Early findings of a Europe-wide Cedefop study of the effect of vocational education and training (VET) on the dropout rate reveal that this effect is largely positive. In countries where vocational pathways account for a large share of education and training, rates of early school leaving are below the EU target for 2020 (10%). Conversely, in countries where VET lags behind, the dropout rate is higher than 10%; in some cases, significantly so.

The study also addresses the lack of commonly accepted definition of early leavers from vocational education and training. Data at EU level and in many countries do not accurately track young people as they leave and re-enter learning environments and/or the labour market.

The study has found that over 97% of early leavers are dropouts, with the remainder being young people who never start post-compulsory education and training. It also found that 1 in 5 dropouts eventually achieve upper secondary qualifications, with 77% doing so within three years. The findings were discussed last week at an expert workshop organised by Cedefop in Thessaloniki.

This recent Cedefop Briefing note is featured in full below and is also availble on the Cedefop website in multiple languages...