About The Project
EDU-LAB is a three-year Horizon Europe project (2025–2027; Grant Agreement #101177428) that examines how young people (15–30) move through education and training into employment across Europe. The consortium brings together 11 partners from 9 countries (including the UK and Kosovo) and works with stakeholders at every level.
The project focuses on four main strands of research:
Modelling pathways and transitions (WP1): Mapping how young people progress through education into the labour market, and identifying the personal and social factors that shape these journeys.
Assessing policies and investments (WP2): Evaluating how policies and funding influence equity, inclusion, participation, and completion, and how efficiently they achieve results.
Quantitative analysis and expert survey (WP3): Combining large-scale data with the OSES Delphi survey of policymakers, educators, employers, youth organisations, and other stakeholders to assess current systems and future challenges.
Listening to young people (WP4): Running case studies in 12 regions across 7 countries, using focus groups, workshops, and diaries to capture youth experiences directly.
Findings are brought together in policy recommendations (WP5) to guide decision-makers. Together, these activities aim to reduce early school leaving, raise attainment, expand work-based learning, and create fairer opportunities for young people across Europe.
Research Agenda
EDU-LAB explores how social, economic, and institutional factors shape the choices and opportunities of young people as they move from education into work. The project asks:
What are the typical and less common pathways through education, training, and employment?
Which personal factors (such as gender, background, or migration status) and institutional systems (like schools, labour markets, or public services) influence these transitions?
How effective are current policies, investments, and support measures in making these pathways more inclusive and resilient?
By combining comparative research, data analysis, expert perspectives, and youth-led studies, EDU-LAB delivers new evidence and models to inform more effective education and employment systems across Europe.
The main project goals are:
Developing comprehensive models of pathways and transitions per country in the European Education Area (EEA) including their intersectional and largely generic determinants
Carrying out an assessment of the efficiency of policies and investments in GE and PVET
Providing novel quantitative and qualitative evidence on how determinants, including policies and investments, contribute to young people’s pathways and transitions, specifically to inclusion and equity, and their participation and completion of GE and PVET
Increasing the rate of youth with tertiary education attainment
Reducing the share of early leavers from E&T
Increasing work-based learning in vocational E&T
Increasing the number of students belonging to underrepresented groups (e.g., based on gender, ethnic minority, migration, etc.)
EDU-LAB Project
Project Partners
A Horizon Europe collaborative project (2025-2027)
Grant Agreement # 101177428