Analysis of implementation of apprenticeships program in England as a policy to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (neet)

Abstract

Various difficulties in the transition from school to work, causing non-participation in education, training or work, can lead to the social exclusion or to the casual unskilled work or unemployment, delinquency and crime. As there is a higher proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (hereafter – NEET) in England compared to other the OECD countries, England has strong political will to reduce this number. However, even if there is strong political will and a good policy, the desired results can be determined by the implementation stage. The aim of this study is to analyse the implementation of the apprenticeships policy in England to reduce the number of NEETs with an emphasis on the degree of successful policy implementation and main causes of this phenomenon.

This study has revealed some areas for the future research: the level of ambiguity and conflict of policy may vary at different levels of implementation process – central and local, which is not mentioned in the work of Matland (1995), since both central and local levels are considered as a whole. However, in practice depending on single cases, this can be different,and this has been proven by this study.