This article identifies the latest researched practices for preventing school disengagement resulting in Early School Leaving (ESL) within the European Union, and which are significant as we transition to a post-COVID-19 school environment. Drawing from an extensive review of European and U.S.-based research literature on the prevention of ESL and…

Guidance and counselling are key features in comprehensive strategies aiming to reduce early leaving from education and training (ELET). It may assist students not only in terms of decision-making, but also of managing their transitions within education and training pathways or from education to employment. Minimising the risks of either…

While measures to combat 'Early Leaving' (EL) have been widely adopted internationally, as a means of curbing rates of economic and social exclusion among young people, the term itself is not widely utilised across the UK. That is not to say that measuring and reducing the number of young people who drop out of education (or training) before…

This staff working document is intended to accompany and support the Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation Pathways to School Success, which will repeal and replace the 2011 Council Recommendation on policies to reduce early school leaving. The staff working document sets out in more detail and depth the concepts put forward in the…

Few people doubt that education is valuable for individuals and that a well-educated society benefits each country. But many do not fully understand the magnitude of impact of high-quality education on economic wellbeing. This report provides an analysis of the economic benefits of educational improvement for each of the EU countries. The analysis…

Investing in education and training for all is a key priority for the European Union (EU). The importance of education and training, in order to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, is recognised in the Europe 2020 strategy, with two of its headline targets focusing specifically on education and training. The European Pillar of Social…

This article presents a critical policy historiography of how Early School Leaving has been understood as a social problem and what policy responses have been enacted to tackle it in the Italian context, devoting a specific attention to the analysis of the translation of EU policy ideas, tools and recipes to reduce ESL. It shows how the…

With early school leaving prevention being an agreed European Union headline target of 10% across the EU by 2020, emotional-relational dimensions to education are gaining renewed attention in European education policy. Against this backdrop, prominent criticisms of an emotional well-being agenda in education by Ecclestone and Hayes require further…

This Cedefop study examines the contribution that vocational education and training (VET) can make to reducing early leaving from education and training (ELET). Published in two volumes, this first looks at quantitative data to understand better the extent of early leaving from VET (ELVET). It analyses mechanisms for monitoring early leaving (at…

Early School Leaving in the European Union provides an analysis of early school leaving (ESL) in nine European Union countries, with a particular focus on young people who were previously enrolled in educational institutions inside and outside mainstream secondary education. The comparative approach employed by this volume adds to the existing…

This Cedefop study focuses on the contribution that vocational education and training (VET) can make to reducing early leaving from education and training (ELET). Published in two volumes, the first is dedicated to understanding better the learning pathways of young students, providing measurements of early leaving in VET, and understanding the…