"Since the sovereign debt crisis, the European Union has focused on regulating young people's transitions to work. Today, an EU governance infrastructure for work transitions is centred on the reinforced European Youth Guarantee. Sociologists view youth as a transition marked by milestones of social inclusion such as building independent social lives and transitioning from education to work.
This study analyses how young people's work transitions are regulated in the EU via three research objectives: contextualisation; assessment and critique; and transformation. First, I contextualise how national and EU labour regulation ‘individuated' young people's transitions. By individuation, I refer to placing the primary responsibility for work transitions on young individuals and reducing the role of public institutions and the social partners to provide skill-building opportunities. This regulatory approach reinforces young people's already increased risks of entering adverse life trajectories and intensifies the broader trends of welfare demutualisation and labour flexibilisation. Second, I assess and critique the current EU governance infrastructure for work transitions. This novel governance model improves policy coordination, but individuation remains embedded in it. Third, I argue that work transitions should be regulated to ensure quality in young people's access to work and quality in their work. Access to work should not be pitted against work quality. I therefore propose guiding principles for regulators and practical ideas for integrating these principles into the EU governance infrastructure. These practical ideas include compelling EU labour law regulating work transitions, the development of convincing EU regulation of traineeships or innovative uses of EU funding."

Support: Digital;Paper

ISBN (PDF) : 1994-4454

Legal deposit : D/2025/10.574/14