Qualified Hope: Young People’s Education and Employment Pathways in Times of Disruption

Abstract The pandemic and its aftermath have prompted an extended public and academic conversation about young people, with concerns about the increasing uncertainty of youth employment and education trajectories into the near future. Despite the varying policy approaches surrounding the pandemic, a discourse of concern for a “COVID generation”, allegedly characterized by the complete upending of young people’s futures, has been widely popularized. This is seen in media discourses, as well as in health policy reports, to name a few examples. An emergent literature seeking to make sense of young people’s responses and reactions to the impacts of COVID situates young people as resilient: agile short-term planners who are hopeful about the future. The paper explores how young people understand and articulate “qualified hope” in response to the effects of COVID-19 on future education and employment pathways. In this context, hope is a psychosocial resource they draw on to clarify and make sense of new and alternate ways of thinking about futures. The discussion uses focus group data with 90 young people, drawn from a broader multi-method study of young people’s use of, and experience with, careers guidance in Australia. Informed by broader challenges and complexities shaping employment transitions in the COVID aftermath, hopeful accounts contribute to thinking about youth futures in ways that reflect young people’s resourcefulness and adaptability.