Early school leaving (ESL) is still a major problem of social and educational justice in the European Union. This includes Portugal where ESL rates are still high, even if they have decreased significantly in the last decade. In order to understand school trajectories that contribute to define the contours and the push and pull factors of ESL, this paper explores differences and similarities in the views of three groups of young women and men who: a) were still in mainstream schools, b) left school without attaining upper secondary qualification or c) opted for organisations that provide alternative education and/or training, leading to the direct or indirect attainment of ISCED 3 (International Standard Classification of Education) but are not upper secondary schools. This paper is based on more than 50 interviews. 20 participants were interviewed twice for longitudinal purposes. We selected young adult views on i) connectedness to school and education; ii) school-related and study behaviour and iii) perceived challenges and resilience out of the eight categories that were object of content analysis. Context-specific factors such as the ones related to school or the characteristics of the labour market are taken into account in the analysis. Our findings show that belonging to one specific group does not define student’s positions towards education. However disconnection from mainstream school is the common factor, in spite of the internal differences. Some strong tendencies can be identified when comparing the three groups in terms of school-related and study behavior: truancy, bullying and the emotional dimension of learning. In terms of challenges, all participants faced great diversity in their educational trajectory, (e.g. imposition of educational choices, poverty, labour market attraction). ESLers were the most affected and in an increased way, when compared to others.

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