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Part 2 of the Special Issue on “School-to-Work Transition Around the World: The Effect of the Pandemic Recession-Global Perspective” focuses on the global panorama of school-to-work transition (STWT). With young people constituting a significant portion of the world's population, their seamless transition from education to employment is paramount for the present and future labor force. This study explores various dimensions influencing youth's STWT worldwide, including education-job mismatch, early career outcomes, young entrepreneurs' profiles, gender and informal sector wage gaps, social capital, social network sites' usage, job attributes and returns to schooling. These insights shed light on the intricate nature of global STWT, offering valuable guidance for policymakers and practitioners. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned ideas.

The study builds on the country-specific contributions of the papers selected in the Special Issue by supporting it with additional literature. Moreover, the study reveals a more holistic and global understanding of the school-to-work transition by zooming out on the specific geographic contexts.

This paper examines the school-to-employment transition challenges in various countries. In Italy, PhD holders face wage disadvantages, especially in physics, engineering, social sciences and humanities. Education positively impacts transition speed, employability and earnings, but effects differ across birth cohorts. Italian women encounter persistent wage gaps, experiencing both a “sticky floor” and “glass ceiling” effect, and in Zambia, working while studying enhances the youth's chances of finding well-matched jobs. Albanian public sector careers rely on political connections over merit, revealing political clientelism. Russian research confirms a 20 percent gender wage gap due to occupational segregation. Polish informal workers generally earn less, with higher penalties for low-wage earners. In Australia, social network site usage yields positive and negative effects on teens' school and work balance. Global analysis reveals varying education returns, with rural areas showing lower returns and women benefiting more than men. Africa and Latin America exhibit higher education returns than Asia and Eastern Europe.

This study provides valuable insights into how various countries address the challenges of transitioning from school to work and identifies the educational and economic factors contributing to a successful transition. Given that extended transition periods, high rates of youth unemployment and high NEET rates continue to be a concern for many countries around the world, the implications of this study are significant and extend beyond national borders, despite variations in the specific circumstances analyzed.

The study summarizes the experiences of specific developed and developing countries concerning youth unemployment and their smooth school-to-work transition. Detailed discussions of country experiences around the globe provide valuable guidance for policymakers and practitioners.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the search for transitional services has been characterized as a challenging experience for autistic youth and their families. Transitional services are reported to be inconsistent and do not address the range of needs that autistic individuals have.

In this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with autistic individuals (n = 31), their parents/caregivers (n = 23) and transition-based service providers (n = 10).

Findings invite capacity building across sectors, including working with both the autistic individual and their caregiver, and ensuring targeted services commensurate with individual needs related to autism and ancillary challenges. Implications and recommendations for service and system advancement are offered.

Current services were reportedly insufficient in meeting the needs of autistic individuals as they transitioned into adulthood. Service areas needing to be bolstered include daily life, community engagement and employment. Capacity building and enhanced training are required. Information and communication strategies require advancement.

A more responsive system is required, which involves support from many societal sectors (e.g. health, mental health, advanced education, social services, industry, housing and justice) over the lifespan. Policy adjustments and organizational mandates need to be reviewed to better consider the needs of transitioning autistic youth and allocate resources accordingly. Partnerships across stakeholder groups are needed.

This study provides details on a known but not well understood issue of transition to adulthood for autistic adults. This study is unique in providing first-hand data from transitioning autistic adults, with corroborating data from families and service providers.

The upsurge in global youth migration remains a major concern for policymakers, politicians and academia at large. Given the emerging interests in youth migration and informal jobs in cities around the world, this study aims to establish the barriers limiting the transition of migrant youths, in informal settings, into formal jobs and the consequent impact on their livelihood.

Leveraging the push-pull approach of the functionalist migration school, this study uses a primary research design. A structured questionnaire was administered among 150 migrant youths who were selected across informal settings in Lagos, using a convenient sampling technique. Then, a structured face-to-face interview was later conducted among 40 selected migrant youths.

There is a skill mismatch between the competence of the youths and the requirements of firms in the formal sector, and the migrant youths are largely disenfranchised from opportunities that flow within certain networks. Another critical constraint includes language barrier, ethnicity and religious biases by certain employers. Most migrant youths are economically better off compared to where they came from, even though they are yet to exit the poverty trap.

This study critically examined the challenges faced by the migrant youth population in Lagos, Nigeria, in their bid to transition from informal employment to formal employment.

This paper aims to study the relationship between working while studying in college/university and education mismatch among employed youth in the Zambian labour market.

The study uses data from the 2014 School-to-Work Transition Survey and a multinomial logit model to examine three education-mismatch categories: undereducated, matched and overeducated. The paper also examines heterogeneities by education level and gender and uses empirical and subjective approaches of education mismatch.

The evidence shows that employed youth who worked while studying have a higher likelihood of having well-matched jobs. The subgroup analysis by education level reveals no significant relationship between working while studying among employed youth with higher education (secondary and above). However, employed youth with lower education (primary and lower) are less likely to be mismatched for the job. The linkage between the education system and the labour market needs to be strengthened to support a smoother school-to-work transition for youth. Additional support to enable exposure to the right type of work during youth's college or university studies could increase job match and reduce labour market inefficiencies.

The paper provides insights into a significant challenge faced by youth in developing countries, i.e. finding a suitable job for youth's level of education.

The purpose of this paper is multifold. First, it is to investigate the relationship between social network sites (SNSs) usage and youth's school absenteeism. Second, it is to identify causal relationship between SNSs usage and absenteeism. Third, it is to explore whether SNSs usage causally affects youth's study–work choice after leaving high school. In addition to SNSs usage in general, abnormal SNSs usage is further discussed.

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) data are utilised. Lagged variable analysis is used to alleviate reverse causality. Instrumental variable approach and the Lewbel method are used to identify causality. Random effects panel data approach (without and with IVs) is additionally applied to increase efficiency and account for individual-specific effects. Random effects approach allowing for within and between effects is applied, enabling us to control for fixed effects. The primary instrument is a dummy indicating whether a youth more often communicates with close friend electronically or face-to-face.

Using SNSs leads to significantly higher probability of a teenager being late for school, skipping class and having trouble not following school rules. The effect is more consistent regarding abnormal SNSs usage, compared to SNSs usage in general. Additionally, SNSs usage decreases the probability of a youth studying after 18 years old, even after controlling for absenteeism.

The findings in this paper highlight the importance of preventing youth (e.g. via enabling children-safe mode or setting up maximum daily access time) from overusing SNSs.

With the transition to hybrid (mixing remote and face-to-face) learning during and after COVID-19, online interactions are becoming inevitable in students' learning. The findings in this paper indicate that usage, especially abnormal usage, of SNSs increases the probability of absenteeism call for attention from stakeholders including teachers, parents and youth themselves.

This paper provides the first causal and longitudinal evidence linking SNSs usage to absenteeism and youth labor outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of the role of the family as NEET determinants in a country with free education in a Mediterranean or Southern European welfare state, so that the authors can contribute to policy recommendations and offer suggestions for future studies.

The authors used TurkStat (2021) household workforce statistics microdata (TurkStat permit number 10484) for multinomial logistic regression. These microdata are the most detailed data representation of all households in Turkey in 2021, representing all household members (n = 635.159) and young people aged 15–24 years (n = 88.974) in Turkey. Of the data on youth, those not in education or employment constituted the NEET sample (n = 21,729). The authors also used the 2014–2020 household workforce statistics microdata (TurkStat permit number 3188) to explain the proportional changes between the status of NEETs in past years and today.

The age factor (20–24) and long-term unemployment in men and marital status (for married and divorced) in women are of critical importance for the risk of being NEET. Compulsory education is the most influential factor in reducing the risk of NEET for both genders. The estimations of logistic regression models showed significantly that the increase in the education level of parents decreased the probability of NEET in the household. In particular, the gains of mothers after compulsory education (university, postgraduate education) increased the probability of young people in the household being NEET compared to the education levels of fathers.

The authors make two contributions with this study. First, the authors discuss current microdata and NEET determinants in Turkey, which is the subject of limited research and has one of the highest rates of NEET in the 15–29-years age category (28.7%) in the OECD (2021). Second, the authors are the first to examine parental education or employment for NEETs in Turkey. Findings from the study allow comparison of Turkey and southern European welfare regime countries and fill the gap in the literature on NEET and parent relationship in Turkey with a strong and up-to-date dataset.

Youths are known as a challenging group to be engaged in environmental programs due to their fickle characteristic. This study would like to offer Global South and developing countries' perspectives by using Indonesia as a case study. This study gives a lesson about the top-down approach in Indonesia's proenvironmental program and its trajectories toward youth participation.

Using a case study approach, this article tries to deeply understand the issues happening in Indonesia, particularly among the young people living in several cities in Indonesia. The author was helped by the first participant, a student with experience with air pollution campaigns. Using snowball approach, the authors was helped by the first participant to contact with her friends from different cities to join as the participant in this research. To obtain their dynamic perspectives, the researcher conducted three focus group discussions via Zoom, each with a duration of 1.5–2 h. The researcher asked for their written permission to be participants through WhatsApp text and then verbally via Zoom video call. This research was done during the lockdown status of COVID-19 pandemic; thus, it was advised to do every research activity online. Based on their experience, the participants were divided into three groups: volunteers, influencers and university students aged 18–21. These Focus Group Discussion (FGD) results were transcribed and coded into behavior, peer support and knowledge by the author.

This study found that youths in Indonesia are concerned about the community's perspective on the environment; thus, their behavior will mirror others as part of a collectivist society. Parents, friends and the community are their role models when practicing proenvironmental behavior. Next, environmental education should be embedded in school curricula and religious centers. In addition, they should apply an open and democratic approach to reach youths' participation effectively. Programs and curricula with a top-down approach should be avoided to maintain sustainable actions. Last, there is an urgent need to develop citizens' literacy about environmental issues because it will highly influence young generations.

There should be more discussion on developing environmental knowledge for citizens at large. First, the next research should focus on the curricula development in formal and nonformal organisations, focusing on youths' voices during the process. In a proenvironmental program, honoring and prioritizing youth voices is central to youth work. Second, there should be further research on using a democratic approach for building conversation and discussion on environmental issues rather than a top-down approach. Further, researchers must focus on Indonesians' literacy in general, especially older and mature citizens, since their perspective will affect youths' behavior in the long term. These positive attitudes cannot be perceived and sustained if the community comments negatively toward proenvironmental behavior. Last, there is a lack of exploration to the influencers group to show their differences with other groups. Other researchers could further explore this in the future.

Multiple approaches must be used continuously to ask and seek youths' opinions, listen to what youths want and then prioritize them in the program. Rather than using programmatic design and delivery to shape social attitudes and behavior, campaigners should discuss with youths and influencers on creating their campaigns rather than maintain the program's sustainability. Environmental campaign messages should integrate with creative storytelling to build engagement with young people. By implementing this, youths could share their expressions using photography, narration, music, etc.

Indonesia becomes a significant case study for this research due to its political and cultural system. Indonesia is known as a paternalistic and corporatist country where the practice of citizenship is challenged by the issue of power dynamics and imbalance. Therefore, a top-down communication is a common practice to create a quick-fix solution to foster productivity. Further, Indonesia has an environmental problem which made it vital for climate study. Globally, Indonesia ranks third in greenhouse gas emission after China and India. Recently, its capital city, Jakarta, is ranked as the worst-polluted city in the world.

Care leavers are identified as a vulnerable group within UK society and, unsurprisingly, are more susceptible to mental health problems. Research highlights inadequacies among UK Government provisions combined with poorer outcomes for care leavers. This paper aims to measure the effectiveness of provisions on mental health when transitioning from the care system to adulthood.

A systematic review was conducted to identify and highlight the inadequacies of provisions in place to aid a care leaver’s transition and the effects on their mental health. Of the 211 studies identified from the search, six studies met the eligibility criteria and were deemed eligible by the researcher for further exploration of themes.

The findings identified feeling isolated, training given to care professionals and caregivers, collaboration, lack of preparation and support and access and gaps in provisions as the five key themes. The overarching theme of interconnectedness and interplay between subthemes, mental health and a care leaver’s transition, is strongly presented throughout. Many participants within the individual studies reported negative findings illustrating the weaknesses of provisions and the negative effect on their mental health. Furthermore, the findings emphasise the unique nature of everyone’s experience transitioning out of the care system.

A limitation of the review is the selection of key words, which may have restricted the results produced during the main search, subsequently affecting the amount of relevant data extracted and synthesised. Finally, less emphasis on grey literature and more on empirical studies reduces the probability of discovering null or negative findings, therefore increasing the chances of publication bias (Paez, 2017). A small number of eligible studies increase the risk of not making important comparisons, prompting a wider search to be conducted in the future. An unequal ratio between national and international research in the systematic review restricts fresh perspectives and strategies concerning the mental health of care leavers.

Care leavers are identified as a vulnerable group within society and, unsurprisingly, are more susceptible to mental health problems. The UK Government enforces national and local policies to support young adults leaving the care system and transitioning to independence. However, previous research highlights inadequacies among provisions, combined with poorer mental health outcomes for care leavers.

Following on from gaps in the current findings, an investigation into regional disparities across provisions aimed at assisting care leavers transitioning to independence would produce useful information for the field and policymakers. Although current research addresses the essence of interplay between mental health and transitioning, further research is required to help build a supporting argument for adaptations and improvements in policies and practice.

This study supports the argument for an increase in attention from the UK Government and policymakers to improve the quality and quantity of support for a population often underserved and marginalised, especially in terms of reducing poorer mental health outcomes.

Though prosocial attributes are linked to positive outcomes among justice-involved adolescents and are a mainstay of numerous interventions, few measures have been specifically designed to evaluate prosocial functioning within this population. Although multiple instruments measuring aspects of prosocial behavior exist, these instruments were not designed to measure prosocial behaviors among youth in juvenile justice settings. This study aims to provide a preliminary validation of a new measure of prosocial attributes (the Prosocial Status Inventory – PSI), which was designed to comprehensively evaluate in greater depth the prosocial functioning of urban, justice-involved youth.

Youth (n = 51) were recruited as part of a larger study and were participants in a community-based mentoring program in a large, urban county in the Southern USA. Youth completed the PSI at baseline prior to their participation in the community-based mentoring program. The authors obtained follow-up data on recidivism from the county juvenile justice department.

PSI scores were positively related to a lower rate of recidivism and a decrease in offending frequency over a 12-month follow-up period.

The current findings complement previous work, suggesting that prosocial attributes are measurable and related to important outcomes among justice-involved youth and support the utility of strengths-based treatment approaches. Moreover, it provides preliminary evidence of the utility of a new self-report measure to assess these traits within a juvenile justice population.

This study seeks to show whether workplace experience (WE) in an apprenticeship programme affects the duration of joblessness amongst recent university graduates and to determine the antecedents that support a workplace well-being experience during an apprenticeship programme. Additionally, the research introduces the moderating effect of gender in order better to understand under what circumstances apprenticeship reduces the time taken to find employment.

The research proposes PLS equation modelling constructed with a sample of 129 students from the Business Administration and Management degree at Mondragon University.

The research finds that social support and job demand are key features of work that should be addressed to ensure a workplace well-being experience in an apprenticeship programme. In addition, a workplace well-being experience during apprenticeship reduced the time taken by students to access their first job. This means that job training in a company helps students get their first job, but it is not the primary factor. The study also shows that men who had workplace well-being experience in an apprenticeship programme take less time to find their first job.

The study proposes an exclusive analysis of apprenticeship programmes in higher education systems from the perspective of workplace well-being experience, based on the DCS model. This research also adds to the literature on apprenticeship by providing evidence that a positive experience of work during an apprenticeship programme facilitates undergraduate students in securing employment. Furthermore, this paper confirms that workplace well-being experiences in apprenticeship programmes constitute a valid tool for tackling youth unemployment, and finds that it is more efficient amongst males than females.