In recent years, both India and Scotland have made an extensive investment in skill training and education to reduce the unemployment of marginalised youth and enabling their social and occupational mobility (ILO, 2011, 2016). This knowledge exchange project funded through an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, comprising of a workshop (India) and a seminar (Glasgow), offers an important and timely opportunity for policy makers, practitioners, and academics from India and Scotland to share experiences, develop understandings, and participate in dialogue to provide evidence for the policies and infrastructures that need to be developed and implemented to facilitate the positive engagement of young people in skill training programmes.

This impact project builds on the ongoing research project entitled, “Examining the social and economic impacts of skill training on marginalised youth in India” led by Dr. Srabani Maitra in collaboration with Dr. Saikat Maitra from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Calcutta), India.

YOUNG_ADULLLT was designed as a mixed-method comparative study on Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom and focused on LLL policies for young adults – particularly those in ‘vulnerable’ positions – with the aim to critically analyse current developments of LLL policies in Europe. It was funded within the EC's Horizon 2020 programme within SSH - Young 3, and was led by the University of Münster in Germany. 

It aimed to elucidate how LLL policies characterize the target groups of young adults and whether they account for the fact that young adults are a highly dynamic and heterogeneous target groups.

In order to do so, the project was set up as a comparative research that brings together quantitative and qualitative methods and modes of analysis including the viewpoints of different stakeholders.

The project has contributed new knowledge of the impact of LLL policies on young adults’ life courses, yielding insights on the conditions, strategies, and necessities for policies to become effective.

Overall the project consortium of YOUNG_ADULLLT comprised 15 partner institutions from nine countries, representing different geographical and socio-economic realities across Europe. The partners meet criteria of high excellence. Included were researchers and research institutions of high national and international reputation, with evidenced international experience in cross-national research, as well as solid theoretical, methodological and regional expertise in the areas that are relevant to the project. Together, these partners represent a body of international and multidisciplinary expertise in the fields of Comparative and International Education, Teacher Education, Youth Research and Youth Policy, Lifelong Learning, Sociology, Economics, and Political Science. In Glasgow the lead Co-I is Oscar Valiente from the Robert Owen Centre. CR&DALL is represented by Co-I, Lesley Doyle.

The strength of the partnership lay, first, in the diversity – scholarly, theoretical/methodological, but also cultural-linguistic – that the individual partners bring to the project, both in terms of their thematic specialization and previous experience. Second, their common aim of understanding and providing relevant knowledge for the improvement of educational and vocational policies, i.e., linking research and innovation. Third, the highly demonstrable capacity of all members of the team to work on, and deliver high quality outcomes from complex projects of the proposed type. These different aspects converge ensuring the partners will work effectively and successfully in this joint venture.

Full details of the work of this project are found at its website.