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1. Main trends in young people's participation in education and training

2. Organisation of the education and training system

3. Main concepts

Main trends in young people's participation in education and training

The Luxembourgish education system is characterised by a high degree of diversity. In the 2024/2025 school year, 40.7% of pupils in secondary education have a foreign nationality, while 59.3% are Luxembourgish; moreover, for around 67% of students, Luxembourgish is not the first language spoken at home (MENJE, 2026). This reflects the country’s broader linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic diversity. While such diversity offers important opportunities (e.g. for intercultural learning), it also poses challenges for education and training systems, particularly regarding integration and language learning.

As highlighted in the 2024 national education report, these diverse sociocultural conditions are closely linked to persistent educational inequalities. Students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, with a migration background or without proficiency in the school languages tend to have lower educational outcomes and face additional challenges in terms of well-being, school stress and experiences of discrimination.
The PISA study also identifies (beside migration and low socioeconomic status) the language spoken at home (other than Luxembourgish or German) as a risk factor for pupils' school achievement (MENJE, SCRIPT, UL & LUCET, 2016; OECD, 2019).

With regard to gender differences in education, women’s participation has increased significantly over past decades and they are no longer underrepresented. In the 2023/2024 school year, girls account for 48.8% of students in general secondary education and 53.9% in classical secondary education, confirming a balanced or slightly higher representation depending on the track. Women are also well represented in tertiary education; at the University of Luxembourg, female students outnumber male students.

Early school leaving is an important issue in the Luxembourgish public discourse, with debates on the negative consequences of dropout for the young people themselves and also for society as a whole. After reaching a particularly low level of 7.6% in 2022/2023, the dropout rate increased slightly to 8.2% in 2023/2024, returning to levels observed in previous years. Despite this rise, Luxembourg remains well below the euro area average.

Organisation of the education and training system

According to the 2009 law on compulsory education, school attendance extends over 12 consecutive years and is compulsory from 4 years of age until 16. Secondary education starts at the age of 12. The Luxembourg secondary education system distinguishes between 'classic' and 'general' secondary education (2017 law on secondary education).

• 'Classic' secondary education (l'enseignement secondaire classique) leads to a secondary school leaving diploma (diplôme de fin d'études secondaires)
• 'General' secondary education (l'enseignement secondaire général) prepares pupils for working life and leads to different diploma depending on the track.

Post-secondary and higher education are provided by the University of Luxembourg (e.g. Bachelor and Master Programmes), the general secondary schools (Advanced Technicians Diploma) or other private and cross-border educational institutions (e.g. foreign universities, research institutes).
In the field of adult education, different types of education are proposed (adult higher education, secondary education, general education and continuous vocational education and training [CVET]).
(For further details, see: Eurydice article 2.3 Organisation of the Education System and of its Structure)

Main concepts

Early leaving from education and training (ELET) is a key concept in Luxembourg and is measured using two complementary indicators:

1. the EU indicator (Eurostat), based on the Labour Force Survey (share of young people aged 18-24 who have not reached a certain level of qualification and are not in education, based on the Labour Force Survey), and
2. national indicators based on administrative data on early school leaving among secondary students.
   Luxembourg introduced the alternative indicator of ELET due to limitations of the LFS (small sample size and inclusion of many foreign-born respondents educated abroad), which can distort national estimates.

At national level, a distinction is made between:

• Dropout rate (taux de décrocheurs): share of students who leave school during a given year relative to all students no longer subject to compulsory schoolin
• Dropout events rate (taux de décrochages): number of dropout events during the year relative to the same population; as students may leave school more than once, this rate is higher.

Formal and non-formal education
Formal education refers to structured, institutionalised learning within the school system. In contrast, according to the National Framework for Non-Formal Education of Children and Youth, non-formal education is characterised by voluntary participation, openness, and a strong learner-centred approach. It emphasises experiential and process-oriented learning, participation, dialogue and relationships, and supports autonomy and self-efficacy. Learning takes place through exploration and social interaction, with educators acting as facilitators who support young people in developing initiative, responsibility and engagement with their environment.