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There Is Plenty Of Evidence Pointing To The Existence Of Significant Numbers ...

There is plenty of evidence pointing to the existence of significant numbers of young people living at the margin of society, unable or unwilling to participate in the mainstream of education, training or employment. Each year 1 in 16 pupils leave with no qualifications. Over 20 years ago nearly half of all school leavers went directly into employment. Now there are jobs for fewer than 10% of school leavers. This section provides a succinct examination of what lies behind such statistics.
What Is Disaffection?
This is a multi-faceted term, referring to a cluster of behaviours, attitudes and experiences. The following are elements of disaffection:
Lacking a sense of identity; having a sense of failure
Disturbed, depressed, difficult young people, with social and emotional problems
Behaviour crime, misbehaviour, drugs, lack of social skills, harming (or potentially harming) self and / or others.
Not exercising civil / democratic rights (uninterested, uninvolved and unregistered) or social / economic rights (poor knowledge of, and access to, services)
Experience discrimination through age alone or combined with other factors (race, disability, single parenthood, homelessness, young carers)
Being failed by the system (especially education and employment / training)
Status Zer0 not in education, employment or training
The variety of ways which disaffection can be expressed suggests what has been borne out by research into the issue; namely that disaffection is the outcome of a multiplicity of causes, often interrelated, but differing from case to case. Despite being given a common label, it is important to remember therefore that disaffected young people are not at all a homogeneous group. The age of the young person, to take just one aspect of difference, has important implications for the ways in which disaffection will be experienced and expressed. Gender, ethnicity and disability are the other important factors differentiating disaffected young people.
The Costs Of Disaffection And Non-Participation
The UK lags behind most other Western nations in terms of the proportion of its young people staying on in post-compulsory education. Among the 29 OCED countries, the UK is one of only four in which 20% or more of young people drop out of education within a year at the end of compulsory education. Behind the figure for educational underachievement lie considerable costs to individuals and society as a whole. According to the figure from the Social Exclusion Unit, non-participation in education, employment or training between the ages of 16 18 is a major predictor of subsequent unemployment and teenage parenthood.
Recent Trends And The Social Exclusion Of Young People
Several inter-linked trends have had an important impact upon the social exclusion of young people over the last 20 years.

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