Barbara E. Stalder

University of Basel/Institute of Sociology

INNOVATIVE APPRENTICESHIPS:

Promoting Successful School-to-Work Transitions

17 – 18 September 2009, Turin

Low Achievers’ Risky Pathways: PISA literacy Scores as Predictors of Upper Secondary Enrolment and Graduation

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PISA: results 2000

More than 20% of the 15 year old in Switzerland with literacy level smaller than or equal to 1...

Literacy according to PISA captures students’ “ability to apply knowledge and skills in key subject areas and to communicate effectively in problem analysis and problem solving”.

Reading literacy is defined as “the ability to understand, use and reflect on written texts in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society” (OECD/PISA 2001, p. 21).

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PISA: results 2000

More than 20% of the 15 year old in Switzerland with literacy level smaller than or equal to 1...

Level 1: At best, young people who attain competence level 1 have rudimentary reading skill. While they can retrieve individual items of information from texts and combine them with their existing knowledge, they cannot use this reading for learning to any satisfactory extent.

Below level 1: Young people who do not attain level 1 have serious problems retrieving items of information from a very simple text. They are unable to identify the main topic of the text or to link what they have read to aspects of their day-to-day knowledge.

(Press release Federal Statistical Office, December 2001)

Research questions

Assumption: Successful transition from compulsory school to upper secondary education seems endangered

Objective and subjective criteria of successful transition: Success is “as a state in which individuals are employed after

leaving school, perform at levels acceptable to their employers, and have positive attitudes towards their work environments and job requirements” (Ng & Feldman, 2007, p. 116).

Objective: Enrolment in and graduation from certifying upper secondary education (=VET-diploma)?

Subjective: Enrolled in apprenticeship, which corresponds to interests and skills?

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Dual VET: Levels of certification

3-4 year apprenticeship Low, medium and high academic requirements and prestige Federal diploma of vocational education and training Possibility to combine with vocational ‘matura’ (prof. bacc.)

Vocational ‘matura’ Always in addition to apprenticeship (parallel or afterwards) Admittance to universities of applied science

2 year apprenticeship (new!) New programme, 20 occupations, more to come “More practically gifted” young people Possibility for special support if needed Basic federal certificate of vocational education and training

Findings from the Swiss longitudinal Youth Study TREE

Research objective: Description and explanation of pathways from school to work

Focus: Critical, non-linear pathways, at-risk youth Longitudinal design, annual surveys, 7 additional

waves until 2007 Based on first PISA-study 2000 Sample: 5500 school-leavers from all language

regions

Not so smooth TRansitions from Education to Work

Objective success: enrolment in education

Not reached upper secondary certification in 2006:

Level ≤1: 38% Level 2: 21% Level 3: 8% Level ≥4: 3%Source: TREE

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Literacy level <=1 Literacy level >=4

not in education

tertiary education

other education

academic matura

VET high requirements

VET low requirements

Risk factors of early dropout (no certificate until 2006)

Multinomial logistic regression:

Educational situation in 2001 [in cert. education] in gap year/intermediate solution (odds ratio: 3.26)

Not participating in any kind of education (odds ratio 9.43)

Migrant background [Swiss] First generation (odds ratio 2.21)

Reading literacy [level 2] Level 1 or below (odds ratio 1.8)

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Subjective success: Work related attitudes

Is there a difference between youths with different levels of literacy and

in educations/occupations with different academic requirements

as regards learning opportunities/variability of work

work overload at school

satisfaction with education

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Learning opportunities/variability of work; levels of literacy (L) and educational status (E)

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4

level <=1 level 2 level 3

vocationaltraining; lowdemands

vocationaltraining; averagedemands

vocationaltraining; highdemands

L: n.s.; E: *, L by E: n.s.

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1.5

1.7

1.9

2.1

2.3

2.5

2.7

2.9

level <=1 level 2 level 3

indermediatesolutions

vocationaleducation; lowdemands

vocationaleducation; averagedemands

vocationaleducation; highdemands

Work overload at school; levels of literacy (L) and educational status (E)

L: ***; E: ***, L by E: *

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3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4

4.6

4.8

5

Level =<1 Level 2 Level 3

Intermediatesolution

Vocationaleducation, lowdemands

Vocationaleducation,averagedemands

Vocationaleducation, highdemands

Satisfaction with education; levels of literacy (L) and educational status (E)

L: n.s.; E: ***; L by E: *

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Conclusion

School leavers with (very) low literacy skills: Majority enrols in upper secondary education and graduates succesfully Apprenticeships with good opportunities for learning most important -> educational

satisfaction high

But:

Low-achievers in short educational programmes -> disadvantaged in the labour market later on?

Importance to find direct access to upper secondary; literacy skills do less matter -> unequal opportunities during transition from lower to upper secondary education.

Only small differences between VET graduates and persons without post-compulsory certificate whatsoever -> Quality of VET diploma?

Outlook: Life-long learning focus!!

Stalder, B. E., Meyer, T., & Hupka-Brunner, S. (2008). Leistungsschwach - Bildungsarm? Ergebnisse der TREE-Studie zu den PISA-Kompetenzen als Prädiktoren für Bildungschancen in der Sekundarstufe II (Are low achievers necessarily dropouts? PISA scores as predictors of upper secondary graduation. Findings from the Swiss PISA follow-up TREE). Die Deutsche Schule, 100(4), 436-448.

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