This book explores how career development experiences during education are relevant for wellbeing in youth career transitions from an interdisciplinary lens, using longitudinal data from different national educational contexts. Seven empirical chapters culminate in a conceptual model and recommendations for careers and wellbeing-oriented prevention and intervention programs to assist young people as they transition into the world of work.

Following a foreword by Professor Stephen Lamb (the Springer International Study of City Youth series editor) and introduction by the editors, the book consists of empirical chapters based in six national and educational contexts, focusing specifically on schooling, higher education and transitions between compulsory schooling and young adulthood. Each national context chapter generates insights based on a longitudinal cohort study with at least two data points concerning information on young people's career development and wellbeing. The empirical chapters are followed by discussion and conclusion chapters by the editors. The editors reflect on the evidence generated in this book and question what we know about the relevance of career development experiences on young people's wellbeing during education-to-work transitions. Implications of these empirical findings on career interventions and policy making across the educational systems are discussed.

The contributions in this book show that career development experiences while in education matters, not only for employment outcomes, but also for our subjective wellbeing in early careers. Key conclusions point towards a need for theoretically integrating: (i) the sensemaking role of time; (ii) resource-based approaches to careers; as well as (iii) the efficacy of career development experiences to overcome structural inequalities. Methodologically, this book shows the value of nationally representative longitudinal datasets that focus on young people's educational and labour market experiences.

Autorentext

Dr Elizabeth (Lizzie) Knight is a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Research on Education Systems (Melbourne, Australia). Her research areas include provision of career information, higher vocational education, transitions to tertiary education and the nature of graduate employment and employability. A key area of interest is equity of access to and in tertiary education, the provision of institutional information and support for transition into post-school education. Lizzie has also been a professional careers counsellor for 10 years. She worked for the Ministerial Company Education Services Australia (ESA) as the subject matter expert on the Australian National Career Information Service website between 2015-2020, and has trained careers counsellors and teachers in every state and territory in Australia. She acts as the Research Advisor for the Career Industry Council of Australia and sits on the executive of the Australian Vocational Education Research Association.

Dr Belgin Okay-Somerville is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow (Scotland, UK). She is a work psychologist by training. Her research focuses on understanding career development, skill utilisation and wellbeing at work, particularly of new entrants to labour markets and young workers. Her published work focuses on the interplay between career agency and labour market structures on new entrants' employability, wellbeing and employment outcomes. She is an academic member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, the Academy of Management and the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology. Belgin is a Senior Editor at Career Development International and an associate editor at EWOP In Practice and Europe's Journal of Psychology.