Is the distribution of NEETs and early leavers from Education and training converging across the regions of the European Union?

Abstract

The literature on education and training highlights two factors that impinge on the distribution ofearly leaving (ELET) and exclusion from employment and training (NEET) across the regions of the European Union. One of these factors lies inthe institutions that regulate the transition from education and training toemployment at the national level. Over time, these institutions have constituted an Universalistic regime in Scandinavia, an Employment-Centred regime in Central Europe, a Liberal Regime in the UK and Ireland, aSub-Protective regime in Southern Western Europe as well as an array of Post-Socialist regimes.The other factor lies in collaboration at the local and regional levels of governance.In some regions of the European Union, diverse stakeholders that work at these levels are capable to encourage early school leavers to undertake education andtraining again, and have constructed complex schemes of vocational education and trainingthat embrace apprenticeships (some of which are tailored to specific target groups), secondary and tertiary education. Byexploring the regional distribution of ELETand NEET rates between 2003 and 2015, our findings report mixed trends of convergence. While in Universalistic and Employment-Centred regimeswe find out convergence insofar as the more vulnerable regions catch up, in Liberal, Sub-Protective and Post-Socialist regimescatch-up effects areweak and notsignificant, andtop performingregions deviatefrom the rest.