IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v169y2025ics0190740925000052.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internship: Breaking the vicious unemployment cycle for vulnerable youth

Author

Listed:
  • Kwan, Chi Kin
  • Shum, Michelle Hei Yan
  • Chu, Ting Ting
  • San Ling Ng, Nabi Kate

Abstract

Vulnerable youth are often trapped in the vicious circle of “no experience, no job; no job, no experience.” Internship programs may help them overcome this cycle through offering work experience. A BEAM model is proposed. It includes four essential attributes for enhancing employability, which most vulnerable youth often lack. This study examined a one-year internship program for vulnerable youth. The youth rated their work abilities, increasing from an average of 5.2 out of 10 before joining the program to 7.3 out of 10 after participating. Focus group sessions were also conducted in two rounds with the vulnerable youth (N:18), along with their mentors (N:14) who work with them, and case managers (N:10) who offered guidance. Results show that this approach is promising and it is worth offering targeted internship training opportunities for this group of young people in order to prepare them for entry into the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Kwan, Chi Kin & Shum, Michelle Hei Yan & Chu, Ting Ting & San Ling Ng, Nabi Kate, 2025. "Internship: Breaking the vicious unemployment cycle for vulnerable youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:169:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925000052
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740925000052
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108122?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pohlan, Laura, 2019. "Unemployment and social exclusion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 273-299.
    2. André D. Tsambou & Thierno Malick Diallo & Benjamin Fomba Kamga & Simplice A. Asongu, 2024. "Impact of employment support programs on the quality of youth employment: Evidence from Senegal's internship program," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 4606-4632, October.
    3. Tunstall, Rebecca & Lupton, Ruth & Green, Anne & Watmough, Simon & Bates, Katie, 2012. "Disadvantaged young people looking for work: a job in itself?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 47212, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Baert, By Stijn & Neyt, Brecht & Siedler, Thomas & Tobback, Ilse & Verhaest, Dieter, 2021. "Student internships and employment opportunities after graduation: A field experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. O'Higgins, Niall. & Pinedo, Luis., 2018. "Interns and outcomes just how effective are internships as a bridge to stable employment?," ILO Working Papers 994999791602676, International Labour Organization.
    6. Lyu, Wenjing & Liu, Jin, 2021. "Soft skills, hard skills: What matters most? Evidence from job postings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    7. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Biavaschi, Costanza & Eichhorst, Werner & Giulietti, Corrado & Kendzia, Michael J. & Muravyev, Alexander & Pieters, Janneke & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Schmidl, Ricarda, 2013. "Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 9(1–2), pages 1-157, December.
    8. Damianus Abun & Theogenia Magallanes & T. Nicols Marlene & Julian P. Fredoline & Michael B. Madamba, 2021. "Effect of attitude toward work, work environment on the employees’ work self-efficacy," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(7), pages 129-141, October.
    9. Oswald-Egg, Maria Esther & Renold, Ursula, 2021. "No experience, no employment: The effect of vocational education and training work experience on labour market outcomes after higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    10. Bernd Waas, 2021. "Rights and obligations in the context of internships and traineeships: A German perspective," Chapters, in: Andrew Stewart & Rosemary Owens & Niall O'Higgins & Anne Hewitt (ed.), Internships, Employability and the Search for Decent Work Experience, chapter 7, pages 113-129, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Megan Millenky, 2016. "Connecting high school dropouts to employment and education: an impact study of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-17, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Di Meglio, Gisela & Barge-Gil, Andrés & Camiña, Ester & Moreno, Lourdes, 2019. "Knocking on Employment´s Door: Internships and Job Attainment," MPRA Paper 95712, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Nicola Banks, 2014. "What works for young people's development? A Case Study of BRAC's Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescent Girls programme in Uganda and Tanzania," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 21214, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    3. Esther Mirjam Girsberger & Miriam Rinawi & Matthias Krapf, 2018. "Wages and employment: The role of occupational skills," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0153, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    4. Samara Ahmed & Adil E. Rajput & Akila Sarirete & Asma Aljaberi & Ohoud Alghanem & Abrar Alsheraigi, 2020. "Studying Unemployment Effects on Mental Health: Social Media versus the Traditional Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 48-87.
    6. André Dumas Tsambou & Lionie Mafang & Thierno Malick Diallo & Benjamin Fomba Kamga, 2024. "Impact of job training program on employment outcomes in Senegal," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(8), pages 1-33, August.
    7. Arnone, Massimo & Angelillis, Barbara & Costantiello, Alberto & Leogrande, Angelo, 2024. "Graduates, Training and Employment Across the Italian Regions," SocArXiv 8whf2, Center for Open Science.
    8. Pohlan, Laura, 2024. "Unemployment's long shadow: the persistent impact on social exclusion," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 58, pages 1-12.
    9. Tomasz Panek & Jan Zwierzchowski, 2022. "Examining the Degree of Social Exclusion Risk of the Population Aged 50 + in the EU Countries Under the Capability Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 973-1002, October.
    10. KonShik Kim, 2025. "Impacts of Extended Unemployment on Life Satisfaction of Young Adults Through Social Exclusion and Loneliness: Moderating Roles of Parental Socioeconomic Status," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 309-335, January.
    11. Werner Eichhorst & Tito Boeri & An De Coen & Vincenzo Galasso & Michael Kendzia & Nadia Steiber, 2014. "How to combine the entry of young people in the labour market with the retention of older workers?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, December.
    12. Panteleimon Bakirtzoglou & Panagiotis Ioannou, 2017. "Job’s Satisfaction among Trainers of Public Vocational Training Institutes in Greece," Journal of Education and Vocational Research, AMH International, vol. 7(4), pages 21-30.
    13. Nikolaos Apostolopoulos & Alexandros Kakouris & Panagiotis Liargovas & Petar Borisov & Teodor Radev & Sotiris Apostolopoulos & Sofia Daskou & Eleni Ε. Anastasopoulou, 2023. "Just Transition Policies, Power Plant Workers and Green Entrepreneurs in Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria: Can Education and Retraining Meet the Challenge?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-21, November.
    14. Villalobos Barría, Carlos & Klasen, Stephan, 2016. "The impact of SENAI's vocational training program on employment, wages, and mobility in Brazil: Lessons for Sub Saharan Africa?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 74-96.
    15. Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2013. "Reflexionen zur Zukunft der Arbeit," IZA Standpunkte 56, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Manal Elhaj & Jihen Bousrih & Hind Alofaysan, 2024. "Can Technological Advancement Empower the Future of Renewable Energy? A Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-18, October.
    17. Ollikainen, Jani-Petteri, 2021. "Comprehensive school reform and labor market outcomes over the lifecycle: Evidence from Finland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    18. Xu Qin & Jonah Deutsch & Guanglei Hong, 2021. "Unpacking Complex Mediation Mechanisms And Their Heterogeneity Between Sites In A Job Corps Evaluation," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 158-190, January.
    19. Eichhorst, Werner & Rinne, Ulf, 2016. "Promoting Youth Employment in Europe: Evidence-based Policy Lessons," IZA Policy Papers 119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. repec:osf:socarx:8whf2_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Huzeyfe Torun & Semih Tumen, 2019. "Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1364-1388, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:169:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925000052. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.