Coming of age in hard times

Young people are facing very serious problems of unemployment and underemployment in the current job market. Disadvantaged youth are enduring the most difficult struggle. One plausible reason is that youth are undereducated and insufficiently skilled to meet job requirements. This article explores forty in-depth interviews with young people from three high-unemployment neighborhoods to closely examine experiences in high school and in the post-high school work entry phase. The purpose was to determine whether the youths were receiving the skill set components advanced by Comprehensive Collaborative Models. Policy implications are drawn from the lack of fit between model prescriptions and actual experiences.