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，成绩不佳的离校生参加职业教育和培训（VET）计划被视为让他们继续接受教育、提高教育程度、从而增加他们未来就业机会的第二次机会。然而，参加 VET 项目是否真正提供了第二次机会，不仅取决于能否参加常规 VET 项目（正如正在进行的 N.O.R.D. 1 项目中所研究的那样），还取决于能否成功完成常规 VET 项目。职前培训措施被视为提高就业技能的赶超计划，也被视为防止成绩不佳的年轻人退出常规职业教育与培训计划。然而，情况是否如此仍然存在疑问。 N.O.R.D. 的主要研究问题因此，2 个项目是： (1) 为什么成绩不佳的毕业生比中等教育程度的毕业生更有可能退出常规 VET 课程？ (2) 关于参与职业前措施的声称目标，参与职业前培训措施是否会影响成绩不佳的青少年退出职业教育与培训计划的风险？如果会，对谁以及为什么？成绩不佳的离校者被定义为那些因学习障碍而离开普通学校和特殊学校、没有学位或仅拥有（高级）初中学位的人。我们将特别关注不同的选拔过程、VET 退学的异质性以及 VET 课程退学的原因。我们将采用与逐步回归和分解方法相结合的匹配方法，分别解释按离校程度（研究问题 1）和参与职前措施（研究问题 2）划分的 VET 辍学风险的差异。该项目不仅从政策角度有意义，而且还将提高我们对退出职业教育培训项目的过程和原因的理解，从而提高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.