Reduction of early school leaving the Netherlands

Reduction of early school leaving in the Netherlands VET conference Copenhagen 24th April 2012 Karel Visser

Dutch education system

Definitions + decrease in one decade Benchmark: at least a diplome mbo-level 2 (VET) or upper secondary general education European definition: decrease of ESL from 15.5% to 10.1 % (- 35%) National definition: yearly new school leavers from to (- 45%); new target Data: reliable?

Categories of early school leavers General background characteristics Three ‘categories’:  Movers away: underlying problem ‘choice’  Low achievers: underlying problem ‘ability’  Low willingness: underlying problem ‘behaviour’ (?) ESL - youth at risk?

‘Attack’ on drop out Three kinds of measures  Conditional measures  Preventive measures  Curative measures

Main conditional measures  Huge investments  ‘Attractive’ (vocational) secondary education  Registration (incl. education number)  Co-operation between schools, employment services, youth care providers, and so on  Existence of ‘care advice teams’ in (vocational) secondary education

Main preventive measures  Embedding career education in curricula  Lengthening compulsory education  Smooth transition from lower to upper secondary VET by offering VET programmes together  Financing extra support for youngsters in the lower qualified programmes

Main curative measures  Help-desks for youngsters – till 23 years  A variety of projects combining learning and working  Introduction of a ‘learning and working’ obligation (?) till 23 years  Return facilities in upper secondary VET

Statement 1 The number of early school leavers is gradually decreasing Statement 2 The sense of urgency to ‘tackle’ the problem is gradually increasing