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Transition from education to work

The penultimate section in this chapter provides information on the situation of young people as they aim to transition from education into work. When students complete their studies there may be several barriers that restrict their progression into the labour market, for example, a lack of relevant work experience, a lack of skills, a lack of job opportunities in the region where they reside, or high levels of unemployment during an economic downturn.

Early leavers from education and training

Within the EU, education policy seeks to ensure that all people in the EU (irrespective of age) have the skills, knowledge and capabilities to develop their careers. The transition from education into work may prove particularly difficult for people with low levels of literacy and numeracy, those who leave education at an early age, and people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. A particular area of concern is the proportion of early leavers from education and training. These are individuals aged 18–24 who have at most a lower secondary level of educational attainment (ISCED levels 0–2) and who weren’t engaged in any further education and training (during the 4 weeks preceding the labour force survey). This indicator is one of 7 key targets outlined in the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021–30); the EU has set a goal to reduce the proportion of early leavers to less than 9% by 2030.

Over the last 2 decades, the share of early leavers from education and training declined across the EU. From a peak of 16.9% in 2002 (the start of the time series), this share fell each and every year through to 10.5% by 2017. Having remained unchanged in 2018, there were further falls in the following 5 years. By 2023, the share of young people in the EU who had at most a lower secondary level of educational attainment and who weren’t engaged in any further education and training was 9.5%; as such, it stood 0.5 percentage points higher than the policy target set for 2030.

Across the EU, the share of early leavers from education and training was higher in 2023 among young men (11.3%) than among young women (7.7%)

There is both a spatial and a gender dimension to the issue of early leavers from education and training.

• The proportion of early leavers tends to be higher in rural and sparsely-populated regions of the EU, as well as in regions characterised as former industrial heartlands. Among other reasons, this pattern may be a reflection of fewer educational opportunities and weak local labour markets, which may discourage people from staying longer in education and also act as a ‘push factor’ to encourage people with higher levels of educational attainment to move away.
• For the gender dimension, a higher proportion of young men (compared with young women) tend to be early leavers. Across the EU in 2023, the share of early leavers from education and training was 11.3% among young men, which was 3.6 percentage points higher than the corresponding share among young women (7.7%). This gender gap had narrowed at quite a fast pace between 2020 and 2022, as the rate for young men decreased rapidly while the rate for young women experienced only a modest reduction. However, this development appears to have been short lived, as the latest information available shows the share of early leavers among young women falling 0.3 percentage points in 2023 while the rate for young men increased 0.1 points.

Already by 2023, more than 50% of EU regions had attained the EU’s policy target for early leavers

In 2023, the share of early leavers from education and training was already less than the 9.0% policy target in more than 50% (106 out of 204) of the NUTS level 2 regions for which data are available – as shown by 3 shades of teal in Map 4. These regions were widely dispersed across the EU. Looking in more detail, the share of early leavers from education and training was less than 9.0% for every region (for which data are available) of Belgium, Ireland, Croatia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden; shares of less than 9.0% were recorded in Cyprus, Latvia and Luxembourg too.

At the other end of the range, there were 7 NUTS level 2 regions where the share of early leavers from education and training in 2023 was at least 20.0%; they are denoted by the darkest shade of gold in Map 4. This group included several sparsely populated, island and/or peripheral regions (it is likely that a disproportionately high share of students from island and/or peripheral regions have to leave home if they wish to follow a particular course or programme, leaving behind a higher concentration of early leavers). Outside of this group, relatively high shares of early leavers from education and training – upwards of 16.5% – were observed in at least 2 regions from each of Germany, Spain, Italy and Romania.

Figure 2 highlights the NUTS level 2 regions with the highest and lowest regional shares of early leavers from education and training in 2023. At the top end of the distribution, the Romanian region of Sud-Est had the highest share, with 24.6% of its individuals aged 18–24 classified as early leavers. Shares of more than 20.0% were also recorded in the French regions of Guyane (21.7%) and Corse (21.5%), the Portuguese Região Autónoma dos Açores (21.7%), the Spanish autonomous regions of Ciudad de Ceuta (21.2%) and Ciudad de Melilla (20.4%), as well as an additional region from Romania – Centru (21.0%).

At the lower end of the distribution, there were 21 NUTS level 2 regions where the share of early leavers from education and training among people aged 18 to 24 was less than 5.0% in 2023. These regions were often grouped together, with clusters of regions with low shares in Ireland, south-west France, Belgium, Czechia, Croatia and Greece. The lowest shares of early leavers from education and training were recorded in

• the Czech capital region of Praha (1.7%)
• the Greek region of Kentriki Makedonia (1.3%)
• the Croatian coastal region of Jadranska Hrvatska (also 1.3%; 2022 data).

Figure 2: Early leavers from education and training, 2023
(% of people aged 18–24, by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_16)

Employment rate of recent graduates from vocational programmes

A Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience (2020/C 417/01) set an EU benchmark for the employment rate of recent graduates from vocational programmes. The policy target – defined in relation to people aged 20–34 having completed an upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary vocational education qualification (as covered by ISCED levels 3 and 4) within the previous 1–3 years (hereafter referred to as recent graduates) – is for the employment rate of this cohort to be at least 82% by 2025.

Between 2015 and 2019, the EU employment rate of recent graduates from vocational education programmes in upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education increased from 72.3% to 79.2%. However, it subsequently fell 3.4 percentage points in 2020 as the COVID-19 crisis likely impacted on the number of (new) job opportunities that were open to young people. There was a modest recovery in 2021, with the employment rate rising to 76.1%, with the recovery accelerating a year later, rising by a further 3.7 points to 79.8%. In 2023, the EU’s employment rate for recent vocational graduates continued to increase and reached a historic high of 81.0%; as such, it was 1.0 points below the 82.0% target for 2025.

Map 5 shows that the employment rate of recent vocational graduates was already at or above the EU’s policy target of 82.0% in approximately half (75 out of 153) of the EU regions for which data are available in 2023; the statistics presented for Belgium, Germany, Greece and France relate to NUTS level 1 regions, while only national data are available for Bulgaria and earlier reference years are used for some regions. These 75 regions with relatively high employment rates are shaded using 3 different teal tones in Map 5: they included every region (among those for which data are available) of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Malta and all but one of the regions in Belgium, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden. At the top end of the distribution, there were 10 regions in the EU where the employment rate of recent vocational graduates was at least 95.0% (as shown by the darkest shade of teal in Map 5). This group included

• the Czech capital region of Praha
• the German regions of Brandenburg and Rheinland-Pfalz
• Comunidad Foral de Navarra in Spain
• Malta
• the Dutch regions of Drenthe, Flevoland, Gelderland and Zeeland
• Övre Norrland in Sweden.

In 3 of these regions, practically all (100.0%) recent vocational graduates were in work in 2023: Praha in Czechia, Comunidad Foral de Navarra in Spain, and Flevoland in the Netherlands.

At the lower end of the distribution, there were 16 NUTS level 2 regions where fewer than 60.0% of all recent vocational graduates were in work in 2023 (as shown by the darkest 2 golden shades in Map 5). The lowest employment rates for this cohort were concentrated in southern EU countries: 8 (predominantly southern) regions of Italy, 4 regions in Spain and the Greek capital region of Attiki; the others included 2 regions from Romania and Régions Ultrapériphériques Françaises in France. Within this group of 16 regions, there were 9 which had employment rates of recent vocational graduates that were below 50.0% in 2023 and 4 regions where rates were below 40.0%. The lowest employment rates were observed in the Italian regions of Campania (38.1%), Basilicata (37.5%; 2021 data) and Sicilia (35.6%), as well as the French Régions Ultrapériphériques Françaises (21.2%).

Adult education and training

Lifelong learning seeks to improve an individual’s knowledge, skills, competences and/or qualifications for personal, social and/or professional reasons. For many occupations, it is increasingly important for the labour force to develop existing skills and learn new ones that are relevant to a specific job or which provide opportunities for new career paths. Some jobs/occupations will likely cease to exist in the future as a result of technological change.

The strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021–30) has a specific EU policy target in this area; by 2025, at least 47% of people aged 25–64 should have participated in adult learning during the previous 12 months. This target was revised in June 2021 as a result of its inclusion as one of the EU 2030 social targets within the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan; the revised goal is to have, by 2030, at least 60% of people aged 25–64 participating in education and training every year.

More about the data: adult participation in education and training

Up until 2021, the data collected by the labour force survey included information on the share of the population that received formal or non-formal education and training during the 4 weeks prior to the survey; this indicator is presented below .

As of reference year 2022, labour force survey statistics have been collected for people participating in education and training during the 12 months prior to the survey. However, at the time of writing (May 2024), this new dataset isn’t yet available with a regional breakdown. As such, the regional statistics presented below concern people aged 25–64 participating in education and training during the 4 weeks prior to the (labour force) survey.

During the last 2 decades, the proportion of adults (aged 25–64) in the EU participating in education and training has more than doubled. At the start of the time series in 2002, around 1 in 20 people participated in education and training during the 4 weeks prior to the (labour force) survey, with the participation rate standing at 5.3%. The rate increased gradually and by 2019 had reached 10.8%. However, following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, it fell back to 9.1% in 2020, before subsequently rebounding to 10.8% in 2021. Thereafter, the EU’s adult participation rate for education and training continued to increase, growing at a relatively rapid pace, reaching 11.9% in 2022 and 12.7% in 2023.

The regional distribution of participation rates in education and training among people aged 25–64 was somewhat skewed insofar as almost 60% of NUTS level 2 regions – or 139 out of 241 regions – reported a rate in 2023 that was below the EU average (see Map 6). The lowest participation rates were concentrated in southern and eastern EU countries. By contrast, the highest participation rates were primarily located in a band of regions running from the Nordic EU countries, down through the Netherlands. Most of the other countries with regions also having participation rates already above the EU average were in a band continuing down through Belgium and Luxembourg into France and on to the Iberian Peninsula, while another group included several regions around Austria, parts of northern and central Italy, and Slovenia. Elsewhere, relatively high rates were recorded in many capital regions.

In 2023, the 8 highest levels of adult participation in education and training were all recorded in Sweden

Map 6 shows participation rates in education and training for people aged 25–64 for 2023. The regional distribution of adult participation rates was relatively homogeneous within individual EU countries, at least in part reflecting national rather than regional education and training initiatives. There were 20 NUTS level 2 regions that had participation rates that were equal to or above 25.0% (as shown by the darkest shade of blue); this group included every region of Denmark and Sweden, as well as 4 Dutch regions and 3 Finnish ones. The 8 highest regional participation rates in education and training were recorded in Sweden. The Swedish capital region of Stockholm had the highest participation rate, at 41.3%, followed by Västsverige, Sydsverige and Östra Mellansverige (all within the range of 38.0–38.9%). The Danish capital region of Hovedstaden had the highest participation rate outside of Sweden (35.2%). It was followed by the Finnish capital region of Helsinki-Uusimaa (29.2%), while Utrecht in the Netherlands (26.5%) had the highest participation rate outside of the Nordic countries.

There were 25 NUTS level 2 regions where the participation rate for adult education and training was below 5.0% in 2023 (they are indicated by the yellow shade in Map 6). This group was principally concentrated in south-eastern Europe: Bulgaria (all 6 regions) and Greece (11 out of 13 regions), but also included 4 regions from Poland, as well as 2 regions from each of Croatia and Romania. At the bottom end of the range, the lowest rates were recorded in the Bulgarian regions of Severoiztochen (1.1%), Severozapaden (1.0%) and Severen tsentralen (0.9%).