Hosted by the  SOCIODEMOGRAPHY group and coordinated by Daniella Bellani, Queralt Capsada and Luis Ortiz, the 22nd Annual Workshop of the European Research Network ' Transitions in Youth' will be held at the Ciutadella Campus of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra on September 3-6. The workshop will focus its attentions on the effects of the current crisis over the dynamics and results of the school-to-work transition, and over its consequences for inequality by gender, ethnic or social origin.

The 'Transitions-in-Youth' European Research Network has been discussing annually the results of the latest research on the field of transition from education to work, a transition that has become more and more complex with the advent of post-industrial societies, and whose consequences over fertility or future labour-market contingencies are clearer and clearer. The network is constituted by some of the leading scholars in the field, coming from MZES (Mannheim, Germany), Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) or ESRI (Dublin, Ireland), among others.

Impact of the crisis on educational participation

In recent decades, in spite of a general reduction in the relative number of young people and a general increase in their educational attainment, there has been a worsening of the youth labour market situation in the OECD area (Preparing Youth for the 21st Century, OECD 2011). Such worsening is reflected in earnings, the relative risk of unemployment or underemployment and the delay in attaining a significant job.  The on-going economic crisis has unfortunately deepened this process, making the need for research on transition from school to work even more pressing.

The 22nd Workshop of the European Research Network on Transitions in Youth will focus on the effect of the ongoing economic crisis on the prospects of young people at the point of entry into the labour market. Three broad areas will receive particular attention: the impact on educational participation, different dimensions in the transition from education to work and, finally, the effects of this transition in terms of poverty risk, family formation and political participation.

The Workshop welcomes research on the effect of the crisis on the length of the educational career and on transition difficulties early school leavers. Due to an increasing demand for skills in the labour market, this group has become more prone to exclusion and persistently poor labour market performance.

Different dimensions of the education-to-work transition . Special attention will be paid to the increasing phenomenon of NEET ('not in employment, education or training'), a phenomenon particularly prevalent amongst youth during the current recession. Other dimensions of interest are earnings, job security, occupational attainment, working conditions, or the effects of the crisis on the geographical and occupational mobility of school leavers, with a particular attention to the issue of over-education and over-skilling.

Effects of the education-to-work transition in terms of poverty, family formation and political participation.  Finally, the Workshop welcomes contributions that address the consequences of the ongoing crisis for well-being, family formation, health and political participation.

All these subjects are related to the research developed by SOCIODEMOGRAPHY members at UPF. The organisation encourages comparative research on the extent to which the growing risks mentioned above (early school leaving, discouragement, unemployment, low-paid work, adverse working conditions, geographical mobility, overskilling etc.) are unequally distributed across gender, ethnic origin and levels of education, and the institutional and political factors explaining cross-national differences.

More information:  http://eventia.upf.edu/tiy2014barcelona/