Changing Britain, Changing Lives

(2003) - J Bynner, E Ferri

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Tags:: #paper #NCDS #BCS #Transition #school-to-work #LabourMarket #Apprenticeships #SocialClass #Background
Cite Key:: [@Bynner2003]

Abstract

Notes

• the hope of fundamental social change (Thomson 1981)
  • 1944 Education Act. Creation of NHS in 1948
  • Beveridge report in 1942 -> tackling the five giants
• 1991 census, the minority population was 5.5% (Peach et al 2000)
• in 1951 most work was manual (64%) and most workers were men (71%); by 1991 only 38% were in manual work and 43% of these were women
• by 1997 the forecast was 'that more than half of todays school leavers will experience higher education' (Halsey 2000:227)
• growth of automation and information technology in the 1970s led to a deskilling of the workplace were old craft skills were replaced by new more transferable skills associated with new methods of population and management (Ainley 1988; Coles and McDonald 1990)
  • Apprenticeships in old manufacturing jobs were no longer offered with a loss of opportunity for young school leavers (Ashton and Maguire 1983; Banks et al 1992)
• The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in 1983 was the first comprehensive program targeted at early school leavers
  • Apprenticeships re-emerged as 'Modern Apprenticeships' that were three year courses
• The higher premium based on qualifications for employment placed increasing pressure on young people to extend their education and to postpone personal commitment. Those without the educational attainment become increasingly marginalised into low-level employment
• The proportion of owner-occupied housing increased from 31% in 1951 to 67% in 1991
• Coleman (2000) notes the problem of unemployment 'was not helped by the increase of 30% in the annual supply of young people seeking jobs each year compared with the 1960s'
• Increased opportunities in post-school education (Halsey and Webb 2000) and the disappearance of traditional apprenticeship schemes meant that members of the 1970 cohort were more likely to stay on longer in education then their predecessors, and have a much greater likelihood of qualification at university level (Bynner and Parsons 1977a)
  • Effects on adults of inequality terms of gender and socio-economic circumstances in the family of origin were evident in all three studies.
• 'If we are an affluent society, what better use could be made of part of our affluence - as well as part of our extended expectation of life - than in supplying the foundations for a more instructed citizenship (Glass 1964)'
• the pathway into work from education is broadly similar for men in 1958 + 1970 cohorts. Though more men are in full-time education and fewer in work at each point in time in the 1970 cohort.
• a major difference is that large numbers of young men in 1970 were in government training schemes between the ages of 16-18
• for women, time spent out of the labour force decreased from 1958-70
• a core theme is the increasing participation of women
• the 1958 cohort initially experienced favourable labour market conditions that got worse as they got older. For the 1970 cohort the reverse is true.
• During the winter of 1986-7 the unemployment rate among men was about 2.6% and the proportion on training schemes was at 12%. Though this fell below the unemployment rate of 3.5% in October 1988
• the large expansion of the university system that took place in the late 1960s following the Robbins Report benefited the 1958 and 1970 cohort
• the main feature of the 1958 cohort was vocational training lacking direct government involvmenet. This changed for the 1970 cohort. This was in response to rising youth unemployment with a series of direct inititiatives (Gallie 1998; Banks et al 1992)
• over 1973-9 period there was a variety of special unemployment measures that attempted to introduce training for young people and foster retraining amongst the long-term unemployed like the Training Opportunities Programme (TOPs)
  • the scheme was extended within the setting up of the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in 1983
    • it started as a one-year, low level training scheme, but gradually changed its nature and became a two-year scheme. By 1970 most would have been eligible for the two-year scheme.
    • The YTS was seen as a low status alternative to unemployment and hence many exited the programme as soon as a more attractive alternative presented itself.
• From 1958-89 the YTS average 400,000 people a year. The YTS was not an adequate replacement of older training schemes. The YTS provided much less systematic training and for quite a different client group than the former. The YTS was seen merely as an alternative to unemployment than real vocational preparation on continental lines (Bynner and Roberts 1991; Dolton 1993)
• The 1970 cohort came to the labour market in 1980s when unemployment had risen dramatically with devastating consequences for youth labour markets (Banks et al 1992). There was a rapidly 'vanishing youth labour market' (Ashton and Maguire 1983)