Censis: 41.7 per cent of school leavers want to study and work

Balancing study and work: aspirations. Completing upper secondary education is one of the most significant transitional moments for everyone. The most common aspiration after obtaining a diploma is to balance continuing one’s studies with working. In fact, 41.7 per cent of students would like to study and work at the same time, whilst only 26.2 per cent plan to devote themselves exclusively to their studies.

This is what emerges from the survey carried out by Censis on over 8,000 upper secondary school pupils as part of the ‘School as seen by young people’ project, which forms part of the Iride Observatory. Far fewer (16.0 per cent) would like to enter the world of work, whilst a similar proportion (16.1 per cent) are still undecided or intend to postpone their decision by taking a gap year.

High school pupils are the most likely to plan to continue their studies full-time (37.2 per cent) and to combine study with work (48.5 per cent). 41.3 per cent of students at vocational colleges and 26.7 per cent of students at technical colleges say they intend to look for a job. Among students who plan to look for work after leaving school, more than half (51.5 per cent) say they want to find a job that makes the most of their talents and aspirations.

Continuing to study without working, in reality. The employment status of school leavers in 2024 reveals that, one year after leaving school, only a small proportion – 7.7 per cent – chose to study and work at the same time, whilst 47.5 per cent chose to study exclusively. This figure rises to 66.8 per cent among general secondary school leavers. Furthermore, 32.3 per cent of technical school leavers and 13.7 per cent of those who obtained a vocational qualification continued to study full-time. On the other hand, for graduates of technical and vocational schools, entering the labour market is not always an easy or immediate prospect: one year on, 40.3 per cent of technical school graduates and as many as 55.4 per cent of vocational school graduates are largely unemployed or not in employment.