“You never really know me!”: the lived experience of ‘NEET’ young people in Malta

Abstract

Young people disengaged from education, employment, or training are classified as NEET (OECD, 2015) and are frequently the target of the authorities’ attempts to integrate them into the education and training system or the labour market (Eurofound 2017). Thus, the number of early school leavers and NEETs in Malta can be reduced. These young people are more likely to disappear from the radar once they leave compulsory education and are, therefore, essentially a mystery to policymakers and researchers. This study seeks to fill the critical research gap, addressing the need for qualitative data about the complexities and realities of young people classified as NEET worldwide, including in Malta. This study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to privilege NEET young people’s interpretations of their situation, their focal concerns, and their views about their school experiences and future. The data was collected through participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews with fourteen young people in Malta who were NEET or at risk of being NEET at the time of data collection. Seven overlapping superordinate themes emerged: narratives of hardship, the influence of compulsory schooling, use of time, notions of success and failure, attitudes towards life, coping, and projections for the future. The findings reveal the adversity that participants had to deal with throughout their school years, their understanding of success that transcends academic achievement, narratives of resilience and agency, and their awareness of mental health as a priority to live fully and beat the odds that may be stacked against them. The research participants’ interpretations of their lived experiences on their educational trajectories and path into adulthood problematise the validity and usefulness of the term “NEET,” given its failure to embrace the lived differences among the cohort in question.