This presentation from the OECD Disrupted Futures 2023: International lessons on how schools can best equip students for their working lives conference looks at Challenging inequalities through career guidance: quantitative analyses e “Preparing young people for an uncertain future: school-based career preparation activities can reduce the risk of experiencing NEET”. Presented by Ingrid Schoon and Golo Henseke. Discover the videos and other sessions from the OECD Disrupted Futures 2023 conference at https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/conferences-webinars/disrupted-futures-2023.htm Find out more about our work on Career Readiness https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/

1. Social Research Institute
Preparing young people for an
uncertain future: School-mediated
employment activities can reduce the
risk of experiencing NEET
Ingrid Schoon and Golo Henseke
University College London
2023 OECD Conference
Disrupted Futures
Social Research Institute
Llakes Centre

2. Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic affected every
aspect of young people’s lives:
– disruption of education, school closure
(DfE, 2021; Howard et al., 2021).
– destruction of employment opportunities
and career prospects (Major & Machin,
2020; Henehan, 2021; Green et al., 2022).
– undermines health and wellbeing (OECD,
2021; Gagne et al., 2021; Santomauro et al.,
2021).
– challenges outlook to the future.

3. Economic Situation before 2020
• Even before the onset of the pandemic, the
social and economic integration of young
people was an ongoing challenge (Schoon &
Bynner, 2017, 2019; Schoon, 2020 a,b)
– Rising precarious and temporary employment
– Rising levels of young people not in education,
employment or training (NEET)

4. Issue
• Can schools prepare young people for
an uncertain economic future?
• Focus on the role of school-mediated
employment activities in the transition
to work.
• Study is guided by assumptions from
career development theories,
suggesting that career readiness can
be improved through appropriate
career-related activities and guidance
(Hirschi & Läge, 2008; OECD, 2021).

5. Research Questions
• Can school-mediated employment
activities enable a smooth transition into
the labour market during a period of
economic upheaval?
• Can school-mediated employment
activities help young people, in particular
those from less privileged family
background, to avoid the experience of
not being in education, employment or
training (NEET).

6. Primary Data Source
• Target population: 16-25 years old UK residents.
• Sample: quarterly panel quota sample (quotas set by
age by gender, region and employment status) from
Ipsos-Mori’s access panel.
• Data collection by CAWI
• Waves: Feb-2021 (wave 1), Apr/May-2021 (wave 2), Jul-
2021 (wave 3), Oct-2021 (wave 4), Feb-2022 (wave 5),
June 2022 (wave 6), Oct-2022 (wave 7).
• 1,000 participants per wave. About 45% wave-on-wave
retention, refresher samples make up the rest (total
n=7,000).
• Findings based on pooled sample
Youth Economic Activity and Health Monitor

7. Measure of school-mediated
employer engagement
• “Some schools and colleges arrange for their students to
participate in activities with employers or local business people.
Have you done any of the following activities arranged by your
school or college since you turned 14:
• internship or work experience;
• workplace visits or job shadowing; work-based
• being mentored;
• enterprise competitions and challenges;
• careers advice;
• CV or interview workshops/ practice; school-based
• taking part in classroom discussions about
job prospects or employment.
• Answers were codes as: (1) Yes, once; (2) Yes, more than once;
(0) No, never, Don’t know, Prefer not to say.

8. Distribution of School-Mediated Employer Engagement
59.4
50.0
41.3 41.0
67.5
63.8
60.9
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
Internship or
work
experience
Workplace
visit
Enterprise
competition
Mentorship Careers advice Classroom
discussion
about job
prospects
CV/ interview
workshop
Per
cent
work-based school-based

9. Inequities in employer engagement
Work-based School-based
University educated parents
0.150***
0.110***
Ever in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM) 0.247*** 0.049*
Educational Attainment: Less than GCSE -0.151+ -0.290***
Female (ref: male) -0.141*** -0.048*
Ethnic Minority (Ref: white) 0.078* 0.003
Age 0.029 -0.002
Age square -0.002 -0.001
Region (Ref: London)
North of England -0.166*** -0.069+
Midlands -0.112* -0.055
South & East of England -0.256*** -0.099**
Wales -0.280*** -0.066
Scotland -0.202*** -0.069
Northern Ireland -0.040 -0.013
Observations 2592 2618
+ p < .1, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

10. Predicting NEET
Focus on those who have left education
or were aged 20+.
About 11% of sample experienced NEET
between 2021-2022.

11. Predicting NEET: Logistic Regression (Odds ratios)
Model 1 Model 2
Socio-demographic risks
Parents have at most GCSE
2.11*** 2.02***
Ever in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM) 1.51*** 1.65***
Educational Attainment: GCSE or below 2.05*** 1.91***
Female (ref: male) 1.23* 1.19+
Ethnic Minority (Ref: white) .84 .88
School-mediated employer engagement
School-mediated employer engagement (total)
.91***
Share of work-based employer engagement
1.00
Pseudo R2 0.068 0.082
Observations 4,568 4,568
+ p < .1, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Controls (not shown): age-group, survey wave, and region dummies

12. Risk of NEET across different vulnerable groups
by levels of employer engagement
-6.00%
-4.00%
-2.00%
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
FSM Low parental ed Low school
attainment
BAME Female
Low (<4 engagements) High (4+ engagements)

13. Summary
• Most young people participate in school-mediated employer
engagement – including those from relative disadvantaged
background (in particular those with FSM).
• School-based employer engagement was more common
than work-based forms of engagement.
• The median respondent engaged in at least 6 activities,
while about one in 10 did not recall any engagement
(regarding work-based engagement mean number of
activities were 3 with one in five (22%) not recalling any
engagement).
• School-mediated employer engagement can help young people
to avoid becoming NEET – in particular those from less privileged
backgrounds (2 or more employer engagements were associated
with 20% lower odds of NEET).

14. Conclusion
• Schools are doing a good job in offering
employment activities to students.
• School-mediated career development activities
can help to prepare students for an uncertain
future, especially those from less privileged
background.
• Crucial role for schools, colleges and universities
to create strong connections between education
institutions and employers.
• Crucial role for governments to support schools
in their delivery of high quality career guidance
and coordinated support (Cedefop, 2021; ILO,
2021; OECD, 2021).

15. i.schoon@ucl.ac.uk
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/centre-learning-and-
life-chances-knowled/covid-19-youth-economic-activity-and-health-monitor-yeah