Preventing School Drop-Outs in Intermediate VET from the Schools' Perspective

This paper looks at the conditions underlying determination and educational success in intermediate vocational training from the perspective of education centres. To achieve this, we undertook a case study in two education centres in the Balearic Islands, based on a qualitative research process that provided the students and teachers involved with a voice of their own. The results show a high level of consensus among students and teachers regarding the key educational practices to prevent students from dropping out of vocational secondary education: proximity and availability of the teaching staff, confidence in the potential of the students, the demand and the evaluation of the students, the link with the world of work and proactive teaching in the classroom. They also agreed on the main elements that enable these practices to prevent drop-outs: a small number of teachers in each group, a small number of students per class and good coordination among teaching staff