Neither in Education nor in Employment: NEET Youth File…
‘It Is Not Possible to Defend Their Rights Without Knowing a Group”

“As civil pages we start a new file in cooperation with YADA Foundation. In this series of articles that try to understand young people who are not in the education and employment processes and identify their needs, we will include the opinions of CSO representatives and experts working in the field. We start our file with an interview with Elif Öztürk from the YADA Foundation, which conducts a research to reveal the current situation and needs of NEET youth within the scope of the project "Strengthening Civil Society Through Subject-Based Dialogue and Advocacy".

Giving information about the work they have done and planned within the scope of the project, Öztürk says, “Without knowing a group, it is not possible to defend their rights. We believe that this file, which will reflect the views of opinion leaders and civil society representatives, will provide a good start for making NEET youth visible and defending their rights.

What is the YADA Foundation aiming with this project?

The YADA Foundation works to increase the social impact capacity of civil society, conducts research and projects. Our research in this field shows that civil society is not effective enough in the eyes of decision-makers and the public. At the basis of this is the lack of dialogue and the inability of civil society to convey its expertise to these stakeholders.

YADA’s experience in this field shows that enhancing subject-based dialogue and advocacy skills is instrumental in improving the social impact of civil society. We want to deepen our experience of subject-based dialogue with the square model, and we want to present an evidence-based and subject-based dialogue and social impact model at the end of the project.

What steps will be included in the project?

Within the scope of the project, we are conducting a Turkey-wide research that will reveal the current situation and needs of young people in Neither Education nor Employment (NEET) group. We are planning to create a pre-report by feeding the research data with expert opinions and our desk study. In the light of this report, we will conduct a social impact and communication-oriented consultancy process with 10 CSOs working / planning to work with young people in Neither Education nor Employment group. At the end of the consultancy process, we plan to produce an evidence-based and subject-based dialogue guide that reveals the outcomes of the whole process.

Why did you decide to work with young people in the “Neither Education nor Employment” group?

Young people neither in Education nor Employment are an invisible and fragile group. We are talking about a very heterogeneous group even though they are grouped under one heading. It is possible to strengthen the work in this field with the contribution of civil society organizations working with different ethnic and religious groups due to their nature.

There is very little work on the Neither in Education nor in Employment group. Today, 27.6 percent of the youth in the 15-29 age range are neither in education nor in employment in Turkey, and this rate is 40.2 percent for women. Unemployment figures are increasing day by day, as the number of youth in neither educated nor employed. In order to decrease this number, institutions working on the themes such as youth, education, employment, women, disabled people, refugees, cities, human rights etc. need to take action.

We think it may be possible to strengthen the voice of this less visible group through civil society dialogue and cooperation and respond to their needs.

Why did you decide to do such a study?

With this file, we want to increase the visibility of Neither in Education nor in Employment youth. We want to make it easier for civil society to understand this heterogeneous group, as well as to identify the young people they encounter in their works and to see their different needs.

“Neither in Education nor in Employment” is a very new definition for Turkey. This definition, which was used for the first time in the world in the late 90s, is not well known in Turkey’s civil society. Proposed as an economic concept, the definition actually points to a wide range of vulnerable groups with different needs. This group includes young people with different needs; young mothers, long-term unemployed educated youth, informal workers, immigrants, disabled youth… the list goes on.

Our desktop studies show that CSOs working with young people have almost no contact with these young people. The path of institutions that come into contact with young people in “Neither in Education nor in Employment” group also crosses with these young people in the field. While working on another subject, they discover that there is such a group. Civil society encounters but cannot identify young people who are neither in education nor in employment. We hope that this file, which will be done with representatives of civil society and opinion leaders, will help establish this definition for all of us.

Why do opinion leaders’ opinions matter?

NEET youth in Turkey and NEET youth in another country do not have the same needs. Below the general definition are subgroups. Opinion leaders will guide us in making these sub-definitions. We also need the support of these leaders at the point of moving young people neither in education nor in employment to the agenda of civil society. It is impossible to defend their rights without recognizing a group. We believe that this file, which will reflect the views of opinion leaders and civil society representatives to make NEET youth visible and defend their rights, will provide a good start.

What is NEET …

The most common use of the phrase NEET in Turkey, which stands for Not in Education, Employment, or Training in English, is neither in education nor in employment … the phrase is also used as Neither in Education nor in School (NINO) and Neither in Education nor in Employment nor in Training (NEIY), which is a one-to-one translation. In this file, we will use the concept Neither in Education nor in Employment.