Wastage at the End of the Sixth Form Career

This chapter focuses on the problem of wastage, which received a brief abstract treatment in the first chapter. The problem of wastage in the educational system has long been a source of concern. Here we are interested in wastage at the point of transition from the sixth form to higher education or to work. There have been various national estimates of wastage at this stage, but most of these have been limited to wastage among university applicants. They ignore wastage due to failure to apply for a university place and usually have inadequate data on the plans of those who were not accepted.