More young people dropping out of school without starter qualification

A growing number of young people in the Netherlands are not following any education and have not reached the levels the government sees as "starter qualifications." Numbers provided by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) show that the number of young people this applies to has increased by 50,000 in the last three years, an increase of almost 40 percent.

The government strives to have young people reach at least the school levels havo, vwo, or a secondary vocational education, otherwise called mbo-2. Anybody with a lower education level than this has less chance of getting a good, steady job.

However, the figures from the statistics office also show that the majority of these young people up to the age of 27 do have work, although this is more often a flexible contract than for young people who do have a starting qualification.

Around 54,000 of the group who do not go to school and do not have a starter-level qualification are unemployed. According to CBS's numbers, around one in three of those are looking for a job. Most of these young people are not available for work; they are ineligible. "Illness or disability was the most frequently cited reason for this," the statistics agency explained.

CBS did not have an explanation for the increase, saying that more research is needed on this. Head of sociology Tanja Traag mentioned several factors that contributed to the rise. She claimed that many studies show "a significant portion of young people have had a tough time mentally" during the coronavirus pandemic and in the aftermath. Psychological problems are often a reason to quit an educational course. In 2022, around a quarter of the students who quit mentioned this as the reason.

However, an increase in leaving school prematurely was already evident in the years before the coronavirus pandemic. This trend slowed during the pandemic years mainly due to central exams being canceled, leading to many young people starting a mbo course.

Traag said it is possible that some of the young people "did not make it in the end or came to the conclusion that they made the wrong choice."

The group of young people who are not currently following an education but did reach the requested minimal education level has also increased. In the past three years, 72,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 27 have been added to this category, bringing the total to almost 700,000 people.