The purpose of this paper is to examine what circumstances influence work adaptation among young adults – now in their late 20s – who received special educational assistance in upper secondary school. For most of these individuals, their special measures were related to psychological, social or physical disabilities. Individuals with previous special educational needs are not included as a separate category in ordinary labour market statistics. However, it is an established fact that people with disabilities have a problematic relationship with the job market. In Norway, 45% of persons with disabilities had a job in 2007, compared with 75% of the total population aged 16 to 66. A similar pattern is documented in a review in Handbook of Disability, which analyses the situation in fairly affluent countries that are supposed to be able to provide work for disabled people (Schriner 2001). The low level of labour market participation suggests that many young people with disabilities depend on others for their economic and social survival. When looking at processes, like education and working life, the life course perspective is often an appropriate theoretical approach. The life course can be seen as the sum of the pathways or trajectories (e.g., in education, work, and family life) that individuals follow through various types of contexts.This perspective is useful when analysing how individuals adapt to changing historical contexts and varying structural environments (e.g., special or regular classes). Naturally, the life course manifests itself not only in the long run but also in the short run. In the latter context, the concept of transition is the most appropriate (cf. Elder and Johnson 2003) My analyses depict the transition to adult life of young people who are usually considered disadvantaged in the labour market. This paper focuses on work adaptation, but variables from the realms of education health and family life are introduced as explanatory factors. (cf. Myklebust 2007)

The data is from a longitudinal study funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and the Norwegian Council of Research. The data colection started in 1996 with a sample of 760 adolescents. During the next years, class teachers and school completed questionnaires once or twice a year. In 2002, the adolescents were interviewed by telephone, and in 2007, they answered a combined postal and telephone survey. The response rate has been fairly good, in every wave of data collection it has exceeded 60% (Båtevik and Myklebust 2007). The data is analysed by logistic regression, an approach that allow simultaneous control for several independent variables, e.g., functional level and gender.

It is expected that these analyses will demonstrate how adaptation to work is influenced by former class placement, that is, whether it is beneficial to receive special educational support in regular or special classes. Whether this influence is direct or indirect, e.g., mediated by competence attainment will also be demonstrated. If class placement has long term effects on work adaptation, this fact should be taken into account when educational policy is being discussed, in Norway as well as other countries.