The effectiveness of lifelong learning policies on youth employment: do regional labour markets matter?

Abstract

In a context of high youth unemployment rates, the employability agenda has dominated the design of European lifelong learning (LLL) policies. While the assumption of this agenda is that the causes of youth unemployment are individual and of an educational nature, our study explores to what extent regional labour market situations affect the effectiveness of these LLL policies on vulnerable young adults. Based on interviews with key regional actors and the review of relevant grey literature at the national and regional level, we identify apprenticeships (i.e. work-based training) and employability training courses (i.e. school-based learning) as the main lifelong learning policies used in five European countries to promote youth employment. The comparative analysis shows how differences in education and training provision can be explained by the different configuration of national skill formation regimes. However, the effectiveness of these provision measures on youth employment is largely affected by how the economic context is shaping the demand for skills in these regional labour markets.