Vocational education and training dropout: A schooltowork transition failure

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Vocational education and training dropout A
school-to-work transition failure?
Marine Jordan, Nadia Lamamra Jonas Masdonati
Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational
Education and Training (SFIVET), Lausanne,
Switzerland marine.jordan_at_iffp-suisse.ch
nadia.lamamra_at_iffp-suisse.ch
jonas.masdonati_at_fse.ulaval.ca
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CONTENTS

• Introduction
• About the research project
• Results
• Question of transition
• Dropout phenomenon and failed transition
• Practical implications and conclusions

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INTRODUCTIONVET/PET system in Switzerland
(canton Vaud)
TERTIARY-LEVEL TYPE A Universities, Federal
institutes of technology, Teachers colleges
TERTIARY-LEVEL TYPE B Universities of applied
sciences Professional colleges, national
professional examinations

UPPER-SECONDARY Selective school Academic
Baccalaureate
UPPER-SECONDARY Vocational school (combined
school/work-based VET programme or entirely
school-based VET programme)
UPPER-SECONDARY Specialised School Specialised
School Diploma
BRIDGE-YEAR COURSES

LOWER-SECONDARY

3 years from age 12 to15
Three different preparatory tracks Pre -
gymnasium track
Intermediate track
Pre - professional track
PRIMARY (6 years from age 6 to 12)
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INTRODUCTIONStrengths and weaknesses of the
Swiss VET system

• Strengths
• Gradual entry into the labour market
• An opportunity to promote non-academic skills
• VET programmes are generally seen in a positive
  light in Switzerland
• (most frequently chosen route by students
  leaving lower-secondary school)
• Weaknesses
• Non-linear transitions from compulsory education
  to VET (gap between supply and demand on
  apprenticeship market, bridge-year courses)
• Is the entry into the labour market truly
  gradual?
• Difficulties preventing the dropout phenomenon
  and its impacts

Lave Wenger (2002) Masdonati et al. (2007)
Zittoun (2006)
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INTRODUCTIONLabour market and VET
Cohen-Scali (2001), Hanhart (2006), Masdonati
(2007)
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INTRODUCTIONDropout phenomenon in VET

• Dropout rates vary between 10 and 40 depending
  on the region
• Influence of socioeconomic status, nationality
  and course of study
• Main reasons choice of occupation and company,
  working conditions, apprenticeship training
  conditions
• Divergent viewpoints held by apprentices and VET
  teachers and trainers
• Negative repercussions on the students sense of
  well-being, mental and physical health
• The significance and impact of the dropout depend
  on the reason for leaving the VET programme and
  the occupation in question
• Young dropouts take very different pathways after
  leaving the VET programme

Eckmann-Saillant et al. (1994) Ferron et al.
(1997) Michaud (2001) Neuenschwander (1999)
Schmid Stalder (2007) Stalder Schmid (2006)
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ABOUT THE RESEARCH PROJECTOverview

• Research questions
• How do young people explain and experience VET
  dropout?
• Which impacts does VET dropout have on young
  peoples pathways?
• Which correlation exists between the VET dropout
  phenomenon and identity building?
• Participants
• 46 young people who dropped out during the first
  year of their apprenticeship
• Age 15 23 (M 17.5), 30 adolescents, 16 young
  adults
• Sample by quotas gender, professional sectors,
  compulsory school level

Lamamra Masdonati (2009)
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ABOUT THE RESEARCH PROJECTMethodology

• Qualitative research, point of view of young
  people, subjective discourse
• Individual semi-structured interviews
• - Socio-biographical data
• - Reasons for leaving the VET programme
• - Relationship aspects
• - Biographical aspects
• - Systemic aspects
• - Current situation
• Content analysis
• Deductive procedure (1st research question)
• Inductive procedure (2nd and 3rd research
  questions)

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RESULTSReasons for leaving the VET programme

• Poor working relations (N 23)
• Impossibility of learning the occupation (N 23)
• Difficulties making the transition from
  lower-secondary school to the upper-secondary VET
  programme (N 10)
• Labour market-related problems (N 8)
• External contingencies (N 2)

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RESULTSReasons for leaving the VET programme
Configurations and social factors
Configuration II Difficulty making the transition
from lower-secondary school to upper-secondary VET

• Configuration I
• Poor working relations
• Difficulties learning occupation
• (Labour market)

• SOCIAL FACTORS
• Emerging adulthood
• Previous pathway was non-linear

• SOCIAL FACTORS
• adolescents
• Previous pathway was linear

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QUESTION OF TRANSITION

• Difficulties choosing an occupation
• Wrong perception of the occupation
• Choice made by default
• Lack of readiness in making a choice
• Respondent 32, 16 years old, previously enrolled
  in the VET programme in plastering and painting
• I really didnt have any problems with the
  subjects at vocational school. The work-based
  training in general was also cool. I just didnt
  find it the occupation interesting enough.
  . Its hard to explain. Maybe I just decided
  too quickly and didnt take enough time to
  For the longest time, I really didnt know what I
  wanted to do. Then I tried working as a painter
  and liked it. So, I thought that this was the
  occupation for me. I didnt give the matter any
  more thought

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QUESTION OF TRANSITION

• Difficulties adjusting between school and working
  environments
• Difficulties adjusting from a school
  environment (people of the same age group, same
  languages, similar interests) to a working
  environment (mainly comprised of adults)
• VET students not always prepared for the
  constraints of working life (working hours,
• fast-pace and working conditions).
• Respondent 31, 17 years-old, previously enrolled
  in the Vet programme in tiling
• Well, it taught me a great deal. I learnt what
  exactly working life means and there just aint
  no free lunch I can tell you. Its no longer like
  school, no longer the same thing. . I was a
  bit worried, a bit nervous about what to expect
  from working life and then it working life
  hits you straight on, its . Life used to be
  all fun and games and then one day it all changes
  and you gotta work real hard. When we were in
  our last year of lower secondary school, we had
  absolutely no idea that working life would be
  like this. We thought that it would be this
  pie-in-the-sky kind of thing. Then we find that
  it aint and, boy, is it a rude awakening.

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VET DROPOUT AND FAILED TRANSITION

• Failed transition can be linked to individual
  factors , but also closely linked to the context
  in which the transition happens
• Competitive apprenticeship market
• unbalanced number of apprenticeship positions
  (qualitative and quantitative gap)
• strong economic pressure on host companies
• VET system does not always provide a slow and
  gradual school-to-work transition

a successful transition is not only defined in
terms of whether students coming out of
lower-secondary school find an apprenticeship
position but also in terms of whether they stay
in the apprenticeship until the end of the VET
programme and receive the desired qualification
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PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

• Individual level
• Working with VET trainers in host companies
  (recognising the role that they play, enable them
  to understand what the transition means for the
  trainees)
• Adopting measures for young people (preparing
  them for the transition, lending support before
  and during cancellation of the apprenticeship
  contract)
• Organisational level
• Adjusting schedules and activities/tasks/content
  of work
• Promoting true apprenticeship negotiations
  between VET students and host companies
• Institutional level
• Intervening at the level of the VET system
• Acting on the socio-economic context of future
  VET students

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REFERENCES

• Cohen-Scali, V. (2001). Les attitudes à légard
  de linsertion professionnelle dapprentis de
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• Eckmann-Saillant, M., Bolzman, C., de Rham, G.
  (1994). Jeunes sans qualification Trajectoires,
  situations et stratégies. Genève I.E.S.
• Ferron, C., Cordonnier, D., Schalbetter, P.,
  Delbos-Piot, I., Michaud, P.-A. (1997). La
  santé des jeunes en rupture d'apprentissage.
  Lausanne IUMSP.
• Hanhart, S. (2006). Marché de lapprentissage et
  pouvoirs publics, Bulletin de la CIIP, 19, 8-9.
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Droupout in vocational education and training