[Individual and Contextual Reasons for Drop-outs in Vocational Retraining]

The study focusses on the explanation of the individual, process-driven, and institutional factors and their interplay, and on the subjective accounts for the high drop-out rates in vocational retraining which are reported by the German statutory pension insurance scheme.

454 participants of 2-year lasting vocational retraining schemes in 3 vocational promotion centers and 3 education providers took part in the questionnaire survey. Furthermore, experts, dropouts and participants were interviewed and group discussions with experts and participants were conducted.

Drop-out is not a definite term. Instead, it consists of different dimensions. 3 personal factors for predicting a drop-out could be identified: suffering from depression, negative health assessment and lack of social support. Generally speaking, drop-out of vocational retraining is a complex and mainly situational process which can hardly be predicted by personal factors, job-biographies or foregoing unemployment.