It is argued that the social control function of education and training is becoming increasingly explicit in England and France. Education and training can be viewed as a form of custody for young people, with enforced participation post 16 planned in the near future in England. Compulsory education for this age group is not currently planned in France, although secondary schools are legally supposed to be under an obligation to follow up and offer help (including the chance to go back and repeat a year) to any child who leaves school without qualifications. England and France share much in common in terms of the social patterning of which young people are likely to become "lost in transition", with social class and ethnicity remaining powerful predictors. Responses to the problem are similar, as in the growth of individualised support and plans to increase apprenticeships. However, France still places more emphasis on "insertion" into the mainstream of ideas, rather than choice and different pathways and routes, as in England. There are powerful political and social incentives to address the needs of these young people, whatever the political stance taken. Hopefully, these incentives mean that those "lost in transition" will reduce, in a way that respects individual choice, through the various initiatives both ongoing and being planned in France and England.