'En dan maar verder kijken ...'. Onderwijs- en werktrajecten van jongeren: een longitudinaal onderzoek

Samenvatting

'And then decide what to do next ... '. Young people's educational and labour trajectories: A longitudinal study from the Netherlands. Summary: In this article we present data from a longitudinal research project about young people's educational and labour trajectories. Data are derived from biographical interviews with about 100 young people who were 16-19 years old in 1988 and in their twenties in 1997 The data show a great variety of different trajectories as a result of decision processes during the transition from youth to adulthood over the years. Besides normal-biographical trajectories all kinds of combination and switch trajectories are being realised by contemporary young men and women, demonstrating the increase of options as well as risks in modern societies. The various types of trajectories are related to young men and women's ideas about the combination of work and family tasks. In reviewing our results, we discuss the kinds of opportunities and risks that are involved in the choices of young people.