Aspiration and NEETS: young people making their way in the world of FE

Smith, Paul Christopher (2017). Aspiration and NEETS: young people making their way in the world of FE. University of Birmingham. M.Phil.

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Abstract

Young people who leave school with few qualifications and subsequently do not go on to college or gain employment have come to be known by the label NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). NEET is an imprecise label and is frequently used pejoratively to signal the problems allegedly caused by young people who, it is often claimed in the media and policy, lack skills and aspiration. The fragile voices of these young people are rarely heard in policy discourse. This project seeks to investigate what these young people aspire to and how they form these aspirations. It asks how these young people make their way through the further education and skills sector after leaving school. Using policy documents, it will attempt to identify how far their aspiration matches with an ‘officially’ prescribed aspiration as defined by government reviews and reports. This project will also evaluate how these learners comprehend their position within the further education and skills sector when attending programmes of study designed for learners who have not achieved GCSEs or are NEET.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Phil.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Phil.

Supervisor(s):