"Lost in Transition": Bridge-Schools, Jobs and Unemployment. A longitudinal Analyze of Trajectories from School to Work in Basel

Abstract

“Bridge-Schools” are becoming important institutions in the transition from compulsory to post-compulsory education and later on working environments. In Switzerland one out of five pupils is using such an option to progress to institutions of vocational education training (VET). Installed in the late nineties as temporary exceptions to face problems of youth unemployment “Bridge-Schools” are becoming more and more an expectable, additional school year for some youngsters (more men than women, more Swiss-born foreigners that Swiss and foreign-born foreigner). Nevertheless, the interest of the scientific community remains low. In fact, we still do not know much about the aspiration and perspective of the young students, and what they do after. Based on a longitudinal survey of all pupils in the City of Basel (ADDISCO ) as a mixed-method approach between quantitative (descriptive statistic) and qualitative data-collection (guided interview) the paper first summarizes the future path (secondary school, jobs, unemployment, other solutions) in relation to gender, migration and social class, and secondly, discusses the experience and meaning makings of the youngsters in transition from school to work. The focus lies on the 30% of the youngster in Basel (n 270) who remains unemployed or shift from school to work without any professional diploma. Relying on Mary C. Briton's (2010) analyze of youth, work and instability in postindustrial Japan the paper focus on youngsters in Switzerland who get "Lost in Transition". In doing so it tries to set up a less particular view of transition from school to work including social-historical processes as educational expansion, tertiarization, migration policies and labour markets changes from the nineteens to the present.