Monitoring Educational Choices in Europe: An analysis of EU-SILC data. Exploring EU-SILC Data to Monitor Educational Systems in EU

The European Education Area aims to support Member States' efforts in enhancing the educational attainment of younger generations. In this policy context, there is a need for an objective tool to assess the educational outcomes of EU countries. The present report addresses this need by pursuing two objectives: (1) providing a comprehensive method for using EU-SILC data to build relevant indicators for monitoring educational systems; (2) investigating the factors that explain variations in educational indicators across EU countries, with a particular focus on the influence of family inputs and personal characteristics. The empirical analysis is conducted using EU-SILC data from the 27 EU countries, employing various methodologies, including cluster analysis, principal component analysis, and correlational analysis. The results of this report demonstrate the potential of EU-SILC data in assessing educational systems in Europe. Furthermore, the findings offer valuable insights in support of the European Commission's objective of establishing a European Educational Area. The results also raise concerns, suggesting that education in Europe may not act as a universal equaliser. Instead, educational systems continue to exhibit social selectivity in influencing individuals' prospects for future careers.