Results of the Swiss longitudinal study TREE (Transition from Education to Employment) show that the transition from school to work has become more difficult in Switzerland since the mid 1990s. About 25% of school leavers do not enter further schooling directly after completing compulsory schooling at age 16. They are dependent upon vocational integration programs. Six years after the end of compulsory education, 20% have still not completed a training course or school (www.tree-ch.ch). Of these, 10% are no longer in training or school, which represents a high risk for dependency on welfare assistance. Economic and social change and the associated central changes in the vocational education system have contributed towards new risks, and young people now require greater coping skills and greater support. A new study (Schaffner, 2007) investigated biographical learning processes in 18- to 25-year-old welfare recipients. All of these young people had discontinuous schooling histories, and they have remained without job training or qualifications. An important concept within this framework is “biographical learning”, implying a mutual penetration of environment structures and acting individuals (Alheit and Dausien 2000). It’s often triggered by critical life events or loss of orientation, when existing routines are no longer sufficient coping strategies (Böhnisch and Schröer 2001). This kind of – mainly informal – learning is especially required in biographies that are deviant from “normal” life courses. The relevant question of the presented study is how biographical learning evolves in the life of young welfare recipients, how it can promote labour market integration and what part teachers take in this process. Characteristic of these young adults is an increasing number of massive conflicts within the family during adolescence, combined with difficult life circumstances such as poverty, unemployment of parents, illness of a parent, absent father, among other things. The resulting loss of orientation, the overburdening, and the insecure attachment led to heightened attempts to be self-assertive and to dissociate (rebellion, behavior problems, drug use) or to withdraw (depression, flight). This required altogether a lot of coping and had an unfavorable effect on the course of the young people’s education. Through refusing, postponing, withdrawing from, or quitting school, they missed the vocational training phase, which is strongly institutionalized and imposes time constraints. In Switzerland, entrance to qualified employment is possible virtually only via an apprenticeship/traineeship or higher education (university or technical college of higher education). For this reason, the jobs that are open to the young people interviewed were mostly unqualified and temporary, with precarious employment conditions. Almost all of the young people in the study became dependent on welfare aid at age 18, when they reached majority age. Insufficient and unsuitable support by the system, the tense employment situation, and changed living conditions all contributed towards these young people no longer finding a way out of this dependency. They became accustomed to a life between welfare and the labor market. The biographical study shows that it is much more difficult for the young people examined to master central developmental tasks of adolescence (becoming independent emotionally and financially) and that there is little energy left over for the task of vocational integration. Biographical learning implies becoming independent and seeking one’s own identity, and this requires room for experimentation and concrete learning experiences. For the young people in this study, these learning processes are a central prerequisite for coping with life and for educational and vocational development. It became very clear that these young people needed to receive support. But support from parents was not forthcoming, and the support from professionals was mostly unsuitable.

For the present study, in 2002/03 20 cases were selected by theoretical sampling (Glaser & Strauss, 1998) from the total sample of 1123 persons. Although this method – due to difficulties in accessing the target group – was subject to certain research-pragmatic restrictions, the comparison of the cases showed good theoretical saturation (see Schaffner, 2007, p. 109f.). For data collection problem-centered biographical interviews were conducted. In a first step, the interviews were evaluated case-specifically. The framework used for the analysis was Böhnisch’s (1984, 2001) concept of “biographical coping with life/social integration,” which was widened to include biographical learning approaches. The individual cases were first examined for relevant biographical accumulated experiences and chains of events. Here we referred to research methodological bases by Schütze (1981, 1984). The resulting chronology of the events and actions as well as the division of the life course in periods formed the data base (event matrix). Only once the sequence of events was structured was it possible to say something about specific biographical constellations and changes that led to learning processes. In a second step a contrasting case comparison was conducted. Whereas the analysis of the individual cases aimed to show the shape of the individual’s experience, the case comparisons were aimed at discovering typical courses or basic patterns. To do this, the cases were compared, for one, with normal biographical progressions (“ideal type” of a successful progression, used as a frame of reference) and, for another, with each other. This procedure revealed an ideal-type pattern of a discontinuous trajectory, the phases of which are presented below. This was based on Gerhardt’s (Gerhardt 1991, 2001; Kluge 1999) work on analysis of process structure and on ideal-type methodology in interpreting qualitative data.

Two main findings of the study provide ideas both for the teaching and support of young people and for the discussion on education policy: 1) The role of teachers and other professionals When working with young people at risk – for example, young people in vocational integration programs – it becomes more important for teachers to not limit their teaching exclusively to the transmitting of knowledge. This holds for both the educational and vocational areas. What is needed is a broadened understanding of learning and teaching. The central value of biographical learning processes must be recognized and included. The teachers’ task must evolve from instructing to the coaching of learning processes. 2) Structural mismatch As a result of the discontinuous educational histories due to stressful biographical experiences, there arose a mismatch between individual histories and needs on the one side and institutional offerings and flexible opportunities for entering the world of work on the other. That is, at the time that the young people would have been ready for further schooling or for entering work, they found no suitable support and hardly any openings, and the openings that were available were frequently not compatible with the young people’s life circumstances. Here, education policy measures are urgently needed in order to increase the chance of mobility for young persons and young adults at risk. They need a real second chance.