This is seen as a drag on economic development both because NEET youth represent a waste of human resources and because disengagement from education at an early age is associated with social exclusion and long-term welfare dependency. In recent years, successive governments have offered a range of policy programmes aimed at addressing this issue. The research recognises that schools play an important role in helping young people (especially through career education, career guidance and the mentoring of individual teachers) but that there are also systems of support operating in the wider community beyond school. Consequently it has placed considerable emphasis on the way in which networking can be valuable in joining together different systems both inside and outside of the school environment.