The transition from school to work is not always smooth, as students may study while working, return to school after working, begin with irregular employment and subsequently transition to regular employment, and so on. Transitioning from school to work should be viewed as a process that allows young people to move from education to productive and decent work. Young people must be able to access relevant education and training options, develop market-relevant and high-quality skills, and then apply those skills in the labor market to improve their job outcomes.
A skills mismatch, in which individuals are well educated but not in the areas sought by the labor market, may have an influence on adolescents. In many nations, for example, young people (particularly girls) study for degrees in the humanities, whereas the commercial sector requires IT, engineering, and other technical abilities (UNICEF, 2019). Unless there is a demonstrated skills need in the economy, as evidenced by available positions that programs seek to fill, all youth employment programs may succeed in displacing other workers.
Given the fast-paced nature of the industry, skill insecurity poses a significant challenge to education policymakers and teachers. Children may not be gaining the abilities that will be required in the future workforce since the skill set required by that workforce is unknown (Nilsson, 2019). As a result, allowing young people to gain skills will not result in better employment outcomes unless those skills are demand-driven and linked to job prospects. This necessitates the establishment of relationships between the school or training provider and businesses that can offer internships or on-the-job training (UNICEF, 2019). Job matching services, career counseling, and work placements can all help with the move from education to work.
In order to support students to smoothly shift from school into their careers, educators should emphasize the development of transferable and foundational skills from the early grades. Adolescents must be able to efficiently implement information learned in school in their professional careers, developing the core skills for employability needed for future work (Schoon & Heckhausen, 2019). As an educator, it is important to educate students from the theoretical perspective and in practice. Adolescents should be aware of the demands of the market skills they will need to acquire in real life, such as networking and soft skills.
References
Nilsson, B. (2019). The school-to-work transition in developing countries. The Journal of Development Studies, 55(5), 745-764. Web.
Schoon, I., & Heckhausen, J. (2019). Conceptualizing individual agency in the transition from school to work: A social-ecological developmental perspective. Adolescent Research Review, 4(2), 135-148. Web.
Wilson-Clark, G., & Saha, S. (2019). Transitions from School to Work. UNICEF Technical Note. UNICEF. Web.