Editorial : Youth, Education, and Work

Abstract

While youth, education, and work have long been recognized as important issues for the education system and human resource development policy more broadly, only in recent years have they (re)assumed a prominent place on the educational development agenda. Kenneth King, in calling for informed perspectives on these developments for Norrag News, cites a spate of recent reports, including UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report (2012a), the World Development Report 2013: Jobs, the Long-Awaited EFA (World Bank 2012), OECD’s Better Jobs, Better Lives (2012), etc.. One could speculate about the reasons for the recent highlighting of education’s role in youth’s transition to work—the large numbers of youth in countries experiencing the “youth bulge”; increased awareness of the political implications of large numbers of un-employed or under-employed youth, not only in North Africa, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia, but also in Europe; the rapid urbanization and “youthification” of cities in sub-Saharan Africa; slow economic growth and the realization of youth as a drag or an engine for economic development; the re-envisioning of shared development and education goals with the approach of 2015 deadlines for the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All. However, it cannot be denied that global policymakers have youth and employment on the mind. This special issue of the Journal of International Cooperation in Education looks at these issues from diverse geographical and theoretical perspectives. We attempt not to duplicate existing reports, which have thoroughly documented the issues they examine from their particular organizational perspectives, but to comment, question, and perhaps deepen the conversation around these issues by looking at national and grassroots cases; comparative studies of countries; empirical research; and perspectives from organizations