It includes young people who have dropped out of school before the end of compulsory education, those who have completed compulsory schooling, but have not gained an upper secondary qualification, and those who have followed pre-vocational or vocational courses which did not lead to a qualification equivalent to upper secondary level.

− Madam President, in 2000, the millennium year, 17.6% of the population aged between 18 and 24 had not gone beyond lower secondary education.

Crucial areas in need of reform are already covered by four of the existing European benchmarks, namely the ones on early school leavers, on completion of upper secondary education, on reading literacy and participation in lifelong learning, and on adult participation in lifelong learning.

18. Emphasises the fact that lifelong learning addresses a social need and contributes to meeting the requirements of Europe's labour market and that it is also a social right, irrespective of an individual’s age, sex or social origin; stresses that socially disadvantaged groups (women, immigrants, people living under the poverty threshold) should have special entitlement to such learning on account of the difficulties which they encounter generally, on account of the limited training which they have received and because they are marginalised in relation to the education and training systems; calls for measures which would make specifi ...[+++]c opportunities available to such groups in order to establish universal equality of opportunity; lastly, wishes to see specific objectives established for the particular benefit of those who were unable to complete their secondary education: the illiterate, the unskilled, the unemployed, the handicapped, the over-50s, migrants and women emerging from maternity leave, and so on;

14. Points out that lifelong learning helps to satisfy a social necessity and meet the needs of the European labour market and maintains that it also constitutes a social right, irrespective of age, sex, or social background; believes that socially disadvantaged groups (women, immigrants, people living below the poverty line) should be entitled to benefit as a matter of priority in view of the difficulties that they generally encounter because of their low level of training and the fact that they are marginalised in relation to education and training systems; and calls for measures providing for specific possibilities designed for such groups, so as to guarantee equal opportunities for all; hopes, finally, that specific targets will be s ...[+++]et, especially as regards those who have been unable to complete upper secondary education: the illiterate, the unskilled, the unemployed, people with disabilities, the over-50s, migrants, and women at the end of maternity leave, etc.;

In Ireland 50% of the students in post-compulsory secondary vocational education have received Community assistance.