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In this thought piece we reflect on the transitions of young adults who left school early. Based on empirical findings from qualitative research conducted in Austria and Belgium we show the diversity and complexity in the transitions of early school leavers into the labour market and education and training system. Early school leavers very often try to re-engage in education and training in order to improve their labour market situation. However, drawing on Bourdieu's capital theory, we show that early school leavers from more privileged socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to re-engage in education programmes that lead to an upper‐secondary education certificate. In contrast, those coming from socio-economic disadvantaged backgrounds frequently enroll in short-term training programmes that aim to accelerate the transition into the labour market. Therefore, we discuss the role of agents in employment services and other related institutions in social exclusion processes, since policies for activating and re-engaging early school leavers in education programmes or the labour market often fail. Policy recommendations that aim to strengthen the labour market accessibility of early school leavers conclude this piece.

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Most educational research examines school outcomes at certain stages or at the final stage of the school career. This article looks at the entire school career and the transition to the labour market. It focuses on key transitions to identify the educational institutional arrangements that either help or hinder school and labour market success among the most disadvantaged groups in the Netherlands: young people of Moroccan and Turkish descent. The Dutch educational system is one of the most complicated school systems in Europe. Consequently, parents and children have to make many 'choices' when navigating it. Many of these key 'choice' moments are selection points, either because they are not real choices but dependent upon a teacher's recommendation or because parents and pupils need a great deal of information about the school system in order to make a choice. This usually results in inequalities for the most disadvantaged groups. Because selection is disguised as 'choices', the structural inequalities of the Dutch school system are not usually perceived as blocking mechanisms for disadvantaged students.

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Educational transitions experienced within a context of wide and growing inequalities such as England result in very different transition experiences to those experienced by young people growing up in relatively equitable societies with strong communal links. Transitions of working class young people in England are beset with competition, individualism and low expectations. Employing Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field, the article argues that working class transitions to university reveal the failure of the English educational system to provide anything like a level playing field to support working class young people who are seen to be educational successes. Focusing on those working class young people who are particularly successful by gaining access to elite universities the paper argues that even this small select group face discrimination, set-backs, and a degree of social exclusion. The paper concludes that the vast majority of working class young people, including many of those who are the most academically successful have very different transitions to higher education, and experiences within it, from their middle and upper class peers.

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