it impossible to implement evidence-based prevention efforts. While the importance of both competencies and health is highlighted in existing research, several questions remain relating to entangling causal relation, and identifying potential solutions at the individual and systemic level. The existing studies are fragmented and limited by methodological shortcomings. To move beyond this current impasse, the present multi-method proposal responds by two work packages. WP1) A large population-based study with national registry of the entire Norwegian population using state-of-the-art methodology, such as sibling control and natural experiments to create quasi-experimental conditions. The WP focuses on health and competencies as predictors of NEET, and looks at individual (e.g. early work experience) and systemic (e.g. municipality spending and absence rules) solutions to prevent youth becoming long term NEETs. WP2) A long-term qualitative and quantitative follow-up of a Supported Employment/Education intervention directed at vulnerable youth in high school. Thus, the findings provides valuable knowledge on the protective determinants of being NEET, as well a potential barriers and promoters to prevent being NEET.

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VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon