Early school leaving & youth unemployment - Phase I Conference

Brussels, 7-8 March 2013

In 2012, the « Prize for research on integration of young people excluded by early school leaving and unemployment » was launched, which aimed to reward articles that succeed to elucidate in a rigorous, empirical and original way the causes of, and possible solutions for, early school leaving and /or youth unemployment in Belgium and other OECD countries. Nine articles were selected to be awarded this prize and be published in a book "Early School Leaving and Youth Unemployment" (Tielt & Amsterdam: LannooCampus & Amsterdam University Press).

In January and February 2013, the Foundation has gathered a number of experts within two working groups (one on education, another one on employment), who were asked to discuss and to identify (new) policies and projects that could resolve the problems identified in the winning articles.

The conference of 7-8 March 2013 aimed to present the results of the research done by the nine laureates (first day), but also to diffuse and feed the debates started by the two working groups (second day), thanks to the participation of more than 200 public and private stakeholders from all over Europe who are concerned by the education and employment opportunities of young people. The Foundation P&V was very honored to welcome Commissioner Andor and Ministers De Coninck, Lieten and Smet at the conference. The final objective of the conference was to enable politicians, foundations and civil society to identify and launch new policies and/or actions to respond more efficiently to the problem of early school leaving and unemployment of young people in Belgium and in Europe.

Programme

Powerpoint Presentations

7 March 2013

• Unemployment amongst Early School Leavers in Europe: Institutional Education and Labour Market Mechanisms - Stan Van Alphen, Policy officer at DG EAC (European Commission)
• Student persistence and dropout after the transition to post-secondary vocational education in the Netherlands - Louise Elffers, Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam
• Staying on the dole: Profiling the risk of long-term unemployment among young people in Ireland - Elish Kelly, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
• School segregation and self-fulfilling prophecies as determinants of academic achievement in Flanders - Orhan Agirdag, CuDOS, Ghent University
• Ethnic discrimination in the Flemish labour market for school leavers. Jonas in preference to Okan? - Stijn Baert, Sherppa, Ghent University
• Young, jobless and hard to reach. Evidence from nine pilots in the Youth Work Plan in Flanders - Liesbeth Van Parys & Greet Van Dooren, HIVA, Catholic University of Leuven
• Does School Time Matter? - On the impact of compulsory education age on school dropout - Sofie J. Cabus, Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research, Maastricht University
• Increasing student success in disadvantaged areas: Highlights and lessons from the evaluation of the "New Approaches, New Solutions" Intervention Strategy - Michel Janosz, École de Psychoéducation, Université de Montréal
• The effects of the fight against early school leaving: Back to education or school-to-work transition? - Pierre-Yves Bernard, Centre de recherche en éducation, Université de Nantes

8 March 2013

• Contextualization - Saskia De Groof, Coordinator of Foundation P&V
• Early school leaving in the Netherlands. Policy and research - Kristof De Witte, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
• Early School Leaving in Luxembourg - Fernand Sauer and Guy Tondt, Action Locale Jeunes, Ministry of Education, Luxembourg
• Preliminary conclusions of the working group concerning early school leaving - Béatrice Ghaye, Ministry of Education of the French speaking community of Belgium
• LMP for Young people from 15-19 in Austria - Inge Friehs, AMS, the Austrian Public Employment Service
• Combatting Poverty through an Active Labour Market Policy with a strategic focus on education and inclusion - Jens Sibbersen, Manager, Jobcentre Copenhagen, Denmark
• Preliminary conclusions of the working group concerning youth unemployment - El Hassan Aouraghe, Project Leader Labour Market Policy, City of Antwerp