Reasons for dropping out of intermediate vocational education and training in Spain: the influence of sociodemographic characteristics and academic background

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the main reasons for dropping out of Spanish Intermediate Vocational Education (IVET) and the link to personal (sex, ethnicity, age), family (parents’ educational level) and financial sociodemographic characteristics, as well as academic background (repeating or expulsion). To do this, a cohort of IVET students was monitored over three years via three questionnaires presenting the results for students who, over the monitoring period, dropped out without obtaining the corresponding qualification. The study was carried out in a Mediterranean region (Mallorca) with the highest levels of school dropout in Spain and an economy essentially centred on tourism. Results show that the most important reasons for dropping out are finding a job or wanting to find one, obtaining bad results and wanting to do other courses. The analysis highlights differences in reasons for dropping out by sex, ethnicity, age, the perception of financial difficulties and previous academic background. The findings suggest that educational interventions aimed at reducing dropout at this level of education should take into account the heterogeneity of student profiles as well as the limitations of the quantitative perspective in analysing students’ reasons for dropping out.

KEYWORDS:

• Vocational education and training
• vocational guidance and counselling
• early leaving from education and training
• educational inequalities
• transitions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The International Standard Classification of Education adopted by UNESCO (2012) as a standard framework used to categorise and report cross-nationally comparable education statistics (ISCED-2012). The different levels are: ISCED 0 (Early Childhood Education); ISCED 1 (Primary Education), ISCED 2 (Lower Secondary Education), ISCED 3 (Upper Secondary Education), ISCED 4 (Post-secondary non-tertiary education); ISCED 5 (Short cycle tertiary education): ISCED 6 (Bachelor); ISCED 7 (Master) and ISCED 8 (Doctoral).

2. According to the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (2019), 6.3% of IVET students in the 2017/2018 academic year were 16 or under, 16.6% were 17, 19.8% were 18, 14.9% were 19 and 40.4% were 20 or older.

3. The R + D + i projects respond to a line of financing from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government, the Spanish National Research Council and the European Regional Development Fund aimed both at fostering the generation and significant advancement of scientific knowledge and research of proven quality and at advancing the search for solutions to society’s challenges.

4. The 80% of Balearic Islands’ population lives in the Island of Majorca (Balearic Islands Statistics Institute, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

The data used in this article come from the R&D project ‘Successful pathways and dropout rates in basic and intermediate vocational training’ (REF. EDU2013-42854-R) funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Spanish National Research Council and the European Regional Development Fund.