The hunt for a training place: Prospects not as good for young men and women with an immigrant background

Decisions are made during the transition from secondary school to the vocational training system that lay the tracks which will determine the future course of a young person's occupation and life on a long-term basis. The type of training youths seek upon completing their general secondary schooling and the level of success they have in their efforts to find training depends to a very large degree on the individual's school-leaving qualification. There are marked correlations between the level of school-leaving qualification that a youth earns and his social background, in other words, his parents' level of education and socio-economic status. Social background also plays a significant role in the transition to vocational training. Youths who start their schooling under less favourable circumstances in terms of family background experience an accumulation of disadvantages over the years and many such youths are confronted with sizable difficulties when they reach the threshold to the vocational training system. The Transition Study conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) examines this situation for young men and women with an immigrant background and young men and women who do not have an immigrant background.