EVALAG is funded together with ten institutional partners from a total of nine European countries in the Horizon project "European Youth in Education and in Transition to the Labour Market" (EDU-LAB).
The EDU-LAB project is a comparative European study that systematically investigates the factors and determinants that influence the educational pathway choices and transitions of young people aged 15 to 30 in education, training and the labour market. The main research objective of EDU-LAB is to expand the knowledge base on the most important factors and determinants of said educational pathways.
To this end, EDU-LAB will develop comprehensive models of educational pathways and transitions in the different countries of the European Education Area, including their intersectional and broadly generic determinants. Secondly, an evaluation of the efficiency of support programmes and investments in education and training will be carried out. Thirdly, new quantitative and qualitative insights will be gained on how determinants, including policies, support programmes and investments, contribute to young people's educational pathways and transitions, particularly in terms of participation, inclusion and equity, and successful educational outcomes.
The EDU-LAB project follows a mixed-methods approach, focusing on secondary quantitative analyses of publicly available empirical data on the one hand and newly collected qualitative empirical data on the other. EDU-LAB considers all stakeholder groups (e.g. pupils, students, teachers, parents, employers, education policy makers) and conducts systematic literature analyses, qualitative conceptual analyses, quantitative trend and regression analyses, effectiveness analyses, expert interviews and surveys as well as qualitative case studies. The latter focus on the voices of young people and are based on research-practice partnerships (e.g. facilitated focus groups and workshops, diary recordings). The 12 qualitative case studies in seven European countries (Austria, Finland, Italy, Kosovo, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom) will contribute to a deepening of knowledge about young people's views, experiences and expectations in relation to education, training and labour market transitions.
The findings will be synthesised and used to develop practical recommendations and policy briefs addressed to various stakeholders at regional, national and international level.
The EDU-LAB project is funded by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) with a total of 3 million euros. The project has a duration of 3 years (January 2025 to December 2027). The project partners are: ECONOMICA Institute for Economic Research (project coordinator; Vienna, Austria), EVALAG, Birmingham City University (Birmingham, United Kingdom), Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, Lusófona University (Porto, Portugal), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Athens, Greece), Maria Grzegorzewska University (Warsaw, Poland), Consorzio Interuniversitario AlmaLaurea (Bologna, Italy), AAB College (Pristina, Kosovo), Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Tampere, Finland) and University of Graz (Graz, Austria).