Background to the Research

• The profile of young people aged 16 and 17 who are not in education, training or employment (hence 'Status 0') had been raised recently by research studies conducted in Wales and the North East of England. These studies found that large numbers of young people were benefiting little from formal education provision and the various measures in place aimed at facilitating the transition from school to work. On the basis of these findings, the T&EA commissioned a research study into the nature and extent of Status 0 in NI.
  

Research Approach

• The research was undertaken in three strands; a detailed examination of a number of data sources containing data about young people in the labour market; Second, a survey involving face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of around 1,00 of young people in the labour market and third, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with a small number of young people and professionals who had experience of Status 0.
  

Main Findings

'Snapshot' estimates of the extent of Status 0

• Data sources suggest that at any one time there are between 1,000 and 1,400 16 year olds in Status 0 in NI. This represents between 4 and 6 per cent of all 16 year olds.
• Figures from the 1991 Census of Population show that the proportion of young people in Status 0 varies considerably between different geographical areas in NI. For example, in urban areas of Belfast and Derry, along with a number of the more rural areas in the West of the Province, the proportion of young people in Status 0 is high at between 8 and 10 per cent. Conversely, most areas in the east of the Province tended to have a low proportion in Status 0.
• There are also variations in the proportion of young people in Status 0 when much smaller geographical areas are examined. For example, there are more than twenty wards in NI in which no young people are in Status 0 (e.g. Cultra, Dundonald), and more than twenty wards in which 15 per cent or more are in Status 0 (e.g. Ballymacarrett and New Lodge).

Dynamic aspects of Status 0

• Slightly more than three quarters of the young people who first became eligible to leave school in the Summer of 1993 did not have any experience of Status 0 over the two year period until June 1995. Eighteen per cent had experienced one spell of Status 0, and only 4 per cent had experienced two spells. Less than one per cent had experienced three or more spells.
• Approximately two-fifths of those young people who had some experience of Status 0 had only experienced a short spell of three months of less.
• One fifth of young people with some experience of Status 0 had experienced a spell of 6-12 months, and slightly less than one fifth (17%) had experienced a spell of 12-24 months. Many of the young people in the latter group had been continuously in Status 0 for 24 months.
• A simple typology of Status 0 can be constructed from the available data which holds that slightly less than one tenth (8%) of the full cohort of young people had experienced spells of long duration (6 months or more). This represents approximately two thousand young people in any one cohort. It is this group which represents the most serious problem from a policy point of view.

Qualitative Analysis of Status 0

• Many of the young people spoke warmly of their parents as being very supportive and helpful. Nevertheless, there were some features of family life such as unemployment and health problems amongst parents which seemed to have important influences over the success with which the young people were able to progress through formal systems of education and training.
• In terms of their experiences of education, training and employment, the interviews revealed a situation in which many young people, for a variety of reasons, had slipped through the various forms of mainstream institutional provision. For example, most of the young people did not have particularly positive experiences of secondary school, especially in their latter years. Many, especially young women, had experienced being bullied, and most had performed relatively poor in examinations in fifth form.
• With respect to the transition from school into training and employment, the overall picture to emerge was of institutional structures which seemed not to serve this particular group of young people in a very positive manner. For example, for those who entered training the decision about which YTP scheme to join seemed to be somewhat haphazard. There were many cases in which decisions tended to be taken more on the basis of geographical convenience or peer pressure, rather than any considerations about the usefulness of the course in terms of enhancing future labour market prospects.
• Similarly, some professionals suggested that many young people were joining certain schemes, not because they were well suited to their particular needs, but rather because the schemes promoted themselves well and offered various incentives for the young people to join.
• Many of the young people seemed to be isolated in the sense that they had lost contact with officials who were working with mainstream provision and who could, perhaps, have helped to facilitate a smoother transition from school to work.
• Generally speaking, the overall picture to emerge was one of a complex web of relationships between the young people's attitudes and their family background, their experience of school and the post-school institutional structures which they had found themselves having to negotiate.

The characteristics of young people in Status 0

• The proportion of young women who had experienced a long spell of Status 0 during the 1993-95 period was slightly higher than young men (10 per cent as opposed to 8 per cent). This was largely due to the fact that many of the young women in this period were caring for a child.
• Religious differences in Status 0 were relatively small, which can be attributed, at least in part, to the fact that participation in full-time education and training is relatively high amongst young Catholics. However, as young people progress into the adult labour market, particularly beyond the age of eighteen, a variety of forces seem to come into play and the traditional religious disparities in employment and unemployment start to appear.
• Young people who were in the long-term Status 0 tended to be poorly qualified compared to their counterparts who had remained in full-time education or training, or gone into employment.
• Young people who have experienced Status 0 , and in particular long-term Status 0, tend to come from households in which other members have had experience of unemployment or economic inactivity. This correlation between the economic activity of parents and their children is a standard finding in the literature and is important for a number of reasons:
  • It raises concerns that the various issues relating to poverty amongst young people in Status 0, outlined above, may be exacerbated by the incidence of unemployment elsewhere in the family.
  • It is important from a policy point of view because it suggests that there might potentially be spillovers into the youth labour market resulting from changes in the adult labour market.
  • It reinforces that there are important links between the success of young people in the labour market and their family circumstances.