Research and analysis

Barriers to participation in education and training

Report exploring the barriers and constraints young people currently face when deciding what to do at the end of their compulsory schooling.

Documents

Barriers to participation in education and training

Barriers to participation in education and training: brief

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Details

Although most young people find the decision about what to do after year 11 easy and most are satisfied with what they have done post-16, almost a fifth of young people find the decision-making process difficult and 7% end up dissatisfied with the choice they make. In addition, almost a quarter of young people participating in education or training post-16 say that they would have done something different if they had been aware of all of the courses on offer.

This study included a survey of 2029 young people who completed Year 11 in either 2008 or 2009. The survey was supplemented by interviews with booster samples of 519 young people across specific sub-groups and 102 parent interviews.

The summary presents key findings from research commissioned by the DCSF aimed at exploring the barriers and constraints young people currently face when deciding what to do at the end of their compulsory schooling in Year 11.

Updates to this page

Published 24 June 2010

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