Policy & Practice: Soapbox - Don't make assumptions aboutteenagers' behaviour

Each makes certain assumptions about young people's learning.

We probably do underestimate the number of teenagers not in education, employment or training. But I'm more concerned with the premise that being involved in education and training implies young people are learning.

It is clear that those visibly disengaged, such as a young person who throws a chair at a teacher, are not learning, but it is less clear with the invisibly disengaged - young people whose behaviour is usually good. Many young people are involved simply because they have to be, not want to be.

The irony is that some young people who are counted as not in education, employment or training are often actively learning skills through working in the black economy. We need to move away from a culture in which we use statistics as evidence of learning to one based on dialogue from which we might find out what young people are learning. Youth work can show the way by encouraging young people to evaluate their own learning.