Looking for Better Training and Employment Opportunities of Young People in Conditions in a Vulnerable Situation

Abstract

Young people are facing increasingly longer and more diverse transitions to adulthood. To support young people during their transitions, the European Union has promoted the development of different lifelong learning initiatives, programs and policies that aim, among others, to successfully manage transitions to the labor market and fully participate in the labor market. This research is part of European project that analyzes, among other objectives, how these policies fit young adults' perceptions and expectations of their formal and non-formal competencies and thus enable them to create meaningful meanings throughout their life trajectories. This article presents an analysis of some young people exposed to a vulnerable situation and who are beneficiaries of some of these programs. Specifically, biographical interviews were developed with ten young people. The results are organized according to the self-presentation of the interviewee, the construction of his/her life history, the elaboration of a life plan and the experience with the selected learning policy and point to the need to rethink lifelong learning policies based on the need to coordinate different areas, not only those related to the improvement of employability, to respond to the challenges that young adults have to face in their life transitions.