Abstract/Summary

This thesis adds to the current literature on the importance of noncognitive skills, namely locus of control and effort in determining short-term and longer-term educational and labour market outcomes, of young people in England. We use a cohort study ‘Next Steps’ that follows millennials born in 1989 to 1990 from age 13/14 until they are 25 to examine the effect of locus of control and effort at age 14/15 in determining short-term outcomes of pathways of further education, employment or ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET) after compulsory schooling in Chapter 4, and NEET duration in Chapter 5, and longer-term outcomes of employment, earnings and well-being outcomes in adulthood in Chapter 6. We found that effort is more important compared to locus of control in determining short-term outcomes of pathways of young people at age 16/17 and age 18/19 in Chapter 4. The result is rational as our measures of noncognitive skills effort capture the self-rate ability of hard work of young people staying in further education, employment or NEET. Locus of control is more significant compared to effort in determining NEET duration at age 16/17 to age 19/20. We are only looking at young people who are NEET, and as such, it may explain why locus of control is more significant when looking at this outcome. Most importantly, locus of control and effort are both significant in deciding longer-term outcomes of educational, employment, earnings and well-being at age 25. Effort is significant in determining educational, and well-being, and locus of control is significant in determining all long-term outcomes. Thus, this thesis contributes to the literature by providing consistent evidence of significance of noncognitive skills throughout different stages of the life of young people.