The present study describes student flows before and after the latest reform of upper secondary school in which a third year as well as a new grading system and new entrance requirements were intro ...

Following the implementation of a compulsory nine-year comprehensive school in Sweden during the 1950s and 1960s, upper secondary education was reformed in the early 1970s. Two-year continuation schools and vocational schools were merged with the traditional gymnasium to form the new comprehensive upper secondary school. Vocational training programmes were re-organised as two-year upper secondary courses which also included some general education. Upper secondary school gradually encompassed ever larger groups of young people. In the 1980s, the educational goal of creating “one upper secondary school for all” was adopted, which aimed at ensuring that all young people moved on to upper secondary school. This continues to be an objective of Swedish educational policy. Almost all educational policy documents regard a completed upper secondary education as an essential requirement for a person to be able to compete in the labour market, and the most recent official report on the current state of upper secondary education in Sweden (Åtta vägar till kunskap, 2002) is no exception. In this respect, Sweden has followed a general trend prevalent throughout the European Union where enrolment in post-compulsory education has become increasingly common (Murray and Steedman, 2001). During the 1990s a new reform of upper secondary education was carried out. In this context, the two-year vocational courses were extended and developed into three-year programmes. Moreover, the standards of the academic subjects were raised. Also in other countries of the European Union, vocational training programmes have been reformed so as to become less oriented towards specific occupations (Lasonen, 1996). The political objective of creating one upper secondary school for all has by no means escaped criticism. Which particular feature is it that makes this educational pathway so indispensable? Is it the actual vocational knowledge acquired or rather the knowledge acquired in the general subjects that is essential? These, according to Hill (1998), are questions that are rarely asked when young people’s education and training is discussed.

The following study compares rates of licence holders and rates of car accidents in two age cohorts born in Sweden in 1972 and 1977, respectively. The research material consists of all accidents with injury which these young people have been involved in as car drivers at age 16–21. The periods concerned are 1988–1993 and 1993–1998, respectively. In the respective periods altogether 2082 and 1453 car accidents leading to injury were recorded. The results show a lower rate of licence holders and a lower rate of car accidents in the later age cohort. Particularly the rate of fatal accidents and accidents leading to serious injury was lower. Comparing the earlier with the later age cohort, the reduction of accidents was greatest in the most densely built-up counties of Sweden and in the groups with the highest risk, namely those age and socio-economic groups who had the highest rate of fatalities and accidents leading to serious injury. Factors behind the decrease in the rates of licence holders and the rates of car accidents are discussed. Recession in the economy and less interest in car driving among young people are factors which are suggested as explanations.

Innan den senaste gymnasiereformen beslutades, genomfordes en brett upplagd forsoksverksamhet med treariga yrkesinriktade linjer. Under ett antal ar kom bade ungdomar med en tvaarig och ungdomar med en trearig yrkesinriktad gymnasieutbildning ut pa arbetsmarknaden samtidigt. Denna situation har utnyttjats i foljande studie. Ungdomar i samma arskull utan gymnasieutbildning, med en tvaarig eller med en trearig yrkesinriktad gymnasieutbildning har foljts ut pa arbetsmarknaden fram till 24 ars alder.

Les auteurs, a travers l'etude de l'experience suedoise, montre comment dans la deuxieme moitie des annees 90, le risque de chomage a considerablement augmente pour les jeunes a la sortie de leurs etudes secondaires en comparaison avec les jeunes armes d'un diplome secondaire professionnel. L'enseignement secondaire professionnel etait particulierement benefiques pour les jeunes femmes qui voyaient leur chance de trouver un travail augmenter.

The study investigates changes in the labour market from the 1970s to the 1990s for young men and women without further education and training. They are compared to young men and women of the same age with a two-year vocational education and training from upper secondary school. The research material consists of three seven-year follow-up studies of school leavers. They were investigated with a questionnaire at age 23 in the 1978, 1986 and 1995 by Statistics Sweden. The results show deteriorating conditions in the labour market for all the investigated groups. Employment rates decreased in all the investigated groups. A widening gap in employment opportunities was found between women but not between men with and without vocational training. Men and women with vocational training had increasing difficulty finding a job in the vocational sector for which they were trained and their wage premium for having an upper secondary education diminished.

The aim of the study is to investigate the route from school to work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for early school leavers in Sweden. How has their situation on the labour market developed during this period in relation to young people with a 2-year vocational education and training from upper secondary school? The research material consists of three large scale follow-up studies of school leavers who were investigated seven years after they had left compulsory school at the age of 23 by Statistics Sweden. The first study was conducted in 1978, the second in 1986 and the third in 1995. Employment rates for 16-year-old school leavers were studied for the 7-year follow-up period and were compared to school leavers with a 2-year vocational education and training. Only small differences in employment rates were found between the young men irrespective of whether they had vocational training or not. In the 1990s only men with building and construction training had a much lower employment rate than the male 16-year old school leavers. Differences in employment rates were: also rather small between the compared groups of young women. However, in the 1990s these differences widened and the 16-year-old leavers had the lowest employment rate. Thus, an upper secondary education seems to have become a more important prerequisite for young women to get a job during the investigated period but hardly so for young men.

The following study investigates the home and school background of young drivers in Sweden involved in traffic accidents leading to injury. The research sample consists of all young drivers born in 1972 who had been involved in one or several traffic accidents with injury registered by the police during the period of 1988-1994 (age 16-22). In all, 2,980 male and 1,054 female drivers were investigated, classified by the transport mode of car, lorry and bus, motorcycle, moped and bicycle. Information about the family composition and the socioeconomic status of the parents of the young drivers was added from the national census of 1990 and 1985, respectively. The young drivers' school marks in their leaving certificate from compulsory school (at age 16) and educational attainment (at age 20) were obtained from national educational registers. The home and school background of the drivers were compared to a nationally representative sample of men and women of the same age cohort. Estimated risk exposure (driving distance) for car drivers and cyclists from a national travel survey were related to the accident data. The home background of the investigated drivers did not deviate much from the nationally representative sample in the comparison group. The school achievement and school attainment deviated more. The school marks in the school-leaving certificate from compulsory school (at age 16) of all male motor vehicle drivers involved in accidents were below average and men with compulsory education only, and men with a vocational upper secondary education were over-represented among these drivers. Female car drivers involved in accidents also had lower school marks and lower educational attainment than for the male car drivers. The over-representation of low-educated men and women among drivers involved in car accidents could not be explained by a higher risk exposure (driving distances). Thus, educational achievement and attainment were found to be powerful variables explaining accident risk.

This paper uses Labour Force and other national survey data to examine stock levels and changes in the stock of skills (educational and vocational qualifications) of the population over the period 1985-1996 for six European countries with particular reference to the low-skilled. National qualifications are classified using the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) levels 0-7. The low-skilled are defined as those who left education and training/gained no qualifications beyond the period of compulsory schooling. All countries have reduced the proportion in the low-skilled group over the period 1985-1996; however, countries which already had the lowest levels of low skills (Sweden, Germany) made the fastest progress. Younger (25-28) populations are better qualified than the working-age populations. Considerable differences still remain between countries in stocks of skills in both the young (25-28) and working-age population. These differences are greater at the lower end of the ISCED scale (0/1/2) than at the higher end (ISCED 5/6/7). In a number of countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal) higher level educational and vocational qualifications (ISCED 3 and above) were gained at a relatively late age (22-25). In Sweden and the UK only small proportions of the low-skilled gained further qualifications after the age of 21. Proportions of low-skilled men and women in the working-age population have declined at similar rates in all countries but in Germany and the UK the proportion of women with low skills remains substantially higher. In France, Portugal and Sweden more women have a higher education (ISCED 5/6/7) than men. In Germany, the UK and the Netherlands the situation is reversed and the gap between men and women has remained largely unchanged over the period 1985-1996. On the basis of the growth rates of the past ten years, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany appear to be converging on similar skill profiles for the young (25-28) population in 2010 when 10 per cent or less will be in the low skills group. On present trends it will take considerably longer for the UK and Portugal to reduce the low-skilled group to the 10 per cent level.

In the context of the expansion of upper secondary education, young people without an upper secondary education might be considered an at‐risk group on the labour market. The present investigation is a longitudinal study of career both in school and at work for young people without upper secondary education. The study is part of a nationwide school research project, in which a national sample of pupils (9000) has been followed from the age of 13 through their school careers. Employment data were collected via a questionnaire given to young people without upper secondary education in 1991 when they were 23‐24 years old. The results show that even though 97% of the age cohort applied to upper secondary school in their final year of compulsory school, about one‐fifth lacked an upper secondary education at the age of 20. The dominant pattern among young people without upper secondary education was a blue‐collar home background, extensive special education, low and declining school achievements, and low self‐esteem. A similar pattern also characterized the comparison group with a two‐year vocational education in upper secondary school. Their school achievements were, however, not quite so low as for young people without upper secondary education. Although the majority of young people without upper secondary school had great difficulties in school they never experienced real unemployment but entered the regular labour market no later than at age 20. The context of these findings is the long economic boom of the 1980s.

ABSTRACT A suitable correlation can be made to represent the simulated distillation of heavy oils starting from thennoaravimetric measurements. This method is applicable to hydrocarbons having an initial boiling point equal or greater than 200°C. The simulated thermogravimetric distillation fit was obtained from experiments with the standard compounds obtained from ASTM D-2887-83 (Boiling range distribution of petroleum fractions by gas chromatography). This method is simple, fast and without problems when applied to heavy feedstocks The data were used in the determination of average boiling temperatures of products from thermal cracking and thermal hydrocracking. It was also possible to quantify coke yields Average relative molecular masses of products from the above processes correlated well with the average boiling point temperatures. It indicates that, with respect to the hydrocarbon types, thermal cracking is not selective in comparison with thermal hydrocracking The equation applied to find the average boiling temperature is following: T = (1/al) (Ttg-a2). T is the boiling temperature, al and a2 are the correction factors, Ttg is the thermogravimetric temperature.

McNab, C. & Murray, Å. 1985. Family Composition and Mathematics Achievement. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 29, 89‐102. The question examined in this paper is whether or not there is a significant difference in the mathematics test scores of Swedish junior high school students growing up in one‐parent as compared to two‐parent families. Controlling for parental educational attainment, the difference in mathematics test scores is significant only for children with both parents educated beyond elementary school level. However, in all but one case (father only with more than elementary school education) the same trend can be seen, i.e. higher test scores for children in two‐parent families. A similar pattern emerges in an analysis of 18‐year‐old science and technology students at senior high school. A parallel analysis of a much more limited word knowledge test also reveals differences between children of one‐parent and two‐parent families. Reference is made to Zajonc and Markus's theory of family configuration as a possible explanation of test score differences.