Promoting Inclusive Entrepreneurship for Migrants in Northern Ireland: Challenges and Pathways
Ulster University
The project will examine young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in line with Theme 2 of the commissioning call - Pathways to Good Work for Young and Marginalised People. This is critical as recent data has shown a stark increase of young people who are NEET in NI. While there is significant literature on the impact of young people who are NEET, evidence on what works in combating it is more limited (Maguire, 2021). NEET status covers a large subgroup of young people with considerable heterogeneity, and they can face complex challenges including educational disadvantage, disability, mental ill-health and structural factors including poverty, becoming a young parent, being in contact with the youth justice system, being in care and being a young carer. Therefore, gaining an understanding of NEET in NI, particularly given its unique context as a post-conflict society, is crucial for supporting evidence-based policy.
Place-based policies are key for tackling NEETs as the support young people will need differ from place to place (Raffe, 2008, 2014; Maguire, 2021). A thorough understanding of how young people in NI may become NEET and what interventions may assist them to move into education, employment or training is critical to ensuring relevant context-specific policy can be formed, particularly in the absence of a strategy to support these young people.
This study aims to: Understand NEETs in the local context; to explore the model of practice offered by a youth-work led intervention which is designed to reduce the increasing number of young people who are NEET by engaging those young people furthest from education, employment and training opportunities; and, in doing so, inform policy and practice interventions in NI, ROI and across the UK.
