An unspoken crisis: the ‘scarring effects’ of the complex nexus between education and work on two generations of young Australians

It is common for organizations such as the International Labour Organization and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to acknowledge that the links between education and work are far from smooth, creating a ‘crisis’ for youth. This includes increasing rates of unemployment, under-employment and precarious work. In Australia, the federal government response to this crisis for youth has been to suggest the end to an ‘Age of Entitlement’ for youth, cutting education, health and social security provisions and proposing the deregulation of the higher education system. This approach, which fails to acknowledge the profound changes to youth and young adulthood that have occurred over the last 20 years, will exacerbate hardship for young people. This article draws on the concept of a ‘new adulthood’ to analyse the changing nature of school to work transitions, and the impact of these conditions on young adults. Evidence from a two-decade longitudinal research study with two generations of Australians indicates that youth are already immersed in an ‘unspoken’ crisis that has its base in the increasingly complex and tenuous nexus between education and work, creating scarring effects that will mark a generation.