The London School of Economics and Political Science
Abstract
Every year, more than a million students leave high school without a diploma, with one-half becoming employed in low-wage ‘dead-end’ jobs. How can the employment prospects of these young people be improved? In new research Kyung-Nyun Kim finds that neither low wage work experience nor gaining a General Educational Development certificate is enough for them to move into better occupations. Instead, he argues that dropouts should seek vocational qualifications which will signal to employers that they have the training and capacity to move into better work
