The transition from education to work is rapidly changing in postindustrial service societies. Structural transformations in the economy and the restructuring of work have rendered this period of the life course increasingly problematic. This book arose out of my involvement in cross-national research on youth and work over the last 10 years. This work included the collaboration with British, Canadian, and United States researchers David Ashton, John Bynner, Ken Roberts, Jane Gaskell, Harvey Krahn, Graham Lowe, and Jeylan Mortimer. An academic year as Visiting Chair for German and European studies at the University of Toronto, Canada gave me the opportunity to organize an international conference about “new passages and uncertain destinations” in April 18-20, 1996. The papers presented at this conference by leading experts on youth and work provide the basis for this edited volume of comparable longitudinal studies that draw on survey data and case studies of young people in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States.

The goal of this conference was to examine school-to-work transitions in changing societies and the interrelationships between education and training arrangements in the structuring of job-entry processes. Papers were presented by researchers and discussions were held with educators and politicians – all of whom are concerned with the improvement of job-start arrangements for young people and eager to learn from other experiences in North America and Europe.