An overview of compensation measures for early leaving from education and training in Romania

Early leaving from education and training poses challenges for many European educational systems. Early leavers from education are more likely to experience unemployment and poverty, as well as social exclusion. Our paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of the compensation measures implemented in this field in Romania. The paper starts by analyzing the proportion of early leavers from education and training at the regional level in Romania and at the European level. It then describes the compensation measures available to tackle early leaving from education in Romania. We identified five main compensation measures: (1) the Second Chance Program, (2) evening or reduced-frequency high-school education, (3) apprenticeship at the workplace for European Qualifications Framework level 1, (4) vocational training for European Qualifications Framework level 1 and (5) vocational training courses for basic/key competencies. This article analyses the recent evolution of early leaving from a comparative perspective and simultaneously contributes to a better understanding of the existing compensation measures to reduce early leaving from education and training in Romania.