Youth is a significant period of human life, if not the most important from the point of
view of laying the foundations for a professional career. During this period, young people
formulate their aspirations and life goals, seek and find their own roles and responsibilities
in society and move towards economic independence. This also means that youth is a
period of social and psychological transitions, with young people called on to make
important decisions and choices that significantly affect the course of their lives.
’ q ermined by how successfully they make the
transition from school to work. A failure to obtain a decent job after school can have a
’
as on their income. Any time spent in unemployment, underemployment and inactivity can
have a scarring effect on the young individual (ILO, 2012a). By contrast, a positive start in
the labour market can have a positive impact on professional and personal success in the
later stages of life.
To characterize the specific youth employment challenges and to support policymakers
in designing adequate instruments to support the transition of young people into
employment, the ILO has developed its school-to-work transition survey (SWTS), a
household survey of young people aged 15–29 years. The SWTS, implemented in 2012
with a second round planned for 2014, can serve as a principal tool for monitoring the
impact of policies and programmes outlined in the national employment policy and other
national instruments. The indicators generated from the survey and analysed in this report
aim to present a much more detailed picture of youth in the labour market than usually
exists through standard surveys, including labour force surveys.