Career choice of young women and men – chances of making the transition to company-based training and occupational prestige achieved

Although they have better school leaving qualifications on average, young women experience greater difficulties than young men in searching for a company-based training place. However, young women concentrate on a very narrow spectrum of occupations when making their career choice decisions. By way of contrast, the career choice spectrum of young men is considerably wider. The question as to whether the smaller chances of success of young women at the transition to company-based training are attributable to the very different occupational preferences of men and women is therefore of particular significance and is investigated in the present report on the basis of the 2012 Federal Employment Agency (BA) and Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) Applicant Survey.