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Abstract

Concern about Early School Leaving (ESL) is a constant in European and national policies, justifying specific educational measures to reduce it. Although we do not have an official evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures, we note that the percentage of dropouts in Spain has been decreasing in recent years. From the point of view of educational guidance, it is interesting to highlight the transitions between different stages up to the achievement of ISCED level 3: How does the progression from compulsory to post-compulsory secondary education take place? How does Basic Vocational Education Training (BVET) affect the calculation of drop-out rates? To this end, comparative and longitudinal analyses have been carried out, based on data provided by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEFP). Results show that the majority of those with compulsory secondary education continue to study successfully, thus contributing to the reduction of ESL. However, 30% of the students who enroll in Secondary Education (ESO) do not complete this level, and approximately two thirds of that percentage drop out before the 4th year. At present, the reduction in ESL is related to the different consideration of the BVET and the PCPIs that it replaces. Though graduation from BVET is lower than that of the PCPI, its contribution to improving the drop-out rate is clear because it allows for the certification of ISCED level 3.