Jukka Vehviläinen
PITKÄ VÄLITUNTI VAI JATKUVA VÄLIVUOSI Koulutuksen ulkopuolella olevien nuorten rationaliteetit Abstract Jukka Vehvilänen: The Rationalities of Young People without Vocational Training.
The article is based on the study "Keppi ja porkkana". Tutkimus alle 20-vuotiaita aktivoivan työvoimapoliittisen uudistuksen vaikutuksista ja koulutuksen ulkopuolelle jäävistä nuorista (Aho & Vehviläinen 1997) ("Stick and carrot". A Study of young people without training, and of the effects of the labour market policy reform aiming at activating young people under 20 years of age). In this study, we interviewed 70 young people who had no vocational training. On the basis of the interview, five ideal types of young people were identified. The first group were youth who take life as a project. These people have high future goals, and these goals determine their decisions concerning their educational paths. The young people comprising the second group may be described as work oriented. They are trying to decide whether to acquire vocational training, or continue doing temporary jobs. The interest in training grows along with a decline in job opportunities. The third group consists of interest oriented young people who are strongly committed to their hobbies, and have difficulties in forming an occupational identity. Occupation oriented young people, forming the fourth group, are interested in having an occupation as such, but lack motivation for going through a training programme. Their problem is often that they cannot find a suitable occupation, or that they are not accepted into the training programme of their choice. Finally, the fifth group consists of young people who are unwilling to change. The negative training orientation among these youth is related to a general orientation towards life, characterized by unwillingness to change, lack of persistence, and lack of future goals. Youth without training are a very heterogenious group. The problems of some can be located between the individual and the training system, while others are without training for reasons relating to life management in general. With young people with the greatest risk of facing social exclusion, the issue at stake is not so much getting involved in training but, rather, getting involved in one's future.
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