The effects of the fight against early school leaving: Back to education or school-to-work transition?
Résumé
The study presented in this article examines the effects of education policies addressing early school-leaving on the future of young people. It is based on a three-year longitudinal investigation conducted on 1,313 young people identified by an initiative to support early school-leavers in a region of France. The study aims to assess the effect of the initiative on the future of the target group, taking into account the characteristics of this group. We test the hypothesis that the effect can be separated from a complex range of factors determining the pathways. Based on data, several standard routes have been identified. They reveal a return to education or training and access to employment, but also unstable pathways characterized by precariousness for over a third of young people. A multinomial logistic regression on the pathways shows that gender and parents’ nationality have a very significant impact on the routes taken. Among the measures, enrolling in the scheme has the effect of providing protection from unemployment and encouraging the return to education or training. However, those young people who were the highest achievers at school appear to benefit most from the scheme.