A Comparison of Effects on Capabilities in Transitions to the Labour Market

Final Report on the WorkAble EU Collaborative Project (2009-2012)

Introduction by Enrica Chiappero Martinetti

This final report presents the findings of Work Package 5 (WP5) of the EU collaborative research project “Making Capabilities Work” (WorkAble).

The overall aim of WorkAble is to provide knowledge on how to enable young people to act as capable citizens in the labour markets of European knowledge societies, and to assess political and institutional strategies aimed at countering high rates of youth unemployment, early school leaving and dropping out from upper secondary education.

The project’s three main objectives are first, to expand the capabilities of young people to act as fully participating citizens in emerging European knowledge societies; second, to promote skills and competencies in young people that are conducive to improving the economic productivity and competitiveness of Europe; and third, to develop transversal strategies that integrate central economic, educational and social issues, in order to close the capability gap in the young and particularly the inadequacies between education and training and the requisites of the knowledge society to which they, and, above all, the more disadvantaged are exposed.

Using EU-SILC longitudinal data as well as in-depth analyses of specific countries and comparative analyses of pairs of countries, the aim of WP5 (“Effects on transitional trajectories of young people”) is to identify and understand the transitions that young Europeans make from the educational system to the labour market, and to assess whether educational strategies contribute to expanding their capabilities for work and social participation. Special attention is given to analysing the degree to which comparable educational attainments among young people lead to different labour market opportunities, depending on the configuration of labour market and educational regimes. WP5 also examines the relationship between education, transitional trajectories and individual well-being and social exclusion, and how this relationship varies between different EU member states.

The present final report contains two main sections. The first section consists of brief synopses for each of the seven papers produced by the researchers participating in WP5. Each synopsis includes the title of the paper in question, the main research question that it poses, the data and methodology utilized, and the main findings. The second section consists of the Annexes, which contain the seven papers in full.

Full text (PDF 263pp)

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The role of dialogic processes in designing career expectations

an article by Marcelline Bangali and Jean Guichard Institut National d'Etudes du Travail et d'Orientation Professionnelle (National Institute for the Study of Work and Career Counselling) of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (National Conservatory of Applied Technologies) Paris) published in Journal of Vocational Behavior Volume 81 Issue 2 (October 2012)

Abstract

This article examines the role played by dialogic processes in the designing or redesigning of future expectations during a career guidance intervention. It discusses a specific method (“Giving instruction to a double”) developed and used during career counselling sessions with two recent doctoral graduates.

It intends both to help them outline or specify a career expectation and to create a means to observe the involved dialogic processes. This method was designed within the framework of the “making oneself self” model (Guichard, 2004, 2005, 2009).

Dialogic processes were analysed by referring to (a) this model’s conceptualisation of individual reflexivity, (b) the Benveniste general linguistic theory, and (c) the concept of “acts of thought”, as recently developed from the Peirce semiotic theory.

It appeared that each of these two graduates favoured different dialogic processes and acts of thought and evolved accordingly. One of them re-read her whole life and created a new career expectation. The other worked on his previous one to move it from the past university laboratory where he wrote his thesis to a future expected job in a specific private company.

Highlights

► The role of dialogic processes in a career guidance intervention is described.
► The processes of (re)designing their career expectations by 2 recent PhDs are shown.
► Analyses were conducted in referring to the “making oneself self” model and to Peirce’s and Benveniste’s theories.
► Clients appeared to rely mainly on either one of 2 forms of reflexivity during such interventions.
► One client created a new career expectation. The other one retained his previous one but modified its anchoring point.

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