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36/ 2009
Bonn, 15.10.2009
Better than their reputation - Special training measures for the transition between general schooling and vocational training
A pointless "holding pattern", "lost" time, "training measure careers" - the many descriptions of Germany's transition system contain a large number of primarily negative attributes. A new study conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) shows however that the transition system is better than its reputation, even in light of justified criticism. Youths who have a lower secondary school leaving certificate or no school leaving certificate at all can particularly improve their chances of landing a training place for in-company vocational training when they undergo a special training measure provided through the transition system. This is especially the case for those youths who additionally earn a higher-level school leaving certificate while attending a transition programme. For youths who have completed intermediate secondary school, the transition system offers the advantage that they can earn qualification to enter a university of applied sciences and thus expand the range of vocational training options open to them. However, completing a programme that is provided through the transition system was not shown to increase these individuals' chances of eventually undergoing vocational training that leads to full qualification in a particular occupation. The findings from BIBB Transition Study are now available in the latest BIBB REPORT, Issue 11/09.
The BIBB Transition Study reveals that not quite one-third (32%) of all youths who completed lower or intermediate secondary school in recent years have participated in a training measure provided through the transition system. This figure is 42% among youths who completed lower secondary school at most - nearly twice the level seen among youths who completed their schooling with an intermediate secondary school leaving certificate (23%).
Compared to youths who land a training place without first attending a special training programme that is provided through the transition system, participants in transition programmes have a much less favourable scholastic background on average. They are not only much more likely to have a lower-level school leaving certificate or none at all, they also have worse marks. However within one year of finishing a transition measure, more than half of the participants in transition measures start vocational training that leads to full qualification for a particular occupation.
At the same time, more than one-fifth of the youths in this group do not start vocational training even three years after finishing a transition measure. Problematic 'paths' are evident in such cases, according to the BIBB Transition Study: A large number of such youths attends another transition measure or takes on a job. And many of them simply stay at home, even for a longer period of time, because they cannot find a training place or a job.
Conclusions from the BIBB Transition Study:
For youths who want to earn a higher-level school leaving certificate after completing their general schooling, programmes which lead to partial vocational qualification also have an important function which they fulfil successfully in many cases.
- Training measures that are provided through the transition system fulfil an indispensible function for those youths who could not be taught during their general schooling the fundamental knowledge and attitudes they need in order to undergo vocational training. This is particularly the case with vocational training courses that are sponsored by the Federal Employment Agency and the school-based prevocational training year. These measures put youths in a position to undergo and complete a regular vocational training programme.
- Programmes which lead to partial vocational qualification also have an important function for youths who want to earn a higher-level school leaving certificate after completing their general schooling. These programmes fulfil this function successfully in many cases: Half of the youths who complete a full-time vocational school programme that leads to partial vocational qualification (at a commercial school, for instance) earn a higher-level school leaving certificate.
- However: When youths satisfy the requirements for undergoing vocational training for a particular occupation and their aim is to receive this training, their (involuntary) participation in programmes offered through the transition system is just a stopgap solution - and constitutes 'lost' time. The reason: Although it is possible in many cases to credit a transition measure toward the individual's subsequent vocational training, this is seldom done.
BIBB's President Manfred Kremer holds that the only solution to this problem would be to make it possible for youths who have the fundamental knowledge and attitudes needed for successful vocational training and for successfully practising an occupation to directly start a vocational training programme in which they can earn full vocational qualification. "Only in this way we will be able to avoid youths being unnecessarily put 'in a holding pattern'." However, as long as there are not enough in-company vocational training places for these youths, government-financed, extra-company vocational training options and an expansion of vocational training programmes that are provided through vocational schools and lead to full vocational qualification - including training for occupations that fall under the Vocational Training Act - are appropriate and indispensable alternatives, Manfred Kremer noted. "All youths must have the certainty that their efforts in the education system will lead - without a wait - to vocational training for a recognised occupation. Giving up and dropping out of the education system brings enormous risks for the individual's future life and incurs enormous costs to society - and is ultimately more expensive than government-financed vocational training."
Further information is available in the latest BIBB REPORT "An improvement in the individual's chances of undergoing vocational training or a pointless 'holding pattern'?" (Issue 11/09). This issue can be downloaded free of charge from the BIBB website at www.bibb.de/bibbreport.
