Special Issue: Care-leaving in Africa NEET as an Outcome for Care Leavers in South Africa: The Case of Girls and Boys Town Lisa Dickens 1,2 and Peter Marx 1 Abstract A well-documented outcome for emerging adults in determining their “success” is whether they are Not in Employment, Edu- cation, or Training (NEET) or engaged in Education, Employment, and Training (EET). Being NEET can create psychological, emotional, financial, and health challenges and is a significant risk factor in youth making successful transitions into adulthood. This article describes and compares the NEET and EET status of care leavers from Girls and Boys Town after 1 and 2 years and in relation to other outcomes. The results suggest that while care leavers’ NEET rates are high, they are not significantly higher than those of the South African general population as seen elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, being NEET is associated with more negative care leaving outcomes than being EET; however, this article also highlights the vulnerability of those who are EET. Relationships with family and support networks play a critical role in helping and supporting these youth. Keywords leaving care, residential care, NEET, outcomes, South Africa Care leavers have been identified as one of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in our society (Mendes, Johnson, & Moslehuddin, 2011). It is therefore important to assess how well they manage moving into adulthood and greater indepen- dence. One of the key outcomes recognized in considering how young people cope during this time is to look at whether they are involved in employment, education, or training. Youth who are not engaged in these activities are commonly referred to as “Not in Employment, Education or Training” (NEET) and those who are engaged are called “engaged in Education, Employment and Training” (EET). Those who are NEET are the young people who have been unable to, as yet, establish a life structure (Arnett, 2000) and, as a result, experience consid- erable instability. While it is only one of many aspects of young people’s lives, being NEET—especially when one has left institutional care— can have a profound impact on the physical, emotional, and psychosocial well-being of youth. It also has an impact on sev- eral other unfavorable and lasting outcomes (Ba ¨ckman & Nils- son, 2016) and can affect young people’s long-term future earning and employment potential, known as a “scarring effect” (Brown & Prinstein, 2011). Graham and De Lannoy (2016) explain that being NEET makes the youth highly vul- nerable to social exclusion, chronic unemployment, and pov- erty. The Department of Higher Education (2013) states that youth who are NEET are one of the biggest threats to South Africa’s (SA) social stability, so much so that the government has recognized the NEET status among its youth as a crisis (Kraak, 2013). While to date, information about care leavers who are NEET has been examined in the global north (e.g., Dixon, 2007), there is very little research specifically focusing on youth leaving care and becoming NEET in the global south. Van Breda (2018b) highlights this lack of research, indicating that only since 2012 has there been an upsurge in the number of studies in this area, but even these have been limited in sample size. The concept of NEET and the specific connection with youth leaving care is also a new one in the global south. Although there are cautions regarding making assumptions based on the term NEET, the usefulness of NEET as an indicator for service providers in assessing their service delivery to youth in care 1 Quality Services, Girls and Boys Town, Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa 2 Department of Social Work, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa Corresponding Author: Lisa Dickens, PhD, Quality Services, Girls and Boys Town, PO Box 38555, Pinelands, Cape Town 7430, South Africa. Email: lisa@gbtown.org.za Emerging Adulthood 1-9 ª 2018 Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood and SAGE Publishing Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/2167696818805891 journals.sagepub.com/home/eax