YouthView: A platform for interactive visualisationsto explore youth disadvantage

In many economies, youth unemployment rates over the past two decades have exceeded 10 percentage points, highlighting that not all youth successfully transition successfully from schooling to employment. Equally disturbing are the high rates of young adults not observed in employment, education, or training, a rate commonly referred to as "NEET." There is not a single pathway for successful transitions. Understanding these pathways and the influences of geographic location, employment opportunities, and family and community characteristics that contribute to positive transitions is crucial. While abundant data exists to support this understanding, it is often siloed and not easily combined to inform schools, communities, and policymakers about effective strategies and necessary changes. Researchers prefer working with datasets, while many stakeholders favour results presented through storytelling and visualisations. This paper introduces YouthView, an innovative online platform designed to provide comprehensive insights into youth transition challenges and opportunities. YouthView integrates information from datasets on youth disadvantage indicators, employment, skills demand, and job vacancy at regional levels. The platform features two modes: a guided storytelling mode with selected visualisations, and an open-ended suite of exploratory dashboards for in-depth data analysis. This dual approach enables policymakers, community organisations, and education providers to gain a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by different communities. By illuminating spatial patterns, socioeconomic disparities, and relationships between disadvantage factors and labour market dynamics, YouthView facilitates informed decisionmaking and the development of targeted interventions, ultimately contributing to improved youth economic outcomes and expanded opportunities in areas of greatest need. Classification-