This working paper summarizes main findings from the Syrian Youth Transition Survey 2009. This survey was requested by Syria in 2008 to support the Syrian government campaign against youth unemployment by providing an assessment of education system relevance to the labour market as a basis for policy recommendations. The technique used improved on previous transition studies (such as Alissa 2007) with the survey covering the experience of 3847 young people, aged from 15 to 30, who had left education for the first time in the last five years. Data on the various pathways followed by participants in finding or not finding a first job was collected through retrospective interviews. The survey was conducted by the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in cooperation with the European Training Foundation (ETF) in November-December 2009. Interviews were carried out in seven representative Syrian governorates: Damascus, Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Lattakia, Dier-ez-zor and Al-Sewida.
