Policies that are designed to support young people in their transition from education and training into employment are generally created with positive goals and outcomes in mind by aiming to reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment, or training, and trying to improve participation in learning, strengthen their pathways into work, and promote inclusion.

One of the early insights emerging from EDU-LAB is that policies do not always lead to the same outcomes that are initially intended. Our project's year one work highlights that even well-designed policies and measures can produce unintended effects that need to be better understood.

As part of the research in the first year, the project conducted a systematic literature review of policies, programs, and investments supporting the transitions of youth through education and training into the labour market. This is examined in deliverable D2.1 that focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of these measures and policies and identifies unintended effects and reasons why sometimes intended policy outcomes are not fully achieved.

This is, of course, not to say that all policies are ineffective, but rather that identifying the unintended effects can help provide a more realistic understanding of how policies operate in complex education and labour market environments.

Six unintended effects identified in the EDU-LAB systematic review

The EDU-LAB Systematic literature review has identified that there are six categories of unintended effects on youth transition policies, which highlight challenges that may arise alongside intended policy outcomes and point to areas where additional attention may be necessary.

The six unintended effects identified are:

• Reinforcing stratification between advantaged and disadvantaged youth
• Focus on unemployed NEETs rather than harder-to-reach inactive youth
• Short-term activation that may lead to precarious pathways
• Over-emphasis on individual employability rather than structural conditions
• Mobility effects that may delay or misalign transitions
• Complex governance and fragmented support systems

The following sections briefly explain these challenges and why they matter for understanding youth transitions.

When Support Reaches Some Young People More Easily Than Others

One of the unintended effects that the systematic review has highlighted is the risk of reinforcing stratification between disadvantaged and more advantaged youth, and this suggests that young people with more resources may benefit more easily from certain opportunities, while those who are harder to reach and may remain less well served.

It's also noted in the review that young people already well-connected to existing support system are oftentimes easier to reach than their peers who are less so. This can make designing policy quite challenging On the surface, programs may appear successful In terms of activity, while still struggling to successfully engage those that are facing the greatest barriers and require the most attention and assistance. This highlights why it's important to take into consideration not only the intended beneficiaries, but also who has the most access to such programs in practice.

Short-Term Activation Does Not Always Lead to Sustainable Pathways

Another identified issue concerns the types of prioritized outcomes. The literature suggests that funding structures and program incentives may sometimes encourage short-term activation outcomes, such as rapid entry into employment, without sufficient attention to long-term stability or progression.

This can result in transitions into precarious pathways with more limited opportunities for progression, and in such cases, policies may not necessarily improve long-term transition quality while on the surface achieving measurable outputs. This issue is closely connected to how success is measured. Our review highlights that these monitoring systems often can emphasize outputs as opposed to long-term outcomes, which can shape how programmes are designed and evaluated.

Focusing on Employability Can Leave Structural Problems Untouched

Also identified in the systematic review is a tendency in some approaches to policy to focus primarily on individual employability. According to the analysed literature, this can lead to an emphasis on skills and individual responsibility, while largely ignoring structural labour market conditions.

Youth transitions from education and training into the labour market are often shaped to a large extent by institutional arrangements, labour market structures and government systems, and not only by individual choices and skills.

If the main focus of policies is only on the individual level, that may cause broader structural barriers to remain insufficiently addressed. This highlights that it is important to consider both systemic and individual factors when designing policies intended to support the youth in such transitions.

Fragmented Governance Can Weaken Policy Impact

Another recurring theme, identified in the systematic review, is the fragmentation of governance. The literature analyzed is pointing to programs that seem to be overlapping and to weak coordination between initiatives as factors that can reduce policy coherence and make support systems difficult to navigate.

The difference between European-wide policy frameworks and those in national or local implementation contexts have also been noted in the review. These can affect how policies operate in practice. National systems may vary significantly in their structures and their traditions, even when strategic goals are shared. This would suggest that policy effectiveness is dependent on not only programme design, but also on how different governance levels interact and how they coordinate their efforts.

Limited Youth Voice Remains a Concern

The EDU-LAB systematic literature review also identified limited integration of youth voices in policy design and evaluation is another factor affecting the effectiveness of policies. The literature refers to limited youth voice and weak feedback loops as one of the reasons why the intended effects may sometimes remain not fully achieved. Young people's experiences and perspectives are therefore important to consider when developing and improving policies that aim to improve their conditions for transitioning from education and training into the labour market. Without feedback mechanisms, policymakers are at risk of overlooking barriers that may be visible in lived experience, but less so in administrative data.

This is something EDU-LAB helps to address with qualitative findings from young people themselves.

Looking Beyond Intended Effects

A key contribution of the systematic review is its focus on understanding the broader conditions under which policies operate, and not only on the intended policy outcomes. Youth transitions are shaped by complex interactions between policy design, contexts of implementation, governance, and evaluation practices. T

he findings from year one do not mean to suggest that the overall effectiveness of youth policies is low per se. Many areas were also identified where integrated support systems, specific programs and strong vocational pathways show more positive transition outcomes, but at the same time, it is important to highlight that recognizing unintended effects is part of improving policy.

To understand such dynamics, therefore, it's about examining how separately structured, who it reaches, and how it operates within wider education and labour market systems, and is not only about expanding support measures.

A Year One Contribution

As a contribution during the first year of the project, EDU-LAB’s systematic review provides a structured overview of the current state of knowledge regarding transition policies for young people and identifies areas where further research is needed. By highlighting unintended effects and implementation challenges, it helps to define key research questions for the next project phases.

In the coming project phases, EDU-LAB will build on this foundation through further data analysis, expert consultations and qualitative research into young people’s experiences. Together, these strands aim to contribute to developing a more comprehensive understanding of how young people across Europe shape their pathways from education and training into the labour market.

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