Rethinking the Education-to-Work Transition for Young People

Dear Colleagues,

Titled "Rethinking the Education-to-Work Transition for Young People", this Special Issue will reflect on meaningful education and work trajectories for young people. Most educational systems are built on the assumption that the trajectory from education to work is linear and straightforward. Furthermore, studies on educational careers have long been guided by this assumption. More recently, empirical research in many countries has shown that practice is often nonlinear. In contrast, for many young people, building an independent livelihood is a process during which they negotiate different educational trajectories and opportunities such as internships, temporary jobs and entrepreneurial activities. As they develop, they make sense of their experiences. In this Special Issue, we compile articles displaying the features of these processes, as well as the strategies used by young people to navigate them and the roles that different forms of education and learning play in supporting young people. Papers related to different contexts, groups with different backgrounds and preferences, and different practices and approaches are encouraged, including conceptual essays, research results, good practices, policy discussions, etc., with the final goal being that the collected papers provoke a debate on how to support meaningful education and work trajectories for young people in conducive learning environments not confined to the school walls.

If you are interested in submitting a contribution, please, send an abstract of a maximum of 300 words with a provisional title, a short description of the contents of your article, the type of contribution (conceptual essay, discussion of empirical research etc.), and your name(s) and affiliation before 1 July 2024.

Dr. Josje van der Linden
Prof. Dr. Greetje Timmerman
Dr. Cuthbert Tukundane
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• education–work transition
• education trajectories
• internship, youth employment
• youth entrepreneurship