Education and Skills Act 2008

The Education and Skills Act 2008 (c 25) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that raised the minimum age at which a person in England can leave education or training from 16 to 18 for those born after 1 September 1997, with an interim minimum leaving age of 17 from 2013. This was described as "raising the participation age". The Act does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland and has not been extended to Wales, in those places the school-leaving age remains around 16 (depending on the person's birthday).

This part of the Act has been described as "exhum[ing] fundamental questions about the purposes of statutory state education". There was some criticism, based on the theory that the government wanted to decrease unemployment figures by removing this group of young people from those looking for work. It was certainly intended to bring down the NEET figures.

The Act also introduced a number of other changes including the right of choice and appeal for young people regarding their sixth form college, and placing duties on the Learning and Skills Council regarding payment and finance of courses for both children and adults.