Britain, The United States, Japan, Australia, Pre-service Education The Way Of The Transition To Work And Strategy

Since 1990s, the transition from school to work (STW) has become a heated issue and many western scholars have contributed a lot of discussion concerning different countries from the viewpoint of labor economics, educational sociology, and vocational education. In order to share experiences as well as draw lessons from different countries, in 1996 the Education Committee of OECD launched an international study on "The Transition from Initial Education to Working life", which was based on the research framework put forward by Damian F. Hannan for transnational study on STW. The study has aroused widespread concern of international community and fourteen countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Australia, which have actively participated in it. From 1996 to the present, the research has brought about abundant valuable findings which have provided sound theoretical framework and rich resources for further studies. In contrast, Chinese research in this area is very much in its infancy and we are now at the stage of introducing foreign research materials, findings and methods. Under the background of the increasingly deepening reform of vocational and general education, especially the severe problem of employment of young students, the study on "The Transition from Initial Education to Working life" from the perspective of international comparison is very significant and necessary.This paper chooses the pathways of "The Transition from Initial Education to Working life" as its research angle, and adopts the method of individual country study together with comparative study. The paper makes a systematic analysis of the pathways of the transition from initial education to working life in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Australia, the core problems and the corresponding strategies and countermeasures in each country. The paper attempts to reveal the general process of the reform and development in this area in the above four countries in order to shed some useful light on the aspects of constructing more varied pathways of the transition from initial education to working life, enhancing the flexibility of the transfer between general education and vocational education, improving the employment of young graduates, fostering a more effective education and training system which can cater for the needs of labor market.The paper is divided into six parts. The first four parts focus on individual country studies which cover the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Australia respectively. These parts make a systematic analysis of the situation of...