In Denmark, there is great political awareness on matters relating to student retention and progression to completion in vocational education and training (VET) as a key to achieving major political goals, as it is perceived as one of the main inclusion mechanisms for achieving the policy objective of making at least 95 per cent of a youth cohort complete a youth educational program at the upper secondary level by 2015.

Drop out rates from VET programs are considerably higher than from other youth educational programs and have been increasing from 40% to 50% between 2000-2008. Among all VET students, immigrant students are a particular vulnerable group with higher than average drop out rates.

Also, unlike dropouts from other programs, only 30% of VET dropouts continue in another education within two years. Thus, VET drop outs are at a high risk of not completing a youth educational program at the upper secondary level at all, which makes them more vulnerable to unemployment and labour market marginalisation.

Commercial vocational education and training is the most popular line of VET among students with 25% of Danish VET-students and 45% of VET-students with an immigrant background choosing the commercial line.

In this study we aim at answering the question: would better academic preparedness of immigrant students significantly help increase completion rates? The objectives of this study are to provide a better understanding of the impact of cognitive skills in dropping out of CVET for immigrant students and to help identify means (here, academic preparedness) by which to boost immigrant student completion rates.

• Bessey, D. & U. Backes-Gellner (2007): Premature Apprenticeship Terminations: An Economic Analysis. Working Paper No.2, Institute for Strategy and Business and Economics and Swiss Leading House Economic of Education. Firm Behavior and Training Policies, Zürich. • Eckstein, Z. & K. I. Wolpin (1999): Why Youths Drop Out of High School: The Impact of Preferences, Opportunities, and Abilities. Econometrica 67(6): 1295-339. • Hanushek, E.A. (1986): The economics of schooling: Production and efficiency in public schools. Journal of Economic Literature, 24(3): 1141–1177. • Hanushek. E.A., Lavy, V. & K. Hitomi (2008): Do Students Care about School Quality? Determinants of Dropout Behavior in Developing Countries. Journal of Human Capital, 2(1): 62-105. • Helland, H. & L.A. Støren (2006): Vocational Education and the Allocation of Apprenticeships: Equal chances for applicants regardless of immigrant background? European Sociological Review, 22(3): 339-351. • Johnes, J. & Taylor, J. (1989): Undergraduate non-completion rates: differences between UK universities, Higher Education, 16: 581–602. • Johnes, J. (1990): Determinants of student wastage in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 15: 87–99. • Rumberger, R.W. (1983). Dropping out of high school: The influence of race, sex, and family background. American Educational Research Journal, 20, 199-220. • Smith, J. & Naylor, R. (2001): Dropping out of university: a statistical analysis of withdrawal for UK university students. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, 164:389–405. • Stratton, L., D. Otoole & J. Wetzel (2008): A multinomial logit model of college stopout and dropout behavior. Economics of Education Review. 27(3): 319-331. • Wehlage, G.G. & R.A. Rutter (1987): Dropping out: How much do schools contribute to the problem? In: School Dropouts Patterns and Policies, ed. G. Natriello, pp: 374-392. Teachers College, New York