More students with low grades choose upper-secondary education

More young people with low grades from lower secondary school are choosing upper-secondary education, according to a new analysis by the Labour Movement Business Council, reported by DR. Six in 10 young people in the lower half of the grade distribution now choose an upper-secondary programme, compared with four in 10 in 2002.

Overall, 69 per cent of young people now choose upper-secondary education after lower secondary school, up from less than 46 per cent in 1985. Over the same period, the share starting vocational education fell from more than 44 per cent to 21 per cent.

The increase in upper-secondary enrolment has come almost entirely from the lower half of the grade distribution. Girls are particularly likely to choose this route: 85 per cent of girls in the lowest quarter of the grade distribution choose upper-secondary education, compared with 33 per cent of boys.

However, only 51 per cent of students in the lowest quarter of the grade distribution who start upper-secondary education go on to complete it and begin higher education. Among those who start vocational education, 58 per cent complete their programme.

“It is a problem when so many young people do not obtain an education that gives them vocational qualifications. They risk a working life with low job security,” Rasmus Lindø Kaslund, an analyst at the Labour Movement Business Council, said in a press release.

The former SVM government decided that a new vocational and professional upper-secondary programme, known as epx, will be introduced from 2030. It will have lower grade requirements than traditional upper-secondary education but will be more practically oriented.