Transition from School to Work: An Intercountry Study.

This volume reviews measures and programs recently undertaken by governments in several different countries to address youth unemployment and school-to-work transition. Focus is on studies of assessment methods and data needs (Part 1) and recurrent education (Part 2). The first three studies emphasize the development of assessment methods. One suggests a general methodology for assessing cooperative education programs in the U.S. and offers specific guidelines; another gives information about the Work Experience Program in Britain and assessment criteria; a third uses economic and sociological inquiry to suggest expected outcomes of apprenticeship policies in France. Other studies report findings from recent surveys of programs: In one, the authors outline the goals and operation of part-time compulsory education in Holland; another examines off-the-job skill training for young school leavers as a link between schooling and life; several new Italian programs to improve school-to-work transition and reduce unemployment are described in a third; two Swedish programs, covered by the fourth study, offer employment subsidies for the hiring of young people to replace older employees during the latter's training periods. The first study in Part II asks why, in the light of fiscal, demographic, and labor force trends, there is so little recurrent education; the second presents data on "further education" in France and Germany and how this relates to the school-to-work transition.