Employment Rate in Scotland - Essay Example

Literature Review (Word count 636) The tremendous growth experienced by the Scottish cities have helped in the increased rate of employment all over the urban centres (Turok, 2008). The policies implemented with this perspective have helped Scotland to attain one of the highest employment rates. In spite of this high figure of employment rate for 15 to 19 year among all the OECD countries Scotland has a high proportion of NEET in comparison with the international figures (Maguire and Rennison, 2005). It is also interesting to observe that there exist a wide variation in the proportional representation of different age groups in the NEET group. The results show that the status of those among 16 years of age remain unchanged from the NEET group while those in 17 year group showed an increase. But contrary to others, the number of 18 year old from NEET shows a decline (Maguire and Rennison, 2005). The studies undertaken among youth population to understand the issues faced by them and hence to evolve necessary support systems have yielded useful results. In one such exercise conducted in Scotland, the data was collected from the school leavers from three different colleges using the focused interviews with the purpose of identifying the reasons and insight about their lifestyles, attitudes and expectation from education and employment (Elliot, 2008). The study revealed the role of both emotional and financial support that would play in the personal growth of the students and the effective interventions by the educational institutions that could play a major role in this regard (Elliot, 2008). The critically examination of the current practice of relating the youth unemployment with NEET have yielded eye opening observations (Furlong, 2006). Competence based education programmes are considered as one of the most successful initiatives to have outcome oriented training sessions. An action oriented research programme undertaken to equip the health care workers in Australia proves this point (Glasgow, 2008). The increase in the chronic illness rate among the population and absence of effective support mechanism forced the authorities to plan competence based education programmes to supply the necessary health care workers. The proper planning followed by effective follow up helped the policy to become highly successful. Thus it is one of the successful cases of effective policy intervention which was appropriately tailored to meet the social demand. In the case of NEET the polices could be appropriately designed in similar ways to yield quantifiable outcomes. (Glasgow et al, 2008). Based on the review undertaken on the literature available in connection with the research activities undertaken on NEET, it is realised that majority of work has been related to the qualitative component. The major issues addressed are the type of delivery environment and infrastructure supports for promotion of NEET policies. The quantitative appreciation of the impacts on the policy interventions is seldom undertaken and hence need careful analysis. Thus , the available information on the NEET in Glasgow shows an incomplete undertsanding on the possible reasons for relatively high level in the region. The research studies undertaken in the past were unable to establish the interrelationships across various factors and parameters identified as the prime reasons for this state of affairs. Further, even the methodology adopted for data collection on most of the occassions were sighly skewed and the sample size chosen were also inadequate to represent the prevailing scenario. Thus the research proposal being submitted is to address the above shortcommings and to understand the prime reason why high NEET numbers are reported in Glasgow inspite of the high employment rates there. Also, the present research would also identify the risk factors that lead to the factors influencing the NEET group. Thus, the results from this research would certainly give comprehensive information to frame policies for effective administrative interventions besides designing systems that are capable to limit the rising NEET group in unemployment in Glasgow. Methodology (Word count : 393) This research programme is initiated under the circumstances of inadequate and inconsistent data on NEET in Scotland. The available records on the NEET group clearly shows considerable variation across different sources. This discrepancy is said to have emerged from the inconsistency in the methodology adopted for data collection exercise like poor design of questionnaire, poor time settings for the activities and error in the design of samples. Thus it is realized that a cluster of techniques would be required to understand the interrelated issues in NEET. In order to understand the factors needed for additional support that the students might require due to various reason like very low success in education, poor access to information etc focus group discussions are planned. The focused group discussions need to be organized with the teachers of schools, parents and social workers actively involved in the issues related to NEET. Such an exercise could throw more light on the qualitative aspects on prevailing gaps in the system. Also , this would give a fresh direction for clearly categorizing the risk groups who would eventually become NEET. Also it could eliminate the prejudices in data collection as reports published have highlighted the skewed observations made in the past studies past studies that were undertaken by NEET experts . The data collection exercise also need to achieve a quantitative aspects of this problem on the population, especially in Glasgow. Specific observations like dissatisfaction observed in the education , feeble family background rooted in poverty, disturbing reasons like unacceptable pay and poor skill sets , young offenders, teenage parents, those seeking the support of asylums need to be considered for the data collection among a selected sample using a structured questionnaire. The technique is specifically chosen for this purpose inorder to create a sense of involvement by the individuals during the discussions. In addition, mailed questionnaire were used gather information from the policy makers, law and order officials and other government personals to gain a better perspective on the subject. The results obtained from the study would be able to provide the specific information on the contributing reasons for NEET in the Glasgow besides reliably quantifying the proportions . Thus the research would be unique initiative on analyzing NEET which would also provide detailed information regarding the risk group for Glasgow region for this segment. References Elliot, D R (2008), What are the future plans of unengaged young people ? Exploring the views of Scottish youth at risk [Online] Retrieved from .[23 March 2009] Furlong , A (2006), Not a very NEET solution representing problematic labour market transitions among early school-leaver, Work, Employment & Society, 20(3) , pp 553-569. Glasgow, N.J., Wells, R, Butler J and Gear, A (2008), The effectiveness of competency-based education in equipping primary health care workers to manage chronic disease in Australian general practice settings, MJA , 188 ( 8 ), pp S92-96. Maguire, S and Rennison, J (2005), two years on : The destinations of young people who aare not in education, employment or training at 166, Journal of Youth studies, 8(2), pp 187-201 Turok , I (2008), Harnessing the potential of Scotland’s Cities, Scottish Affairs, No. 63. [Online] Retrieved from < http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_77894_en.pdf > [24 march 2008] Read More