Abstract:

Research about educational and training levels of Spanish population shows low rates of people with a medium educational level (ISCED 3-4) and an excess of people with a low educational level (ISCED 0-2). Regarding young people, the most commonly indicator used to refer to people with a low educational level is the concept of Early School Leaving (ESL), which describes the population percentage aged 18-24 who have completed at least compulsory secondary education (ISCED 2) and does not follow further studies or training programs. Despite the improvement of ESL rate in Spain during last years, actually it is still very high (24.9% in 2012), almost the double if we compare it with EU rate (12.8% in 2012, data provided by OCDE, 2012).

The existing literature on the subject at international level, in summary, focuses primarily on the study of dropout rates in VET, risk factors, interactions between these factors, processes / pathways that lead to the abandonment and factors retention. Thus, for example, a work by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Australia (NCVER, 2005) about the reasons and consequences that lead to dropout of FP claims that students who leave their studies has a level of much lower employability that students who finished their training, the students abandoned their training, inter alia, by a lack of motivation for the content of the studies, to feel that the studies are not adapted to the reality of the working world and for perception that the faculty has few skills and knowledge in the subject they teach. On the other hand, a study conducted in Germany (Glaesser, 2006) shows that, comparing subjects leaving the VET with those leaving the university, the desertion of the VET has lower levels of the education system and reclosing is usually the exit door of no return to it.

In this paper we present the results of a pilot questionnaire administrated to a sample of 172 VET students enrolled in different courses and disciplines in Mallorca -Spain-. In the questionnaire participants responded to the question whether or not had thought about leaving the course that they were undertaking and around 25% of the sample responded affirmatively to the question. Participants then were asked, by an open question, to respond why they have had the thought of leaving the studies of VET before finishing them. Both data then were associated with the academic performance of the participants and the motivation that they had in continuing their studies: both relations were statically significant.

Results obtained by this pilot study will be amplified by administrating the questionnaire to a major sample of over 3000 students from Mallorca and Catalonia during course 2015-16.

This paper is part of the activities of the project «Success and dropout pathways in vocational training educational system levels 1 and 2» (Reference EDU2013-42854-R), funded by the Directorate-General for Research of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain.

References:
[1] Glaesser, J. (2006). Dropping out of further education: a fresh start?.Findings from a German longitudinal study. J. of Vocational Education & Training, 58(1),83-97.
[2] NCVER. (2005). Why do students leave? Leaving vocational education and training with no recorded achievement. Adelaida: Australian National Training Authority.
[3] OECD (2013). Education at Glance 2013: OECD Indicators. París:OECD.

Keywords:

Dropout, early school leaving, vocational education and training.