Thematic reviews", geared to providing a cross-national perspective on particular themes of common interest and growing importance were begun in 1995. Participating counties, selected so as to cover a range of structures, traditions and circumstances and extending across the global reach of the OECD, prepare a focussed background report (often supplemented by policy statements, data displays and research reports) in response to a common set of agreed questions and organise study visits for an external thematic review team. In 1996, the OECD's Education Committee launched a 14-country (Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA) Thematic Review of the Transition from Initial Education to Working Life. Within a lifelong learning framework the review had two key goals:
To describe how young people's transition to work changed during the 1990s; and
To describe the education, labour and social policies, and the interaction between these, that lead to successful youth transitions.
Each of the 14 participating countries prepared a Background Report describing the general context of youth transitions and setting out key policy concerns. The review team that visited each country prepared a Country Note to summarise its observations and suggestions. (The views expressed in the Country Notes are those of the review teams. They do not commit the OECD or the countries concerned.) In addition, a number of consultants' papers were commissioned to assist the Thematic Review.
The final report of the Thematic Review, entitled From Initial Education to Working Life - Making Transitions Work was published in May 2000, and the final conference from the Review, which considered the report's conclusions, was held in Budapest in May 2000.
This Thematic Review forms part of a wider body of OECD work on youth employment and youth transition issues that was conducted during the same period. This includes:
Chapter 3 from the 1998 Employment Outlook - Getting started, settling in: the transition from education to the labour market
Chapter 4 from the 1996 Employment Outlook - Growing into work: youth and the labour market over the 1980s and 1990s
This book gives a brief overview of regional issues and the history of education in the Dominican Republic and describes the development of education in the country over the past 15 years.
