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Designation/Project-Title:
Preventive group intervention promoting career and mental-health among graduates of vocational schools
Homepage:
http://www.occuphealth.fi/e/project/youthwork
Project-Number:
Actual date:
(of the information)
09/04/2002
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The project is:
a national project
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Co-ordinating person:
Jukka Vuori
Address:
Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A 00250 Helsinki
E-Mail:
jukka.vuori@ttl.fi
Tel/Fax:
tel: 09-4747 2206 /fax: 09-241 3496
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Contact person:
Ms Taina Pääkkönen
Address:
Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland
E-Mail:
taina.paakkonen@occuphealth.fi
Tel/Fax:
Tel. +358 9 4747 2910 / Fax +358 9 2413 804
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Participating countries (In which countries the project takes/took place?)
Finland.
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Statistics:
number of participating persons / institutions:
The follow-up study had a randomised field experimental design. The participants were 520 graduates of five vocational schools in western Finland. Baseline (T1) measurements were made between October 2000 and May 2002 just before randomisation to intervention and control groups of equal sizes. The intervention started just after the randomisation. Those randomized to the experimental group participated in the preventive group and the controls performed homework on job-search training. The group intervention lasted for 5 days (20 hours). The 26 groups were trained by a pair of trainers. One trainer was a teacher of the vocational school and the other trainer was from the local labor office. The mean group size was 11,7 (SD = 4,2) and the size varied between 5 and 20. The mean age of participants was 21,3 years (SD = 6,7) and 74 % of them were women. Their age ranged from 17 to 51 years. The study had follow-ups just after the intervention, one week after T1 (T2) and ten months after T1 (T3)..
project-costs:
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Short description:
      After graduating the students of vocational schools will find themselves in a challenging situation, because the current difficult labor markets do not have much respect for those with lower vocational education. Often the first employment relationships for graduates of vocational schools are in low quality jobs. This may lead to unsatisfactory socialization to working life, unstable or discontinuous working career and sometimes even to marginalization from active working life. Low quality employment may also lead to problems in mental health. Among the unemployed, group interventions aimed at increasing job search self-efficacy and inoculation against setbacks have shown significant beneficial effects on reemployment rate, the quality of reemployment and mental health. We used these earlier encouraging experiences as a starting point in developing an intervention for graduates of vocational schools aiming at increasing their quality of employment, promoting socialization to work life and at decreasing the harmful mental health effects of the often difficult transition to working life. The group intervention is based on the general principles of the Michigan Prevention Research Center group method: the active learning process, inoculation against setbacks, group support and trainer referent power. In addition to job-search skill training, the group death with skills of work socialization: social skills at work and finding initial support in the new job. This study examines the short-term effects of the group intervention on self-efficacies related to job-search and socialization to work, inoculation against setbacks and the long-term effects on both employment and mental health outcomes among those in transition from vocational schools to working life or further education. .
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Transformable results:.
Can the results be transformed into other countries?yes
If yes, Have they been transformed into other countries?
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Documentation of the project:
Which materials/documentations/publications/instruments/etc. of this project do exist?
      The follow-up measurements at T2 the showed very significant beneficial effects of the group intervention on job-search self-efficacy and inoculation against setbacks in the experimental group compared to the controls. The T2 results also showed significant beneficial effects of the group intervention on work socialization self-efficacy in the experimental group compared to the controls. Because earlier studies have shown that strong increases in self-efficacies and inoculation predict long-term beneficial effects on employment and mental health, beneficial long-term effects are expected on career and mental health outcomes. The T3 follow-up results will be presented and discussed.
Where can these documentations be demanded (For example: Address/Telephone of the institution/contact-person/list of publications/link for downloads/ etc.)
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