Pupils who do not get an apprenticeship

Lack of apprenticeships has been, and still is, a challenge in upper secondary education. This report examines pupils who did not get an apprenticeship. What does lack of apprenticeship mean for completing upper secondary education, or attachment to the labour market? To examine these questions, we have looked at people who applied for an apprenticeship in 2010. About one of four applicants in 2010 did not get an apprenticeship.

It is a clearly larger share of immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents who did not get an apprenticeship compared to the rest of the population. Among pupils whose parents have primary and lower secondary education as highest level of education, the share is larger compared to pupils whose parents have upper secondary education or tertiary education. The share also increases the fewer lower secondary school points or fewer upper secondary school points level 2 a pupil has. The share of applicants who did not get an apprenticeship varies from 18 percent in the county of Rogaland to 35 percent in Østfold, and from 22 percent in the educational program of building and construction to 33 percent in service and transport.

There is a clear difference in the chance of completing upper secondary education depending on whether one received an apprenticeship or not. Among those who did not get an apprenticeship, 56 percent have completed upper secondary education within the end of the school year 2018/2019, about 31 percentage points lower compared to those who did get an apprenticeship. Regression analyses show that the probability of completing upper secondary education is larger for those who got an apprenticeship compared to those who did not get an apprenticeship, also when we control for different background characteristics. We also find that lower secondary school points and upper secondary school points in level 2 are significant for completing upper secondary education or not. Among those who did not get an apprenticeship, immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents have a lower probability of completing upper secondary education compared to the rest of the population. On the other hand, immigrants who got an apprenticeship contract have a higher probability of completing upper secondary education compared to the rest of the population.

Despite not getting an apprenticeship, well over half have completed upper secondary education or higher education 9 years later. There is a considerably lower share of those who did not get an apprenticeship in work compared to those who got an apprenticeship, respectively 76 and 86 percent. The percentage of those being neither in work or education is almost twice as big for those who did not get an apprenticeship compared to those who did. The probability of being attached to the labour market is in average larger for those who got an apprenticeship compared to those who did not, when we in regression analyses control for other characteristics with the applicants. At the same time, we find that completing education at upper secondary level or higher has a much stronger relation to being attached to employment than getting an apprenticeship.