Bridge over troubled waters : the role of the Employment and Training Corporation in school-to-work transitions

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study was to research upon the role of the Employment and Training Corporation in assisting young people through their transition from school to work. The transition from education to employment has always entailed several processes and dynamics that affected pupils in how they experience their shift from one world to another. It is suggested that several variables interact with the transition phenomenon and these contribute towards having a negative perception regarding the world to work. The problem arises from various forces especially from the schooling environment. The participants of this study were ex-students who recently experienced a negative transition which lead them to reside into unemployment. This consequently induces unemployed ex-students to register for employment at the ETC so as to aid them in finding a job. It emerged that this Corporation tries to stabilise the negative impact that students experience from the transition and also tries to reduce the domination of a protective school that imparts students with a belief of a punitive world of work. It was expected that the school does not equip pupils with necessary information regarding employment but it was not expected that school distorts reality. Employers' lack of participation in career guidance programmes further re-enforces the blank slate that pupils have regarding employment, thus creating a harder adjustment when entering one environment and leaving another.