Department of Education - 16-18 Legislation - Children and Young People

Approximately 2,000 young people leave school at age 16 or 17.

This could be for a number of reasons such as:

• They want to go to FE college, training or employment
• Their health (physical or mental)
• Language barrier
• Not enough information about career options
• Transport
• Money
• Motivation
• Impact on family benefits / universal credit
• Caring responsibilities for a child or family member
• They aren’t interested in education
• They have found school challenging

We want to encourage young people to continue learning and developing throughout their lives. The best path for you might be different from others and will depend on what you want to achieve in life.

There will be different options available for you to stay in school or EOTAS (Education Other Than A School), or you could move to a Further Education college.

You could also start training for a job or apprenticeship, working or volunteering. Working or volunteering should be at least 20 hours per week. We would expect you to study towards a recognised qualification during this time.

We think this law will give you more support and a better chance for success in the future. We don’t think that choosing home schooling for the first time at age 16 or 17 is a good option. 

We understand that life can be unpredictable and there might be situations where you have to have a temporary break from education e.g illness.

We know that children and young people with SEN (Special Educational Needs) may need extra support and we will be looking at that in more detail in the future.

We will put support in place to see whether you have stayed in education and offer services to help you.

This change to the law might also affect:

• If and how sixth form classes are provided in your school
• Qualifications you can study
• Careers advice offered
• Support for young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN)

We want to hear what you think about this. You have until 4 July 2025 to tell us your views.

If you need help with giving your feedback or require this document in a different version (language, braille, large print etc), please contact 16-18legislation@education-ni.gov.uk

Your feedback will be used to make decisions about the passing of this new legislation. We aim to do this by March 2027.