Comparing and Contrasting the Performance of School-to-Work Transition Regimes in the EU

The Great Recession and its aftermath have led to an increase in youth unemployment rates and employment precariousness across the EU. As a result, school-to-work (STW) transitions have become increasingly unstable, uncertain, protracted and difficult. However, stark variations between countries in the resilience of their youth labour markets and performance of their youth-related policy regimes persist.

Drawing upon Pohl and Walther’s concept of ‘youth transition regime’ (2007), we assess the performance of eight countries (Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) belonging to different clusters regarding the speed, ease and quality of STW transitions between 2007 and 2015. Our comparative analysis, conducted as part of the project “Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe” (STYLE) shows that countries’ institutional arrangements, such as employment regulation, education and training, including vocational education and training (VET) and active labour market policies (ALMPs), considerably matter in shaping the structure of young people’s STW transitions and mediating the impact of the Great Recession.

We also assess the extent to which recent reforms in the design of regulatory institutions and policy instruments in STW transition regimes across the five country clusters have brought about substantial change in their respective underlying logic. Our analysis identifies conflicting trends of convergence and persisting divergence in institutional design in different policy areas. Institutional configurations appear to be in a state of flux, blurring the distinctive characteristics and internal coherence of the STW transition regimes captured by Pohl and Walther’s typology.