Pop-Up Meeting: Transitions to Work

On October 10th we had our first ever pop-up meeting with as theme “Navigating from School to Work”. We look back on an inspiring afternoon where a lot of new connections were made.  

In the first part of the pop-up meeting, we were joined by Professor Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt, head of department of Sociology of Bergen University. He shared about the tightening age norms in school-to-work transitions, young people`s use of “gap years”, how the concept of “choice” has been institutionalized and internalized, and how all these changes relate to gender, social class and differences between academic and vocational tracks. He also raised the question of unintended consequences of prevailing narratives of boys` underachievement and school dropout (Early School Leaving). 

The inspiring talk led to a lively discussion where questions were going back and forth. The main points that were made, included: 

• “I realize that there is a lot of impatience with young people, and men in particular.” 
• “We need to reframe ‘drop out’: youth exploring and taking ‘more’ time for that is not wrong.” 
• “The ‘return of investment’ of tertiary education is not the same for everyone.” 
• “Education should lead to meaningful work and basic need fulfilment, but this is not the case for everyone (class & gender differences).” 
• “We have this idea of choosing, but do you know your options? We need to broaden the world.” 

In the second part, we focused more on building connections and brainstorming about potential collaborations. We strive toward building a community where researchers and practioners work together, so we were very happy to welcome Breakwell Instituut and JINC as our societal partners in our pop-up meeting as well. During a speed date session, the attendees got to know each other a little bit better, and a lot of contact details were shared.  

In summary, we are very happy to have brought all these experts together and are looking forward to building from this foundation to generate knowledge and ultimately support young people in this transition, discover what changes are needed in the systems around young people in this transition, and help young people find a sense of purpose and agency in navigating this transition. 

Interested in Kristoffers talk? Below you can access the slides he used. The funding menu is added as well so you can see how the BACW-community can help you with your project idea.  

Are you reading this and thinking: ‘I wish I was there!’? Please reach out to becomingadults@uu.nl and we will keep you updated on the follow-up of this pop-up meeting.