ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the provision available in the USA, Canada and the UK for those children and young people who opt out of or are denied access to formal education. It reviews recent policy attempts to improve this important dimension of educational responsibility in the English context and compares current innovations with practices in Austria, where, for more than 40 years now, the secondary education system has been characterised by great educational diversity and vocational commitment. The chapter also reviews the effects of shadow education activities on family expenditure and family income inequalities with a view to improving understanding of college inequality, social stratification and educational mobility in Mainland China. It discusses the role of international organisations like the EU, OECD and UNESCO in exchanging knowledge and ideas about the role of adult education, all of which conduct benchmarking exercises and promote policy transfer, but with very different sets of members.
