Young People's Practical Agency: Transitions From FE College To Work In London

This paper presents findings from the Changing Youth Labour Markets and School to Work Transitions in Modern Britain project. The project examined young people’s experiences and perceptions about study, work and the future while going through transitions. Our findings demonstrate a complex picture of potentialities, vulnerabilities and resilience of young people in transition. The target group was young people aged between 18 and 24, who were on vocational courses at Further Education (FE) colleges in London. This group is an under-researched ‘missing middle’ (Roberts 2011) group, who are neither NEET nor following ‘tidy’ pathways. Drawing on the individualisation theory and agency theories, we explore how diverse and complex transition experiences of the missing middle can be categorised. We apply the conceptual framework of temporal orientations of agency, originally proposed by Emirbayer and Mische (1998). The missing middle group shows a number of potentialities, but they are vulnerable under current circumstances of youth labour markets. The young people do exercise agency in making decisions based on practical and realistic options available to them at ‘the present’, and thus they develop resilience. We suggest that agency is situated and discuss the interplay between young people’s agency and the contexts in which they live, particularly in relation to youth labour market conditions.