Age norms and early school leaving

This article examines the issue of early school leaving from upper secondary education in light of life course theory on age norms. Based on existing literature, it examines how definitions of early school leaving relate to chronological age in indirect and direct ways, and thereby express historically specific norms concerning the ideal timing of events over the life course. The article suggests that by the rise of early school leaving on the international policy agenda in the 2000s, young people's pathways are increasingly measured against the academic track as ‘normal’ – the ideal of prolonged and orderly school to work transitions. Transition patterns long within the bounds of normality within vocational education, often resulting in qualifications gained later in life, may thus appear as problematic. Pupils in vocational tracks tend to follow routes that are less orderly and less standardized according to age. Early school leaving can be seen as a new form of deviance, created by the universalization of age norms that conform better to academic routes through education. The historical, conceptual and theoretical discussion in this article indicates that age norms are a seldom addressed, but potentially constraining, feature of contemporary school to work transition contexts.

Over recent decades, the emphasis on providing young people with higher levels of skills has intensified. In accordance with this development, early school leaving (henceforth ESL) has developed into a major concern both in research, policy and public debates. The EU and national governments now consider reductions in ESL as the key contribution that education can make to address the current economic crisis (Ross and Leathwood 2013a: 327), and as ‘a political panacea to address youth unemployment’ (Ross and Leathwood 2013b: 415). Through its rise on the international policy agenda in the 2000s, the concept of ESL has itself become part of the social context in which young people's school to work transitions currently take place.¹

Based on available evidence, this article examines the implications of the concept of ESL for life course-related norms and expectations in school to work transitions. Drawing on life course theory on age norms (Neugarten et al.1965; Settersten and Hagestad 1996; Heckhausen 1999; Settersten 2003) it argues that the contemporary framing of certain transition patterns in terms of ESL implicitly prescribes and proscribes norms of timing of events over the life course. In fact, by designating what is appropriate behaviour within a given age span, and what is not, the concept of ESL has likely contributed to a narrowing of the age norms bearing on young people's school to work transitions. Put differently; the rise of ESL on the policy agenda may have contributed to narrow the age span within which completion of upper secondary education is expected. During the same historical period as societies have come to expect the great majority of young people to complete upper secondary education, they have, through the concept of ESL, set ‘cultural age deadlines’ (Neugarten et al.1965) within which this accomplishment is expected.

Through its conceptual, historical and theoretical discussion, this article also argues that the age norms inherent in the concept of ESL may be socially skewed. In examining questions of life course timing and sequence in relation to the concept of ESL, the difference between academic and vocational upper secondary education programmes is central. Pupils with parents with higher education are more likely to follow academic tracks, whereas young people with parents with less education are more likely to follow vocational tracks (Hillmert and Jacob 2003: 321; Busemeyer and Jensen 2012). Even in the most egalitarian, Nordic countries, the social division of pupils in the two strands of upper secondary persists (Jæger and Holm 2007; Jørgensen and Tønder 2017). Vocational education and training currently accounts for 50 per cent of enrolments at the upper secondary level in the EU, and have higher rates of ESL (European Commission 2014: 110). This is related to the fact that, in many countries, these programmes are considerably less standardized according to age than their academic equivalents (OECD 2016: 57). The rise of ESL on the international policy agenda over recent decades, thus suggests that not only historical period, but also social background, are relevant in determining the age norms bearing on young people's school to work transitions.

The institutional framing of ESL has long historical roots. Already in the late nineteenth century it was established that the ‘normal’ student was one who progressed at the regular pace demanded by the imperatives of the age graded school (Tyack and Tobin 1994: 459). Likewise, schools have long been marked by ‘age differentiation rituals’, such as rituals reinforcing the school class as the basic unit of social organization (Bernstein et al.1966: 430). Since the 1970s, along with declining youth labour markets, the period of the life course spent in school and education has gradually been extended (Collins 2000; Trow 2010). Along with the ‘massification’ of different levels of the education, young people have been expected to stay longer in education. The United States was the first to achieve comprehensive upper secondary education in the 1940s (Goldin 1998), and the first to see concern over what was then called dropout beginning already in the 1950s and 1960s (Dorn 1993). During this period, Illich (1971: 44) observed a tendency to brand dropouts as ‘scapegoats of underdevelopment’. In the half century since, concern over dropout from upper secondary education has spread to the rest of the world.

From the late 1980s the OECD took the lead in measuring input and output from education systems. At the time, many governments were adopting accountability policies and needed data by which to assess their performance (Normand 2010: 409). After skills policy became the OECD's central area of activity in the 1980s, completion rates at different levels of education became one of its main indicators of development. These held a prominent place when the first issue of the OECD publication Education at a Glance was compiled in 1991, featuring ‘indicators to support decision making in the steering of education systems’ (Normand 2010: 410).

By the turn of the millennium, ‘dropout’ had reached high on the international political agenda. A goal of reducing it to 10 per cent was implemented in the EU's Lisbon Strategy in the year 2000 (European Council 2000). In striving for this common goal, progress in the early 2000s was slower than hoped for. When the Europe 2020 Strategy was launched in 2010, the same goal was reiterated. This time it was formulated in terms of reducing the share of ‘school dropouts’ from the then 15 per cent to below 10 per cent, and this became a headline target in the Europe 2020 Strategy (European Council 2010: 12). In 2015, what was then named the ESL rate was 11 per cent, and was thus approaching the target of ‘below 10 per cent’ (EU 2016: 10). A recent EU report states that ‘Although solid progress in decreasing ESL rates has been made in recent years, still too many pupils continue to leave education prematurely’ (EUR-Lex 2015). The UK is the only EU member that has ‘declined to set targets’ for reducing early leaving from education and training (European Commission 2014: 26). Transnational organizations spanning beyond Europe have also made ESL a major issue. The OECD publishes yearly updates of educational completion in different age groups, and reports from UNESCO and The World Bank demonstrate how ESL has increasingly become a global issue (Belfield 2008; UNESCO 2012).

In order to discuss the concept of ESL in light of life course theory on age norms, it is necessary with a review of the ways in which it is defined. Most definitions of ESL/dropout ‘share a similar understanding of a dropout and that is of a person who is no longer at school and does not hold an upper secondary qualification’ (Lamb and Markussen 2011: 5). However, beyond this very basic commonality, there is considerable variety in definitions and measurement procedures. Even within countries there is sometimes little consensus in this regard (Lamb and Markussen 2011: 5). As one group of scholars observe, ‘considerable bewilderment remains about how to measure and compare dropout’ (Nevøy et al.2014: 195). Similarly, as the European Commission (2014: 26) notes, that there is ‘no general consensus’ on how to measure ESL.

In the EU context, the terms ‘school dropout’, ‘early school leaving’ and ‘early leaving from education and training’ have been used interchangeably throughout the 2000s. The same criteria have been used to measure the two older terms (dropout and ESL) as have most recently used to calculate the rate of ‘early leavers from education and training’.² The Eurostat (2016) glossary explains that an

As will be discussed below, the official EU definition thus uses age as one of its central criteria. Most European countries use this definition (European Commission 2014: 27), but in addition, there is a multitude of definitions at the national level.³ For the purposes of this article, the ways in which some of these national definitions relate to age, as the EU definition does, are relevant. Several countries use age (the age brackets associated with a given level of education) in their national definitions (CEDEFOP 2016: 35). Others operate with set ages before which completion is expected. The official ‘Dutch definition of a dropout’, for instance, draws the line at the age of 23 (De Witte and Cabus 2013: 162). In Iceland, young people are in effect ‘expected to complete’ upper secondary by age 20 (Blondal and Adalbjarnardottir 2009: 734). National definitions may also refer to age in less direct ways. In Norway, for instance, ESL (‘frafall’) is measured by non-completion five years after young people start upper secondary (European Commission 2014: 27). This definition is age-related because entry into this five-year time frame is highly standardized according to age. Ninety-eight per cent of each birth cohort in Norway start upper secondary the year they turn 16 (Statistics Norway 2015: 12). The Norwegian definition thus, in practice, measures non-completion the year each birth cohort turns 21. These examples illustrate some of the various ways in which national definitions of ESL, as the official EU definition, relate to age. We will return to this point in the discussion age norms below.

In addition to significant disparities in national definitions, European countries rely on different sources of data for measuring ESL. Whereas some measure it by national registry data, others rely on surveys (European Commission 2014: 28). Furthermore, the duration, content and organization of upper secondary education vary significantly between European countries (Lamb and Markussen 2011: 4). The standard age of entry varies between 14 and 16, and the duration varies between five years and two years (World Bank 2005: 220). Cross-national differences are especially great when it comes to how vocational education and training is organized. In some countries vocational programmes are mostly school-based, in others they are predominantly work-based (Busemeyer 2014). And where apprenticeships are practised as a part of work-based programmes, their length varies significantly, from a few months to four years. Countries also vary greatly in institutions for adult upper secondary education (Blossfeld et al.2014) creating different opportunities for completing upper secondary after ESL has been declared. These disparities are important because they remind us that even though uniform definitions can be useful for purposes of cross-national comparison, both the causes and consequences of ESL are related to concrete institutional arrangements in specific national contexts.

In a historical study of the origins of the high school ‘dropout problem’ in the United States, Dorn (1993: 354) notes that the concept of school dropout emerged first in the 1950s and 1960s as ‘as a label for a departure from an age-specific norm’. With the exception of Dorn's work, however, the topic of age has not been a prominent theme in the research literature on dropout/ESL. In parallel with increasing attention to the problem of ESL, there has been an increase in research. The bulk of this research falls into two main categories, and the topic of age norms is not prominent in any of these:

Firstly, much research in this area has been concentrated on examining the processes that lead up to ESL. Research undertaken in various countries reveals similar profiles of the characteristics of those who complete and those who dropout, both in terms of family background, demographics, individual attributes and experiences in school (Lamb and Markussen 2011: 9). A wide variety of ‘determinants’ or ‘predictors’ – such as low academic achievement, lack of parental support, low social class – have been identified (De Witte et al.2013: 18). Cross-national comparisons have been carried out in order to get a better understanding of the institutional contexts in which these characteristics become influential (Lamb et al.2011; Bäckman et al.2015). While it is increasingly recognized that ESL may result from systemic flaws rather than factors intrinsic to individuals themselves, the majority of research ‘still endeavours to pin-point personal and social characteristics of potential dropouts that may differentiate them from graduates’ (De Witte et al.2013: 17).

Secondly, the implications of ESL for the later lives of individuals affected is another main theme in the research literature. Research from different countries consistently shows that early leavers are more likely to become unemployed, stay unemployed for longer, have lower earnings over their life course and accumulate less wealth (Lamb and Markussen 2011: 2). However, in the research community it is increasingly recognized that ‘caution is required in interpreting such correlations’, since they ‘do not necessarily imply causation’ (De Witte et al.2013: 14). Though quantitative approaches have long predominated the research literature (De Witte et al.2013: 17) there has also been a sub-strand of qualitative research describing the process of ESL from student viewpoints. A key finding in this tradition has been that students too shift between individualized explanations, and more process – and system-oriented explanations (Tanggaard 2013).

The subject of age norms is a sub-field within the broader field of life course research (Elder et al.2003). Classic studies on age norms were conducted by Bernice Neugarten and colleagues (1965) in Kansas in the United States from the late 1950s and onwards. They showed how chronological age is an important ‘criterion’ by which behaviour is evaluated – that age matters as to what behaviour is considered appropriate, and that life courses unfold according to given ‘time-tables’: ‘For a great variety of behaviors there is a span of years within which the occurrence of a behaviour is considered appropriate’ (Neugarten et al.1965: 713). Based on empirical investigation, Neugarten and colleagues discovered what they termed cultural age deadlines: social prescriptions about what is the appropriate age to carry out a desired action. Hagestad and Neugarten (1985) later followed up this research by noting that events that occur during the life course can take place at times that are seen as normal (‘on time’), but also ‘too early’ or ‘too late’ (‘off time’). In this literature, the gendered nature of age norms has been an important theme.

Writing during this same period, and also within the life course perspective, Tamara Hareven developed the concept of normative transitions. According to Hareven, transitions can be considered normative if a ‘major portion of a population experiences them and if a society expects its members to undergo such transitions at certain points in their lives in conformity with established norms of timing’ (Hareven 2000: 129).

Several authors have noted that age norms are notoriously challenging to define and measure (Marini 1984; Lawrence 1996). This relates, in part, to the fact that the term ‘norm’ itself has several meanings, depending partly on the scientific discipline in which it is used (Settersten 2003). In demography, a norm refers to a pattern which occurs with a certain statistical regularity. For psychologists, norms are seen to provide frames of reference for individuals in orienting their behaviour. For sociologists, norms contain prescriptions for, or proscriptions against, engaging in certain behaviours and taking on certain roles. In the sociological view, age norms are ‘internalized as frames of reference’ and ‘serve as guiding images that regulate behaviour’ (Heckhausen 1999: 36), and failing to conform with the aspirations and goals conveyed by age norms can have ‘negative consequences for self-evaluation’ (Heckhausen 1999: 37). Age norms thus express the ‘normal’ – the standard against which the timing of life course transitions are measured (Hareven 2000: 129).

Research on age norms has emphasized the significance of period-specific institutional context. As in life course research more generally (Mayer and Schöpflin 1989; Leisering 2003) a prominent theme in this literature has been how government policies, as other historically specific circumstances, structure people's life courses. For instance, Mortimer et al. (2005: 177) note how age norms may arise both ‘in response to institutional regulatory schemes’ and through more informal normative age-grading. Some have argued that age norms in general have become less constraining over recent decades (Kohli 2007: 265; Dannefer and Settersten 2010: 9). Most research on age norm has been concentrated on how they are valid for the different markers of adulthood, especially entering a relationship, becoming a parent, moving out and getting married (Mortimer et al.2005; Billari and Liefbroer 2007; Settersten and Ray 2010; Aassve et al.2013).

As demonstrated above, definitions of ESL can be both directly and indirectly tied to age, and thus serve to designate an age span within which completion of upper secondary is expected. In terms from age norm theory, definitions of ESL can thereby express assumptions of what is ‘age-appropriate behaviour’ (Neugarten et al.1965: 710) within the age span in question. Like several of the national definitions, the EU definition determines ESL according to age-specific criteria. It does not distinguish dropouts from what Trow (1972: 77) once termed stop-outs – those who later return to education. What may in many instances be breaks (stop-outs) from education, are thus counted as ESL, insofar as they take place within the age span of 18–24 years. In terms from Hagestad and Neugarten (1985) the term ESL is thus used to classify some young people as being ‘off time’. The EU definition suggests that a young person taking a break from upper secondary education in the age span 18–24 is taking a break from education ‘too early’ (Hagestad and Neugarten 1985). The behaviour of early school leavers is thus considered ‘untimely’ (Settersten 2003).

When ESL has reached high on the international policy agenda in the 2000s, and especially in the wake of the Europan economic crisis (Ross and Leathwood 2013b) this suggests a certain degree of alignment between definitions of ESL and what Neugarten and colleagues (1965) termed ‘cultural age deadlines’. Young people classified as early leavers are, in effect, in violation of ‘age-related expectations’. They deviate from what is currently considered the ‘normal’, or ideal, sequence and timing of events over the life course. The concept of ESL implies that school-to-work transitions should be linear and prolonged at least up until the point where upper secondary has been completed. And notably, when the EU holds early school leavers to ‘leave education prematurely’ (EUR-Lex 2015) it does so based on criteria of fairly recent origin. The case of concern over dropout from upper secondary is thereby a case which illustrates how cultural age deadlines (Neugarten et al.1965) are historically specific.

In terms from Settersten (2003), the age norms expressed by the concept of ESL appear to have both prescriptive and proscriptive qualities. It prescribes upper secondary as the ideal activity within the designated age span and proscribes other activities than education (such as travelling, gap years or full-time employment) before upper secondary has been completed. Continual persistence at education up until the point where upper secondary is completed is encouraged, while indirect routes to completion are discouraged. Though the ‘precision’ and ‘strictness’ of these age norms (Settersten and Hagestad 1996) may vary between different countries, the impetus that upper secondary education should be completed as fast as possible currently seems to transcend national borders.

The rise of the concept of ESL on policy agendas in the 2000s has no one and simple explanation. It is a phenomenon which requires broad consideration of a number features of the relevant historical period. The goal of the EU's Lisbon Strategy, where ‘school dropout’ was first declared as a major social and economic issue in the European context, was to become ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world’ (European Council 2000). Since then, the social investment perspective on policy development has gained wide influence, and now enjoys considerable support from both the OECD and the EU (Morel et al.2012). One of the central ideas in the social investment perspective is that states yield greater rates of return on their investments the earlier in the life course they are made, thereby spurring desires to identify groups in need of ‘early intervention’ (Kvist 2015: 138). This political-economical context may in part explain the emphasis inherent in the concept of ESL, that upper secondary education should not only be completed by the great majority of young people, but that this should be done in a continuous educational sequence.

Another part of the historical context for the rise of ESL on the policy agenda, may lie in the fact that, in the 2000s, social science has increasingly been mustered to identify ‘at-risk’ groups of young people. A multitude of studies have identified how ESL increases the risk of a host of undesirable outcomes later in life. On the basis of such research, scholars have calculated the ‘cost’ of early school leaving both to society as a whole and to the individuals in question (Brunello and De Paola 2013). The European Commission (2014: 12) refers to early leavers from education and training as a ‘particularly at-risk group’.

The impetus towards streamlining of educational sequences (especially up until the point where upper secondary has been completed) runs partly counter to another body of research which has emerged in recent decades. Research in the 2000s documents the ways in which many young people go back and forth between employment, unemployment, benefits and further schooling. The transition patterns fostered by such behaviour have been termed complex, non-linear, un-standardized, fractured, fragmented, messy or yo-yo (European Group for Integrated Social Research 2001; MacDonald et al.2001; Brzinsky-Fay 2007; Bradley and Devadason 2008). There has been some debate about the novelty of such transition patterns (Goodwin and O’Connor 2005; Furlong et al.2006). As Bradley and Devadason (2008: 131) put it, transitions from school to work have always been marked by a certain measure of ‘turbulence’. But although there is debate about the historical development of such transition patterns, there is little doubt about the fact that ‘middling routes’ into the labour force still exist (Roberts 2013). Young people change their orientation and interests as they develop, so an unambiguous and direct pathway is rarely possible (Ross and Leathwood 2013b: 408). The great complexity of school to work transition processes can be forcefully illustrated by the statistical technique of sequence analysis (see Brzinsky-Fay 2007 for a good example). Taking this complexity into account, it is worth noting that individuals in the ESL category may in fact both pursue and complete upper secondary, but fall within the ESL category, because they fail to do so within the desired age span. Indeed, it has been argued that the term ESL is in itself ‘imprecise’, because it ‘masks a variety of potentially indirect routes to the successful completion of an education’ (Ross and Leathwood 2013b: 414).

The age norms expressed by the concept of ESL conform and deviate to varying degrees from the practices of different social groups. These age norms may, for instance, have gendered implications. As mentioned above, the gendered nature of age norms has been an important theme in the literature on age norms (see Settersten and Hagestad 1996), and there is much recent evidence to suggest that gender is still important for understanding young people's school to work transitions (Brzinsky-Fay 2015). The ways in which the concept of ESL, and the age norms which underlie it, have gendered implications, is difficult to determine without further research. What is evident, however, is that amongst early leavers, boys are slightly over-represented, but in comparison with both gender and ethnicity, ‘socioeconomic status has a much stronger impact’ (European Commission 2014: 15).

In the literature on age norms, the role of social class has been less often considered than gender. There is evidence to suggest, however, that this is relevant with respect to understanding the age norms expressed by the concept of ESL. Firstly, in a historical perspective there are old class differences in contexts of learning. Traditionally, middle-class men have acquired more of their competence in educational institutions, while working-class men have done so in the workplace, and working-class women have done so in the home (Hareven 1976). Ways of learning have also been classed; some more formalized and abstract, others more practice-based and inter-twined with everyday work activity. The middle classes have long tended to postpone employment in order to pursue education full time, while for the working class, more dependent on being paid while building their competence, formal learning has tended to stretch out across longer periods of the life course (Vogt 2017).

In this type of long historical perspective, the kind of linear and protracted transition patterns now expected of the great majority through the concept of ESL have historically been the mainstay of the middle class, who have long been expected to both commence and complete upper secondary in direct succession of lower secondary. Patterns of prolonged formal education pursued in an uninterrupted sequence are indeed still most common for young people of middle-class origin. For those from lower social backgrounds, by contrast, expectations of going straight into upper secondary are more recent, because the ‘massification’ of education at this level is a contemporary historical phenomenon. While intentions of providing ‘upper secondary for all’ have been declared since the 1970s (Roberts and Atherton 2011: 61), young people of working-class origin are still more likely to need more time to try out, figure out or wait out different options at some point in their processes of school-to-work transitions (Bradley and Devadason 2008; Maguire and Ball 2011). A large-scale North England qualitative study of young people from poor backgrounds, for example, found that ‘none of our research participants followed “mainstream”, orderly transitions, upwards and onwards’ (Shildrick and MacDonald 2007: 599, emphasis is in the original). Working-class young people, in particular, do not typically experience smooth transitions from school to work or further education/training (Archer and Yamashita 2003: 54).

In considering the complex question of whose experiences conform with, or deviate from, the age norms expressed by the concept of ESL, the difference between academic and vocational upper secondary education is central. The rate of early leaving from vocational programmes tends to be significantly higher than in the academic programmes (European Commission 2014: 103). This is in part related to the influence of unpredictable external circumstances, such as market fluctuations, for progression in these tracks. In many national systems one cannot enrol in an apprenticeship before having a contract with an employer, and finding such a placement can be difficult (European Commission 2014: 116). Further, once acquired, an apprenticeships contract can be discontinued by employers for reasons wholly unrelated to the attainment or motivation of the individual. In Germany, one of the countries with the most developed work-based system of vocational education, the rate of contract termination was 24.5 per cent in 2011 (European Commission 2014: 106).

In addition to being less predictable than their academic equivalents, vocational tracks of upper secondary education tend to be less standardized according to age. The average age for completing vocational programmes in the EU is currently 22 years, whereas for the academic programmes, the average is 19 years (OECD 2016: 57). And, information available through OECD demonstrates how this average EU age difference (of three years between vocational and academic) masks significantly greater differences in graduation ages in some national context. Table 1 shows the OECD countries with above average age of graduation from vocational education. The numbers reveal how the mean age at graduation from a vocational track in these countries is significantly higher than the OECD average of 23 years of age, or the EU average of 22 years of age. Table 1 also shows that high proportions of those who complete vocational upper secondary education, do so outside the age span of 18–24 years, within which completion is expected according to the EU definition of ESL.⁴

This indicates that many of those who do in fact both commence and complete vocational upper secondary education may be regarded as early school leavers when measured against the standard EU ESL definition. The concept of ESL may thus serve to universalize onto the whole youth population an academic standard of linear and protracted school-to-work transitions. The age norms expressed by the concept of ESL appears to be socially skewed, perhaps reflecting how ‘within any hierarchy, the time and resources of those at the lower levels are geared to the rhythms and needs of their superiors’ (Marris 1993: 85). Or in terms from Sennett and Cobb (1972: 147), the age norms expressed by the concept of ESL may be a case of how ‘the educated sit in judgement on what other people do’, and one might add, when in the life course they do it.

Concern over dropout from upper secondary first emerged in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. In the half a century since, dropout has been rebranded ESL and become a major policy concern in Europe and beyond, largely due to the efforts of transnational organizations. This article has examined the concept of ESL in light of life course theory on age norms. By the direct and indirect ways in which definitions of ESL relate to chronological age, they effectively designate what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour within the age spans in question. The concept of ESL thus prescribes the ideal sequence of life events in young people's lives, and proscribes other activities, such as employment, until upper secondary education has been completed. The rise of ESL on the policy agenda, especially in the wake of the European economic crisis, suggest that its age parameters are in alignment with historically specific, and to some degree class specific, ‘cultural age deadlines’ (Neugarten et al.1965). Furthermore, the rise of ESL on the policy agenda in spite of steadily improving ESL rates may be taken to suggest that the age norms bearing on young people's school to work transitions have narrowed over recent decades. More detailed understanding of these historical processes requires further research, such as in-depth case studies of single countries. More research is also needed concerning how much consensus exist about the ‘cultural age deadlines’ which underlie definitions of ESL.

In considering which social groups conform with, or deviate from, the age norms expressed by concern over dropout, the difference between academic and vocational upper secondary education is crucial. Vocational education and training accounts for 50 per cent of enrolments at the upper secondary level, and the rate of early leaving from vocational programmes is higher than in the academic programmes. This is in part related to challenges that young people in academic tracks do not need to worry about, such as getting an apprenticeship position and avoiding contract termination. An equally important point in this context, however, is that vocational programmes tend to be less standardized according to age than their academic equivalents. Institutional arrangements may thereby in part explain why people from lower class backgrounds deviate most from the age norms expressed by concern over ESL. By the rise of ESL on the policy agenda, all young people's pathways are increasingly measured against the academic ‘normal’, the ideal of prolonged and orderly school to work transitions. The result is that transition patterns long within the bounds of normality within vocational education, may appear as problematic. ESL can become a new form of deviance, created by the universalization of age norms that conform better to academic routes through education. And as in other areas of social life, the narrower norms are, the more deviance is likely to result.

By its prominence on the policy agenda, the concept of ESL has become part of young people's historically specific opportunity structures. And there is evidence to suggest that this may come at a cost. Life course research from Germany demonstrates how institutional pressures to ‘normalize’ transitions have resulted in ‘biographies of failure’ being imposed on many young people (Solga 2004: 101). A recent Swedish study of young adults lacking upper secondary qualifications noted that they had ‘learnt to perceive themselves as failures’ (Lundahl et al.2017: 50). As Sennett and Cobb (1972: 183) note, internalization may follow from being considered a failure, and there is ‘no room for failure in our schemes for respect’.

Scholars critical of the EU's consideration of reducing ESL as the main policy response to the European economic crisis have emphasized that the current youth unemployment crisis is not caused by a lack of a qualified workforce, but rather, by a lack of demand for labour (Ross and Leathwood 2013b: 410). As Busemeyer (2014: 262) notes, social investment policies can become problematic if they are used to ‘sugar-coat retrenchment in other parts of the welfare state’.

It is widely recognized that young people today are expected to take more education than previous cohorts. A lesser discussed point is that they are expected to do so faster, and without recourse to ‘untimely’ breaks. The rise of the concept of ESL suggests that the educational pressures currently felt by young people relate not only to the amount of education they are expected to take, but also to how quickly this is to be accomplished over the life course. At the current historical juncture, age norms are a rarely addressed but potentially constraining feature of school-to-work transitions.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt holds a PhD from the Department of Sociology, University of Bergen Norway, and is postdoc on the project Intergenerational Transmission in the Transition to Adulthood (funded by the Norwegian Research Council). His research interests lie at the intersection between life course research and research concerning education, work, class, youth transitions, family and gender. He has published on topics ranging from vocational education, early school leaving, youth transitions, post-industrial theory, class analysis, gender segregation and intergenerational relations.