Just after lower secondary school, 7% of young people have not started any form of youth education, and 5% never get started, corresponding to just below 4,000 school-leavers in 1995. That is less than 10 years ago. 12% drop out of youth education without starting any other education. If the pattern of young people's choice of education continues as it was in 1995, 17% of school-leavers from 1995 will end up without any form of youth education. 11% complete an academically oriented education, e.g. they gain the upper secondary school leaving certificate, without going on to further education.

This brings the total of young people who do not gain vocational qualifications up to 28%. In 1985, the corresponding figure was 35% - in other words, much higher. In the period 1985 to 1995, there were not insignificant fluctuations in the size of the residual group. The main reason for this is changes in the economic situation and their effect on employment. This has a big effect on the number of practical training places, which are a major condition for vocational training.

Despite this, the general conclusion is that the efforts made to reduce the group of young people without any youth education have succeeded. At the same time, the level of education among those completing some form of youth education has risen considerably, primarily because a steadily increasing number of young people are going on to upper secondary school, which leads on to further education.

It is too early for any final assessment of the importance of new educational measures in the form of the free youth education scheme (FUU) and the vocational basic training scheme (egu) because only a few young people have completed these forms of education so far. Approximately 1% of 9th and 10th grade school-leavers have chosen FUU or egu. It is thus too early to judge what effect the new bridge-building courses between lower secondary school and youth education will have on young people's choice of education.

Extract from: Young people without an education
Lars Birch Andreasen, Torben Pilegaard Jensen, Kirsten Holm Larsen, Karin Blix Mogensen, Martin Bøg, Anette Jensen, Marlene Berth Nielsen, September 1997, AKF

Who Discontinues an Education?

Few young people discontinue an upper secondary school education without quickly getting started again - only about 2 percent. So this is not where the members of the out-of-school education surplus group are recruited. They are recruited from the young who have started on vocational training. More than 12 per cent of the young people within the survey have thus discontinued their vocational training.

The young people with poor book-learning skills include a group of young people who have difficulties in figuring out what they want. Some of them therefore attend the 10th class. And for those who attend the 10th class, their chances to continue within the educational system are generally improved if they pass examinations in addition to those passed in the 9th class. Intensified vocational and educational guidance in the 9th class targeted at children with poor book-learning skills from families with poor social conditions thus seems to be needed. Pedagogical strategies that allow the elementary school pupils a chance to experience book-learning victories must be developed. Several new measures, e.g. the bridging courses, will assumingly be able to fulfil some of these needs.

In general, an intensified targeting of the guidance effort towards the weak pupil groups seems to be needed both within the elementary school and within the out-of-school education system.

Finally, the results of the survey suggest that increased focus on the students' attitude to the quality of the training and its pedagogical structure and on the social environment will be able to contribute to a reduction of the group of young people who never complete an out-of-school education.

Extract from: Choices and Courses within out-of-school Education
Torben Pilegaard Jensen, Anders Holm, Karin Blix Mogensen
AKF, May 1997

Relevant Additional Information

Information on educational research:
http://www.akf.dk/forskningsomraader_en/uddannelse/

Reform of the Danish Vocational Education and Training System
http://www.uvm.dk/eng/news/090899-1.htm

OECD-Review of the Transition from Initial Education to Working Life in Denmark
http://www.uvm.dk/eng/news/280299-1.htm

The Danish Minister of Education will earmark DKK 140 million a year for a reform of the technical vocational education and training system
http://www.uvm.dk/eng/news/190199-2.htm

The Education System in General
http://www.uvm.dk/eng/publications/1prin/1.htm