Dropout in vocational education: institutional selection and social exclusion

For the last ten years drop out of vocational education has increased strongly in Denmark. Only half of the students, who take up a vocational programme on upper secondary level, complete it. Like in other European countries the low completion rates has caused considerable alarm on the political level (Lamb and Markussen 2011). Continuing high dropout rates will make it very hard for the government to reach its target for educational completion, and the government has launched a series of measures to increase retention including the obligation for all colleges to make plans for retention and monitor the progress in achieving the goals. The questions addressed in this paper are why and how dropout in VET takes place. The objective is to provide more detailed and qualified knowledge of the complex processes of dropping out.