Little attention has been given to youth unemployment in transition countries. However, it has significant detrimental effects in factors that affect welfare in the long term, such as human capital accumulation and fertility rates. The aim of this paper is to study the determinants of participation of young people in labour market in two countries (Poland and Slovenia) that implemented different reform paths to the market system. The analysis is carried out using individual level data drawn from the labour force survey in 1997 and 2002. The focus is on education and training systems. The results of a multinomial LOGIT model of the probability belong to six different labour market status suggests that tertiary educational attainment and participation in training programmes work as buffers against unemployment especially for adults.