Leaving school: attitudes, aspirations and destinations of fifth‐year leavers in Tower Hamlets

Abstract

Summary This paper presents the findings of two studies carried out in Tower Hamlets, East London, which set out to ascertain fifth‐year students’ reasons for leaving education and the influences on this decision. The first study consisted of a questionnaire survey of fifth year students. The second study followed up these students to see whether their actual destinations accorded with their planned destinations as given in the first study. It was found that students who planned to leave education at the end of the fifth‐year were disproportionately white, male and working class. Overall, the proportions of young people following each particular type of destination were similar in both studies. Just over half of the students who had taken part in the first study had continued their education at either school or college, with females being more likely so to do. Males were significantly more likely than females to have obtained manual employment and apprenticeships. A much higher proportion of black students than of English, Scottish or Welsh students stayed in education. The main reason students gave for staying on in education was to improve their employment prospects. Bangladeshi female students were particularly likely to continue their education after the fifth form. A larger proportion of English, Scottish and Welsh than black young people were in employment at the time of the follow‐up study. This, looked at in conjunction with the differing staying‐on rates for white and black students, may reflect the differing job prospects for white and black young people. Attitudes towards school and work are also reported. The findings from these two studies indicate that a number of measures to ameliorate the staying‐on rates in education could be taken by policy‐makers, employers, local education authorities and schools.