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Social Sector
9 Aug 2024

Study: Predictors of non-completion of upper secondary education in Finland based on register data

Susanna Raisamo, Tytti Pasanen, Petri Hilli and Timo Ståhl studied factors that predict school non-completion. The study was based on the city of Jyväskylä's registry data. Non-completion rate was 13.1%. The non-completion of upper secondary education was best predicted by the following seven features (ordered from strongest to weakest): unauthorized absences (odds ratio (OR) = 2.27), out-of-home placement (OR = 2.23), average grade when leaving lower secondary education (OR = 0.73), an anxiety/depression diagnosis (OR = 1.43), visits to child guidance and family counselling centres (OR = 1.17), family poverty (OR = 1.11) and the grade point average in the 5th Grade (OR = 0.95).

The study was part of the preparation of the Jyväskylä Children-SIB project. The study investigated which factors predicted school dropout in the second grade. The results were used to create result indicators and baseline for the SIBs. The city of Jyväskylä has two SIB-agreements, the first for secondary school dropouts (or at high risk) and the aim is to get them to complete a degree and find employment (result indicators are a degree and salary (3 year period)).

The second agreement targets students in grades 6-9 of comprehensive school and the aim is to prevent school dropouts in secondary school (result indicators: grade point average, unauthorized absences, the need for child protection).

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Article Predictors of non-completion of upper secondary education in Finland based on register data in Scandinavian Journal of Public Health has been published as open access.

SIB/City of Jyväskylä (in Finnish) 

Feedback from SIB-services (in Finnish) 

Children’s welfare SIB home (in Finnish)

Children’s welfare SIB case study by European Investment Advisory Hub's Social Outcomes Contracting Platform, in partnership with the Government Outcomes Lab, University of Oxford read more.

Further information:

Petri Hilli, CEO, QSA, +358 40 754 2090, petri.hilli(@)qsa.fi