Print version Recommend this page Press release
43/ 2012
Bonn, 14.12.2012
Young immigrants' career choices do not explain their fewer chances of success
BIBB analysis disproves preconceptions
The problems young immigrants have when looking for an in-company training place are not due 0 as frequently asserted 0 to one-sided career choices. As shown by an analysis conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), young immigrants' career interests are just as varied as the career interests of training-place seekers who do not have an immigrant background. Despite this, youths with an immigrant background have a significantly smaller chance of obtaining a training place. The findings from this study have been published in the latest issue of the BIBB journal "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis 0 BWP" (Vocational Training in Research and Practice). With this report, BIBB provides information, data and facts relating to the upcoming UN International Migrants Day on 18 December.
The BIBB study is based on a survey of youths who have the fundamental knowledge and attitudes required for successful vocational training and were registered with the Federal Employment Agency (BA) (2010 BA/BIBB Applicant Survey). According to this study, differences definitely exist between youths with an immigrant background and youths without an immigrant background when it comes to the skilled occupations they prefer. For example, compared to youths who do not have an immigrant background, a larger share of young migrants wants to undergo training for a sales or service occupation. Young migrants are also less likely to choose a construction or woodworking occupation. Both groups exhibit approximately the same level of interest in occupations in the organisational, clerical and administrative fields, in metal-working occupations and occupations in the electrical trades.
However, the share of applicants who do find a training place varies greatly from occupational group to occupational group, with young migrants nearly always having significantly fewer prospects.
For example, among youths whose primary interest is in a metal-working or electrical occupation, only 34% of those youths with an immigrant background end up undergoing in-company vocational training. This figure is 60% among their counterparts who do not have an immigrant background. Looking at the chances of success, marked differences between youths with an immigrant background and youths who do not have an immigrant background also exist when the targeted occupations fall into the category 'organisational, administrative or clerical occupations' (31% vs. 51%) or the occupational group 'sales and service personnel' (21% vs. 29%).
Construction and woodworking occupations constitute an exception: A larger proportion of the relatively few applicants with an immigrant background who are interested in this occupational group receive a training place than their counterparts without an immigrant background (41% vs. 31%). This is probably due to the fact that the balance between supply and demand on the vocational training market for construction and woodworking occupations is generally relatively favourable for applicants.
The current findings are part of extensive, continuous analyses that BIBB conducts regarding young migrants' participation in vocational education and training in Germany.
Further information is available in the latest issue of the BIBB journal "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis 0 BWP" (Vocational Training in Research and Practice), Issue 6/2012, in the article "Career choices and chances of success of apprenticeship-place applicants with migrant backgrounds". This issue can be downloaded free of charge at: www.bibb.de/bwp-6965
Further information regarding the BA/BIBB Applicant Survey is available in German at www.bibb.de/de/wlk30081.htm and regarding "Berufliche Bildung von Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen mit Migrationshintergrund" (Vocational Training and Youths and Adults with an Immigrant Background) at www.bibb.de/de/wlk28963.htm
Photos can be accessed at www.bibb.de/pressefotos.
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