Youth Transitions

Until relatively recently, the transition from school to work was thought of as a discrete stage in the pathway from childhood to adulthood. Young people were expected to attend school, and while they were studying they mostly did not have 'adult' responsibilities. At a certain point, they left full-time schooling and entered the adult workforce. This progression is what Beck (1992) called the 'standard biography'. It assumed a linear progression from childhood to youth to adulthood, which was associated with independence, full employment and family formation. It now seems that the standard biography belonged to a bygone era of full employment and rapid industrial development. In reality, however, the progression from school to work was never as simple and secure as the standard biography implied, and it was not universal. Even for urban youth, full employment could be an elusive goal. Many rural students were expected to work on the family farm, even if they were not paid. Combining study and work was and is no novelty in the bush. Nevertheless, the myth of an idealised standard biography persisted until at least the mid 1970s. Social and economic contexts change from generation to generation, and sometimes within a single generation. Chapter 2 provides a discussion of the ways in which such changes over time - such as the rapid expansion of secondary education - create new understandings of adolescence and the transition to adulthood.