From school to work. Long-term employment outcomes for vulnerable young adults

Author(s):

Finn Ove Båtevik(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 05 A, Vulnerable Young Adult´s Life Course Transitions

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

13:30-15:00

Room:

K3.21

Chair:

Linda Mary Hargreaves

Contribution

The difficulties regarding the transition from school to work for persons with disabilities is a well-studied subject (Schriner, 2001, Danziger and Ratner, 2010, Mavromaras and Polidano, 2011). The low employments rates among people with disabilities is thoroughly documented as well; e.g. in Norway (Jørgensen and Clausen, 2007, Lergard 2012), in UK (Hansen, Andreassen, and Meager, 2011), in US (Newman et al. 2011), in Germany (Gebhardt et al. 2011) and in Spain (Pallisera 2011). The percentages of people with disabilities aged 16 to 64 I Norway, were for an example 46 percent in 2015. The percentage is far below the rest of the population (Næsheim and Sundt, 2016).

However, the study of the transition from school to work captures just a small part of the life course of an individual. Studies of the long-term employment outcomes on the labor market among people with disabilities is not common. As Rigg (2005, 27) pointed out, remarkably little is known about the progression of disabled individuals in work. Some exceptions could be mentioned, for example Lindstrom, Doren and Miesch (2011) and Myklebust and Båtevik (2014).

The aim of this article is to study the long-term employment outcomes for young people with special educational needs. How many of the former special educational needs students from the secondary school cohorts of the mid 1990ies are in permanent work 20 years later? How many of them hold a stable labormarket position. What kind of long-term “determinants” influence the chances of holding such a position? Does their background as special educational needs student influence their long-term employment? In short, what factors matters, when the former students are at the age of 36 to 37?

Analysis of long-term employment outcomes for young people with special educational needs requires longitudinal studies. The life course perspectives give a theoretical foundation for such studies. The life course perspective involves great changes at the level of society that may influence the situation of each individual, as well as individual ability to plan, to choose and to act (Elder & Johnson, 2003). Individuals are embedded in social relationships. The school context is, for example, important in this respect whether the students are included in regular or special classes. So is timing – that is, the point in time in a life course at which important transitions take place. A critical aspect is whether such transitions take place at all (e.g., a failure to acquire formal vocational or academic skills). Transitions are important, as well as the question of change or stability during the life course, in longitudinal studies. In the study of long-term employment outcomes, the question of change or stability will be in focus.

Method

In the beginning of 1996, information was collected on almost all students who started upper secondary education with special educational needs in six Norwegian counties. The comprehensive registration form provided detailed information on 760 students, and these individuals were included as the main sample in the subsequent follow-ups, yearly through the school years and afterwards about every fifth year. At the age of 36 to 37 years 253 of these individuals were interviewed by telephone or answered postal questionnaires. In the present paper this is called the analytic sample. The response rate was only 33% of the original follow-up sample. However, the response rate was 68.6% of the 369 individuals who were then available. (The schools that originally kept lists of the names and identification numbers of the students, would not or could not provide 118 names when the interview stage began. Another problem was that the Data Inspectorate allowed us to contact only those participants who in the 2007 survey had consented to remain in the longitudinal study. In addition, 13 of the participants died during the period under investigation.) A special challenge in many longitudinal studies is the high drop-out rate. This difficulty, however, can be reduced by controlling for any bias in the material, as has been carried out by Myklebust et. al (2016). The analysis demonstrates that the sex balance is exactly the same in the analytic sample and the population (62% males and 38 females). The majority began vocational courses, and the percentage starting in these courses is nearly the same in the analytic sample and in the population (79%). However, those who started upper secondary education in special classes are overrepresented, whereas those who initially began in academic courses are underrepresented in the analytic sample compared to the population. Compared to most studies of young people with disabilities, the present study has some assets. The sample is relatively large and the time span is long, ranging from the age of 17 to the age of 37. For similar studies, see Gerber 2012, 41 – 42) and Robert, Seguin and O´Connor (2010, 192). The data will be analysed by binary logistic regression.

Expected Outcomes

Since the longitudinal study dates back to the mid 90ies, the data material has already resulted in several articles. Some of these articles addresses the question of transition from school to work as well. This includes the analysis of the situation for the former students with special educational needs when they were in their twenties (Båtevik and Myklebust, 2006) as well as in their early thirties (Myklebust and Båtevik, 2014). The importance of physical, psychosocial and/or social difficulties, gender, formal competence, processes of cumulative advantages and disadvantages, the transition to work and the possibilities of being economic independent represent some topics from these articles. The new article contains updated data from 2015, as well as drawing upon data from the time these people were students in secondary school and grownups in their mid 20ties. In this way, we are able to study the long-term employment outcomes for the former special needs students. The intention is to publish the article in a scholarly journal, for example Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research.

References

Båtevik, F. O. & Myklebust, J. O. (2006). The road to work for former students with special educational needs. Different paths for young men and young women? Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research. Vol. 8. No.1: 38–52. Danziger, S. and D. Ratner (2010). Labor market Outcomes and the Transition to Adulthood. Future of Children, Vol. 20, No. 1:133 –158. Elder, G.H. and M.K. Johnson (2003). The Life Course and Aging: Challenges, Lessons, and New Directions. In R. Settersten (ed.): Invitation to the Life Course. Toward New Understandings of Later Life, 49 – 81. New York: Baywood Publishing Company. Gerber, P.J. (2012). The Impact of Learning Disabilities on Adulthood: A Review of the Evidence-Based Literature for Research and Practice in Adult Education. Journal of Learning Disabilites, Vol 45, No 1: 31 – 46. Gebhardt, M., T. Tretter, S. Schwab and B. Gasteiger-Klicpera (2011). The transition from school to the workplace for students with learning disabilities: status quo and the efficiency of pre-vocational and vocational training schemes, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 26:4, 443-459 Myklebust, J. O. & Båtevik, F.O. (2014). Economic independence among former students with special educational needs: changes and continuities from their late twenties to their mid-thirties. European Journal of Special Needs Education. Vol. 29. (3) s. 387–401. Myklebust, J.O., F.O. Båtevik, R. Kvalsund, I. V. Bele (2016): From Adolescence to Adult Life Longitudinal Research on Vulnerable People Conducted at Volda University College and Møre Research: A Methods Report. https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2420877/Notat_04_2016_Myklebust%20m%20fl.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Næsheim, H & Sundt; C. (2016). Funksjonshemmede på arbeidsmarkedet I Norge og Sverige i 2015. Årskaker til ulik andel sysselsatte. Oslo–Kongsvinger: Statistics Norway. Pallisera, M. (2011) Transition scenarios for young people with learning disabilities in Spain. Relationships and discrepancies, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 26:4, 495 –507 Rigg, J. (2005). Labour Market Disadvantage amongst Disabled People: A Longitudinal Perspective. London: CASE. Robert, M., M. Séguin and K. O´Connor (2010). The evolution of the study of life trajectories in social sciences over the past five years: A state of the art review. Advances in Mental Health. Vol. 9, Issue 2: 190 – 210

Author Information

Finn Ove Båtevik (presenting / submitting)

Volda University College

Volda

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