Three-quarters of school drop-outs find a job eventually

Fewer early school-leavers find a job in the long run than school-leavers with a basic qualification. In 2008, 72 percent of pupils who left school without a basic qualification in school year 2004/’05 had a job. For pupils who left school with a basic qualification, 92 percent had a paid job in the fourth year after leaving school.

More jobs in the long run

Nearly 100 thousand pupils and students aged 15 to 23 years left secondary and senior secondary vocational education (mbo) in school year 2004/’05; 53 thousand of these students were early school-leavers, i.e. they had not attained a basic qualification.
In the fourth year after leaving school, 72 percent of early school-leavers had a job. This is considerably more than the number who had a job in the first year after leaving school: only 57 percent. For school-leavers with a basic qualification the percentage who found a job rose from 81 percent in the first year to 92 percent in the fourth year.

School-leavers with a job in the first (2005) and fourth year (2008) after leaving school

Havo/vwo drop-outs trailing on job market

Students dropping out of senior secondary vocational education (mbo) have the best job prospects. In the fourth year after leavings school, 75 percent of them had a job. They were followed by students dropping out of preparatory secondary vocational education (vmbo). Students leaving senior general secondary education (havo) and pre-university education (vwo) without a qualification bring up the rear on the labour market: only 44 percent had a job in 2008.
For students who did pass their havo or vwo diplomas, the job rates shot up: 75 percent of them had a job in the fourth year after leaving school. For students with an mbo diploma, too, job rates are 18 percent points higher.

School-leavers with a job by level of education, in the fourth year after leaving school (2008)

Non-westerners with no basic qualification more likely not to find a job

More early school-leavers with a non-western foreign backgrounder than with a native Dutch background did not have a job. In the fourth year after leaving school slightly more than half of them had a job, compared with 80 percent of native Dutch drop-outs.  Native Dutch drop-outs left school further on in the programmes of mbo, havo or vwo, and more of them had a vmbo diploma. Job prospects were much brighter for students with a non-western foreign background who did have a basic qualification,

School-leavers by ethnic origin with a job in the fourth year after leaving school (2008)

Harry Bierings and Robert de Vries