The opportunities and challenges of apprenticeships in England

School staff's views on causes of early school leaving in regular secondary and adult education: Identifying the role of individual, job‐related and school climate characteristics

“…A limitation of this study is the limited number of schools and teachers included in each school, especially in the adult education schools (Macedo et al, 2018;Nada et al, 2020;Nouwen et al, 2016;Ryan & Lőrinc, 2018;Tarabini et al, 2018). Furthermore, by expanding the sample, it would be interesting to further assess differences between school staff members in terms of their exact positions and roles and how they look at the reasons for ESL, and how the set-up of a school team results in specific dynamics related to preventing and compensating for ESL (see also van Praag et al, 2017).…”

“…First, many so‐called ‘alternative learning arenas’—ranging from part‐time vocational education to adult education—have emerged across European educational systems to prevent and/or compensate for the processes of ESL. These alternative learning arenas support disengaged students and early school leavers to attain their qualification of upper secondary education and aim to provide a different learning context for students who feel that they do not belong in regular full‐time secondary schools (Macedo et al., 2018; Nada et al., 2020; Nouwen et al., 2016; Ryan & Lőrinc, 2018; Tarabini et al., 2018). They do so by offering more work‐based learning, modular courses and greater attention to the special educational needs of students.…”

“…Alternative learning arenas, such as adult education, often seem more focused on compensating earlier lack of support in students' trajectories and aim for a more holistic approach to the students and their various needs, by including this in students' evaluation criteria (e.g., learning attitudes, progress made), hiring more support staff (psychologists, student advisors, etc.) per student and teaching in smaller groups which allow more room for differentiation (Macedo et al., 2018; Nada et al., 2020; Ryan & Lőrinc, 2018; Tarabini et al., 2018). Therefore, we expect school climate differences with regular education schools and expect these differences to correlate with different perceptions on the causes of ESL.H2 There will be a difference in effects of school climates on views of early school leaving among school staff in adult education compared to staff in regular secondary schools.…”