The Progress of First and Second-generation Immigrants through Vocational Training and Education

English Summary

In this report, we analyse young immigrants’ progression through the Danish lower and upper secondary educational system compared with pupils or students of Danish origin. We look in particular at the vocational education and training system and the male immigrant population. We perform both descriptive and regression analyses, using information from register-based data covering the period 1993-2009.

The lower and upper secondary educational system in Denmark

After lower secondary school, pupils can choose to start vocational/professional training at upper secondary level. Pupils can choose either to start a high school education (gymnasium in Danish) or a vocational education and training programme. Completing a course at a high schools gives access to further (tertiary) education. The Danish vocational education and training programme, is characterised by a dual system, in which students receive a mix of training, consisting of both courses at school and an apprenticeship in a firm. The training programme generally consists of two parts. During the first part of the programme, students receive a general training within the field they have chosen. The length of the first part varies according to the type of education and takes between six months and two years. Although some students can choose to start directly with an apprenticeship, most of the teaching takes place at school. After the first part of the programme, students have to choose their field of specialisation. They have to obtain a training contract with a firm in order to be allowed to start the second part of the programme.

Structure of the report

The report consists of four parts. In the first part, we present the data and the methods used in the different chapters of the report. It also includes definition of the concepts. The second part presents a dynamic analysis of educational progression, where we look at transition from lower secondary school to upper secondary school. In the third part, we look at the dynamics of the vocational education and training programmes as well as the apprenticeship situation for these students. In the fourth and last part of the report, we perform a regression analysis for the population of pupils who have chosen a vocational education and training programme. We look at different indicators measuring the risk of dropping out and relate them to risk factors, such as secondary school grades, ethnicity, country of origin and parental background.

Main results

Many young immigrants start an upper secondary education and there has been an increase during the last fifteen years in the share of young immigrants starting such an education.
First and second generation immigrants leave secondary school with a poorer academic record than Danish students. The academic record of students starting a vocational education and training programme is even poorer.

52% of immigrants drop out from a vocational education and training programme, compared to 35% of Danes. Less than half the second-generation immigrants who start a vocational education and training programme obtain a training contract whereas the share is about 70% for the Danes.

Many immigrants who have started an upper secondary education change their courses. The change is mainly from vocational education and training to high school (5% to 10%).
Among those dropping out from a vocational education and training programme, the share of immigrant students with a job is lower (40% to 50%) than among those who completed their course (70% to 80%). There are also differences across countries of origin.

Ethnicity has an insignificant or non-existent explaining power when looking at the dropout rates in the first part of the vocational education and training programme, when taking into account the child’s academic record, field of specialisation and parental background. Ethnicity plays a bigger negative role when looking at outcomes such as starting the second part of the programme or obtaining a training contract with a firm.

Methods

Definition of ethnicity
We have categorised individuals in four ethnic groups. These are: second generation immigrants; first generation of immigrants arriving at the age of 0–5 years; immigrants arriving when they were 6–12 years old, and pupils of Danish origin. Immigrants are defined as people from nonwestern countries. The definition of non-western countries follows the defini-tion used by Statistics Denmark. (Western countries are Scandinavia, the EU countries, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, the Vatican State, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Non-western countries are all other countries).

Part I: Data and methods

In Part I, we introduce the different concepts and give a summary of the data and methods used in the report.

Part II: A dynamic analysis of educational progression and transitions from lower secondary school to upper secondary school

We analyse the transition from lower secondary level for the period 2003-2009, by performing a descriptive analysis of the proportion of pupils who sit the final exam during the last year of lower secondary school as well as pupils’ performance in this exam. We also look at the transition from lower secondary school to upper secondary school within a period of three years after leaving lower secondary school. The possible options are (1) high school, (2) a vocational education and training programme and (3) not starting an upper secondary edu-cation within three years. Finally, given that a student has started an education, we compute the probabilities of transition to different destinations, which can either be completion of the course, dropping out or change to another course at the upper secondary level. Dropping out is defined as a situation where the student interrupts his/her course and does not start another one within 2 years. The descriptive analysis is generally split up into ethnicity, gender and country of origin. The analysis is conducted for students who left secondary school between 1993 and 2007, and is, in some cases, split up into two sub-periods in order to show the evolution over time.

Part III: Dynamic analysis of progression for a vocational training programme

We perform a descriptive analysis of the difference concerning ethnicity and countries of origin for the various possible outcomes at different stages of the vocational education and training programme. We look in particular at the proportion of students who drop out during the first part of the programme, the proportion of students who start the second part of the programme, the proportion of students who switch to another course, and the duration of the different stages of the training. The analysis includes people who started a vocational education programme between 2003 and 2007.

Part IV: Regression analysis

We perform a regression analysis of the factors which can explain the high dropout rates observed during the different stages of a vocational education and training programme. We look at dropout rates at the different stages of these programmes. We estimate models for the probability of dropout at the first stage, the probability of starting the second part and the probability of obtaining a training contract. As explanatory variables, the model includes secondary school grades, ethnicity, country of origin, field of specialisation, type of family and number of siblings as well as parental background. The analysis includes people who started a vocational education programme between 2003 and 2007.