New opportunities or reinforced disadvantages?Variation in returns to low-achieving school leavers' participation in pre-vocational training measures - Extension: Dropping out of VET programs (Short: N.O.R.D. 2)

在许多国家，成绩低下的毕业生参加职业教育和培训(VET)计划被认为是让他们继续接受教育的第二次机会，从而提高他们的教育水平，从而增加他们未来的就业机会。然而，参加职业教育项目是否真的提供了第二次机会，不仅取决于是否有机会参加常规的职业教育项目(正如正在进行的项目N.O.R.D.中所研究的那样)，还取决于是否成功完成了常规的职业教育项目。职业前培训措施被认为是提高就业能力技能的追赶计划，也被视为防止成绩低下的年轻人退出常规的职业教育和培训计划。然而，情况是否如此仍是一个悬而未决的问题。因此，N.O.R.D.项目的主要研究问题是：(1)为什么成绩不佳的离校生比受过中等教育的离校生更有可能退出常规的职业教育项目？(2)关于参与职业前培训措施的声称目标，参加职业前培训措施是否会影响成绩低下的年轻人退出职业教育计划的风险？如果是，对谁和为什么？成绩不佳的离校生被定义为那些离开普通学校和有学习障碍的特殊学校的人，他们没有学位或只有(高级)初中学位。我们将特别关注不同的遴选过程、职业教育辍学的异质性以及职业教育项目退出的原因。我们将使用配对的方法，结合逐步回归和分解方法，分别以离开学校的程度(研究问题1)和参与职业预防措施(研究问题2)来解释兽医辍学风险的差异。该项目不仅对政策有意义，而且还将增进我们对退出职业教育和培训方案的过程和原因的了解，从而加深我们对抵消或减轻教育劣势积累的配置的理解。

In many countries, low-achieving school leavers participation in vocational education and training (VET) programs is considered a second chance to keep them in education, to raise their educational attainment, and thereby to enhance their future employment opportunities. However, whether participation in VET programs really provides a second chance not only depends on access to regular VET programs (as studied in the ongoing project N.O.R.D. 1) but also on successful completion of regular VET programs. Prevocational training measures, considered as catching-up programs enhancing employability skills, are also seen as a prevention of low-achieving youths dropping out of regular VET programs. Yet, the question is still open whether this is the case. The main research questions of the N.O.R.D. 2 project are therefore: (1) Why are low-achieving school leavers more likely to drop out of regular VET programs than intermediate-educated school leavers? (2) And concerning the claimed goals of participation in prevocational measures, does participation in prevocational training measures impacts on low-achieving youths risks of dropping out of VET programs and if so, for whom and why? Low-achieving school leavers are defined as those who left regular schools and special schools for learning disabilities without a degree or with only a (advanced) lower secondary school degree. We will pay particular attention to different selection processes, the heterogeneity of VET dropouts and the causes of dropping out of VET programs. We will employ a matching approach combined with stepwise regressions and decomposition methods to explain differences in VET dropout risks by school-leaving degree (research question 1) and participation in prevocational measures (research question 2), respectively. The project is not only of interest from a policy perspective but will also improve our understanding of the processes and causes of dropping out of VET programs and thus of configurations counteracting or alleviating the accumulations of educational disadvantages.