Guarded transitions? Youth trajectories and school-to-work transition policies in Sweden

Abstract

In Sweden as in most other OECD countries, school-to-work transitions have become extended and uncertain endeavours. School dropout and youth unemployment rates are comparatively high, and the so-called yo–yo transitions are common. Although traditionally characterised as a prominent example of a social democratic welfare regime, Sweden has recently incorporated numerous neo-liberal ideas into its educational and youth policies. The responsibility for managing and implementing these policies has been extensively devolved to the country's 290 municipalities. Moreover, young people are increasingly expected to take exclusive responsibility for forging their own careers, and to be self-governing, enterprising and proactive, both within the educational quasi-market and beyond. The aim of this article was to critically analyse current Swedish national school-to-work transition policies as well as the ways in which local strategies and measures are implemented and developed within individual municipalities given the relatively broad latitude available to them, and to provide some tentative explanations for Sweden's problems with school dropout rates and youth unemployment.