Transcript education or school-to-work

The effects of the fight against
early school-leaving: Back to
education or school-to-work
transition?
Pierre-Yves Bernard & Christophe Michaut
Centre de recherche en éducation de Nantes (CREN)
www.univ-nantes.fr
Introduction
A french paradox:
 17% of young people leaving the
education system with no qualifications
 But
 A large range of schemes addressing early
school-leaving

Labour market
Missions
locales (young
people who left school
for at least six months)
MGI (students aged
16 and +)
Educational system
Prevention schemes
(compulsory school) :
réseaux d’aides, PRE,
dispositifs relais, …
The study
A longitudinal investigation involving young people
identified by the Mission Générale d’Insertion (MGI)
 Sample size: 1501
 Variables:
 independent variables:
 socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, parents’
social background, ethnic origin, family circumstances),
 experiences at school (academic performance, study
options, approach to learning and relationship with
figures in the school environment)
 programme followed or not
 dependent variable:
 young people’s pathways for three years

Results (1):The routes taken by
young people leaving the scheme
Figure 1: pathway over three years for the entire sample
Pathway over three years for the entire sample
Economic
inactivity
Education/
training
Unemployment
march
june
march
june
march
Employment
How to interpret the graph: the pathways are shown from Sept-01, the first September after joining the
MGI, to May-04, the May in the third academic year after joining the MGI. Therefore the pathways shown cover
33 months. Example: in September of the first year of the pathway, 36% of the young people are in employment;
in May of the third year of the pathway, 55% are in employment.
Results (1):The routes taken by
young people leaving the scheme
Figure 2: Standard pathways over three years
Standard pathways
Numbers
Frequencies
Education or training
204
15.50%
Uncertainty
304
23.20%
inactivity
154
11.70%
Employment
312
23.80%
190
14.50%
149
11.30%
1,313
100%
Unemployment and economic
Short education/training (one year) then
employment
Long education/training (two years)
then employment
TOTAL
Standard pathways obtained by ascending hierarchical classification (AHC) from complete disjunctive
data (distance measured by the square of the ordinary Euclidean distance) using Ward’s method as a clustering
procedure.
Results(2): Effects of the scheme on
young people’s pathways

Effects of young people’s social and individual
characteristics:

Sex: girls more likely to follow an uncertainty pathway than a stable
employment pathway, and an education/training pathway rather than
an employment pathway
Age: the younger the participant, the higher the probability of following an
education/training pathway
Nationality: having a father who was born abroad reduces the probability
of being in the "employment" pathway rather than any other pathway,
and increases the probability of the "education/training" and the
"education/training then employment" pathways
Socio-professional background: children of executives and middle-earning
professions more likely than others to be in "education/training"
Level of education when joining the scheme : the lowest levels of education
or training (leaving school at collège level) reduce the probability of
following an education/training pathway; the highest level of
education or training reduces the risk of following the unemployment
pathway.




Results(2): Effects of the scheme on
young people’s pathways
Effects of the scheme:
 a protection from unemployment;
 Effects of the type of programme:
 Studying for a vocational qualification is a move away
from education and towards employment whereas
studying for the baccalaureate has the opposite effect
 Effects according the level of education when
joining the scheme:
 following an MGI programme has no significant impact
on the young people’s pathways when they have a very
low level.
 The MGI encourages the return to education or
training for the others.

Conclusion
A huge uncertainty in the pathways of
early school-leavers beginning their
professional integration
 Fight against underachieving must provide
effective prevention of early school
leaving by giving all young people basic
knowledge and skills
 Securing the pathways of young people in
the labour market is essential to make
effective integration initiatives possible
