In Switzerland, about one out of five apprenticeship contracts is terminated early, without the young persons having achieved the aspired degree on the upper secondary level (Stalder & Schmid, 2006). Drop-out from vocational education can be defined as non-normative stressful life event (Filipp, 1995), which asks for specific actions and coping strategies. Young people are challenged to find access to another upper secondary education programme within rather short time, because the longer they fail to re-enter education, the more they risk remaining without upper secondary certificate. According to developmental psychology, the way persons cope with stressful life events is influenced by socioeconomic factors (e.g. gender, age and nationality), former experiences with other life events, and intrapersonal and extrapersonal resources (Filipp, 1995). Specifically, social support from the family, from friends and work colleagues may play a dominant role while coping with the new situation (e.g. Sarason, Sarason & Pierce, 1990). Emotional, instrumental, informational or appraisal support (House, 1983) helps the individual to increase his or her ability to cope with the critical event. This can happen directly, for instance, if parents assist their son or daughter in finding information about new apprenticeship places or when colleagues assist in filling in application forms; or indirectly, for example, because emotionally supported persons might feel more confident to keep on trying to find a new education. Until know, studies on educational dropout have focused on dropout reasons and more immediate effects. Research about long term effects of educational dropout and specifically on factors hindering or promoting re-entry into education is rare. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion. Research Questions: The main question discussed at the conference is about re-entry after drop-out from apprenticeships: Which factors promote, which ones hinder re-entry into upper secondary education after drop-out? How great is the chance to re-enter upper secondary education?

Data and Measures: The survey is based on a three wave longitudinal study with 1300 young persons, which were followed up three years after dropping-out from apprenticeship training (Stalder & Schmid, 2008; Schmid & Stalder, 2008). The first wave was carried out in 2004, shortly after the termination of the apprenticeship contract, the last one in spring 2007. Data collected comprised characteristics of the apprenticeship contract termination (wave 1), received social support in finding a new education place (wave 1 and 2), and detailed monthly information about educational and occupational activities and programs the young persons were enrolled in since dropping-out, such as re-entry into a full-time upper secondary programme, employment, unemployment, courses to bridge gaps in training (“Brückenangebot”). In a discrete time hazard model (Survival Analysis), determinants of re-entry into an upper secondary education are investigated.

Results and Discussion: In my presentation I will first show, how re-entry rates develop over time and how many young persons manage to re-enter upper secondary education. Second, I give an overview over the main factors, which affect re-entry after dropout from apprenticeship training. I will show how socio¬economic factors, former educational experiences of the young persons, the reasons for apprenticeship contract termination, the received social support, as well as the activities of the young people and the programs they have been enrolled in after the dropout influence the process of educational reintegration. Based on the results we will discuss the possibility of educational policy to support those young people at risk.