Transition from school-based training in VET

Abstract

Purpose-To assess the drop-out rate among disadvantaged students within vocational education and training (VET). The article examines the probability of dropping out after school-based training for child welfare clients-a particularly disadvantaged group of youth. Child welfare clients' drop-out rate is compared with students from a representative sample of their peers. Design/methodology/approach-Average marginal effects (AME) were calculated from multinomial logistic regression models. Data were from public registries (n = 10,535). Findings-The results show that differences in observed characteristics cannot explain differences in drop-out rates between child welfare clients and the majority peers. It is argued that this drop-out rate is likely a result of employers favouring apprenticeship applicants who are similar to them or that child welfare clients lack networks, which previous research has identified as crucial in finding an apprenticeship. Practical implications-The results suggest a need for action targeting disadvantaged youths in the transition that follows school-based training. Originality/value-The article adds to the very scarce literature on transition from schoolbased learning to apprenticeships. Education + Training (Heinz et al., 1998). This article examines the probability of dropping out after school-based training for child welfare clients-a particularly disadvantaged group of youth. Research over several decades from many countries has shown a high educational disadvantage among children in the child welfare system. Compared with the general population, child welfare clients tend to perform poorly in school (Iversen et al., 2010, McClung and Gayle, 2010, Berlin et al., 2011) and very few obtain higher educational diplomas (Cheung and Heath, 1994, Jackson and Cameron, 2011). The majority of studies in this area has focused mainly on unsuccessful recruitment of former child welfare clients to the tertiary level, but studies show that many also lack upper secondary education (Vinnerljung et al., 2005, Courtney and Dworsky, 2006). This article builds on two earlier articles using the same data investigating child welfare clients' transitions in upper secondary school (Daehlen, 2015a, Daehlen, 2015b). These studies show that the educational disadvantage among child welfare clients is related to less privileged social background among these youth. However, the results in these articles show that there is an additional disadvantage for child welfare clients in the vocational track. Adjusting for school grades, parental educational level, immigrant background, and gender, child welfare clients in the vocational track have less successful educational transitions than non-child welfare clients. Furthermore, the drop-out rate is particularly high after the schoolbased part of the training. It is, however, less clear what causes this difference in dropout. One explanation might be that the relatively high drop-out rate in the child welfare population reflects discrimination against this group of yout...

Long‐term NEET among young adults with experience of out‐of‐home care: A comparative study of three Nordic countries

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