Page 29 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

benchmark target and five of these were already below the target in 2000. Five of
these six countries joined the EU in 2004: the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland,
Slovakia and Slovenia. Finland is the only longer-standing EU country, where the
early school leaving rate was below the Lisbon target throughout the reference
period. Early school leaving rates are also below the target in Iceland and
Norway. The southern European countries Spain, Italy, Malta, and Portugal,
followed by Bulgaria and Romania, which recently joined the EU, remain furthest
away from the EU benchmark. Some of the greatest reductions in the proportion
of early school leavers have been seen in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and
Slovenia. A reverse trend has been witnessed in six EU Member States, with the
most significant reversal in Sweden.

Figure 1. Early school leaving in the European Union, 2000-07

Source: European Commission, 2008e.

The rates for candidate countries Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia and Turkey are not included in Figure 1, but they also vary
significantly. Croatia has the lowest level of early school leavers in Europe; in
2007 the figure stood at 3.9 %. In contrast, in the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, every second member of the population aged over 15 years has little
or no formal education and national data indicates that there are only two
students per 100 inhabitants (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Ministry of Education and Science, 2004). In Turkey, the rate has reduced
drastically since 2000 (from over 58 % in 2000 to 48 % in 2007), but it is still
significantly above any rate in the EU. The early school leaving rates have
improved as a result of the extension of compulsory education from five to eight
years.

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