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We examine the impact of parental unemployment and regional labour market conditions on the probability of a successful transition from non-academic secondary schooling to vocational training in Germany, using data from the National Educational Panel Study and multilevel logistic regression models. Although widely regarded as a low-cost, low-risk and high-gain vocational path, we nevertheless find a clear negative effect of parental unemployment on adolescents’ chances of entering an apprenticeship contract. We test for poorer school performance, reduced household income, reduced self-esteem and limited access to labour market information as potential mediators of the effect, and only find support for some limited impact of economic deprivation. However, we also show that in families where one parent has experienced unemployment shortly before the child’s own transition from secondary schooling, students’ chances of a successful transition depend much more strongly on regional labour market conditions than in families without parental experiences of unemployment. Even in a regulated transition system like Germany’s, adverse labour market conditions thus reinforce the intergenerational disadvantages induced by parental unemployment.

The aim of this article is to systematize empirical findings from the German Life History Studies, which allow a (long-term) historical perspective on changes in Germany's vocational education and training (VET) system. We consider two aspects. First, we examine access to and patterns of VET participation. Second, we discuss the impact of changes in individual educational behavior on skill formation institutions. In doing so, we contribute new insights concerning the interplay between individuals and the German VET system. Life courses not only are structured by institutions but also may 'trigger' institutional changes. We assume that the two 'trigger' groups at the boundaries of the VET system—that is, low-achieving and high-achieving youth—pose the greatest challenge to its institutional structure and are therefore useful groups to examine to learn more about the performance of the German VET system and the relation between individual educational behavior and institutional change.

Spatial mobility is key to facilitating successful transitions into vocational education and training (VET), especially for youths from disadvantaged regions. In line with the agency‐structure framework, the decision to become mobile is conceptualized as an adaptive strategy that young people employ to achieve their goals when faced with persistent challenges or regional barriers. This study investigates how youths applying for VET adapt their willingness to be spatially mobile over time. It examines the influence of occupational status aspirations and the regional opportunity structure on this decision‐making process. Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), multilevel growth curve models are estimated to analyze adaptations in the mobility radius of VET applicants over up to three years ( = 1,017). To assess the regional opportunity structure, small‐scale administrative geospatial data on the availability of youths’ aspired occupations are used as an individualized indicator of regional mismatch. The results show that VET applicants’ willingness to be mobile increases over time. High‐status aspirations are consistently associated with a greater willingness to be mobile, largely independent of search duration or regional mismatch. Conversely, VET applicants with lower status aspirations exhibit notable adaptations, adjusting their mobility radius, particularly in response to increasing search duration or regional mismatch. These findings highlight the complex interplay between individual aspirations and the regional opportunity structure in shaping adaptations in the willingness to become mobile of unsuccessful VET applicants.

Context: Due to limited geographical mobility, opportunities for adolescents interested in company-based training are primarily dependent on regional training offers. Competition for company-based training among adolescents varies regionally, and thus, the chance to obtain a training contract varies as well. In this article, we investigate the opportunities for adolescents to obtain company-based training depending on regional training market conditions. We assume that the advantages of obtaining a company-based training place exist in areas of decreased competition among interested adolescents. However, the question is whether those advantages will differ between adolescents depending on characteristics such as school achievement, socioeconomic status or migration background. Furthermore, we assume that, above all, market-induced ease-of-access to company-based training exists for occupations that face hiring challenges and indicates less occupational attractiveness. Methods: The transition from school (after 9th and 10th grade) to company-based training is analysed using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, starting cohort 4). This dataset is merged with the official regional training market data regarding local supply and demand ratio for training places (called \"SDR\") in the dual system of Vocational Education and Training in Germany. Logistic regressions are used to predict the probabilities of obtaining a training place. The focus lies on the interaction effects between SDR and adolescents' education-related characteristics (school certificates and grade point average), socioeconomic characteristics and migration backgrounds. Subgroup-specific analyses of different clusters of hiring challenges for trainee occupations are used to examine whether these effects are valid for all occupations. Findings: The results confirm regional differences in obtaining a training place depending on the SDR. Here, applicant hierarchies according to educational achievement continue to exist if competition for company-based training among adolescents decreases. Beneficiaries are better-qualified adolescents with poorer GPAs. SDR hardly influences social disparities. However, the advantages of obtaining a company-based training place primarily exist for training occupations with hiring challenges when competition for company-based training among adolescents decreases. These occupations have a significantly lower occupational prestige (ISEI-08) compared to occupations with fewer hiring challenges. Conclusion: The results make it clear that market-induced ease-of-access to company-based training is not necessarily an advantage. Because the findings indicate that the advantages pertain mainly to low-prestige occupations, it can be assumed that career-path disadvantages can arise down the road. Future studies should investigate this in more differentiated ways.

Many countries with apprenticeship-based systems of VET face a shortage of apprenticeships. Some countries, including Denmark and Norway, address this supply-demand mismatch by offering alternative school-based routes to vocational qualifications for students not able to secure an apprenticeship. Other countries offer no alternative routes, but focus instead on pre-vocational education and training to prepare students for apprenticeships. This paper discusses the effects on the VET system of a recent Norwegian attempt to organise alternative training primarily as workplace training. Unlike the more established Danish system of alternative training, which relies primarily on school-based training in learning centres, Norway has attempted to make alternative training as similar to apprenticeship-based learning as possible. Most training in the pilot projects takes place in the work environment of a company, rather than in vocational schools. Our paper shows that the students in the pilot projects experience many of the learning and motivational benefits offered by workplace learning in general, and apprenticeships in particular. In certain circumstances, such schemes can improve the chances of completing VET despite for young people without an apprenticeship. However, such training schemes also generate important dilemmas. In particular, there is a risk that full-scale implementation of a system of alternative workplace-based training could reduce the number of new apprenticeships, potentially undermining the apprenticeship model on which Norwegian VET is based.

The German vocational education and training (VET) system is admired around the world for its ability to prepare young people for skilled employment. In Germany, VET smooths transitions into work and is closely aligned with labour market demand. This report focuses on an unprecedented test of the German VET system: how to respond to the significant increase in migrants who arrived in the country in 2015-16. The study explores both the opportunities and the challenges presented by migration. Germany has already devoted significant attention to VET as a mechanism for enabling integration - and for good reason. Work-based learning assists integration because it demonstrably gives learners skills that employers want in real-world settings. The report assesses the barriers faced by learners in their journeys into and through VET, exploring how such challenges can be addressed. In addition, the study looks at system-wide issues in relation to how VET provision and integration policy is governed. Lastly, it explores opportunities for increased flexibility in the German VET system of relevance to all youth at risk of not succeeding in VET. In responding to migrant needs, German VET can become more inclusive without reducing quality. (DIPF/Orig.).

Die anhaltend hohen Einmündungsquoten in den Übergangsbereich können als Beleg für eine unzureichende Bearbeitung der Probleme des Übergangs in die berufliche Ausbildung verstanden werden: die institutionelle Heterogenität, die gewachsenen vielfältigen Benachteiligungen der Jugendlichen sowie das Fehlen einer institutionellen Kopplung zwischen Allgemeinbildung und Berufsausbildung. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden Ansätze einer Neugestaltung des Übergangssektors als eigenständigen Bildungsraum dargestellt. (DIPF/Orig.). The high amount of entries into the transition sector (\"Übergangssektor\") can be seen as evidence for unsolved problems during the transition into vocational training: institutional heterogeneity, growing disadvantages of young people, as well as a lack of institutional links between school and vocational training. Against this background, approaches for reorganizing the transitional sector into an independent educational space are presented. (DIPF/Orig.).

\"In den vergangenen Jahren wurde in Deutschland immer wieder die mangelnde Ausbildungsreife von Jugendlichen beklagt. Demnach soll es einen relativ hohen Prozentsatz von Jugendlichen geben, deren kognitive Kompetenzen so gering sind, dass sie nicht erfolgreich in die berufliche Ausbildung integriert werden können. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrages ist es, die Ausbildungsfähigkeit von Jugendlichen mit geringen kognitiven Kompetenzen im Längsschnitt zu untersuchen und zwar für das Nachbarland Schweiz, dessen Ausbildungssystem dem Deutschlands in vielen Aspekten ähnelt und das in PISA einen vergleichbar hohen Anteil von Schülern mit geringen kognitiven Kompetenzen aufweist und das in PISA einen vergleichbar hohen Anteil von Schülern mit geringen kognitiven Kompetenten aufweist. Dazu werden die Autoren auf Daten der schweizerischen TREE-Studie zurückgreifen, mit welcher sie Jugendliche mit geringen Kompetenzen identifizieren und deren (Ausbildungs-) Übergänge nach Ende der Schulpflicht nachzeichnen können. Wie ihre Ergebnisse zeigen, lassen sich in der Schweiz auch Jugendliche mit geringeren kognitiven Kompetenzen erfolgreich in den beruflichen Ausbildungsmarkt integrieren. Anders als Deutschland ist die Schweiz somit deutlich erfolgreicher, auch schwächeren Jugendlichen eine Ausbildungschance zu bieten.\" (Autorenreferat). \"For several years, there is an increasing discussion in Germany that youths are less and less ready for vocational training. According to these reports that have been published by employers' representatives, there exists a relatively high share of youths whose cognitive competencies are too low to be successfully integrated into the German dual training system. The article aims at investigating the maturity of youths with low cognitive competencies in a longitudinal design for Switzerland. The Swiss educational system resembles the German educational system in various main aspects and PISA has shown that the share of pupils with low competencies is comparably high in both countries. For the authors' empirical analyses, they will use youth panel data from the Swiss TREE study which allows them to identify youths with low cognitive competencies and to follow their training trajectories after finishing compulsory schooling. The results show that in the German neighbor Switzerland also youths with low competencies can be successfully integrated into the vocational training system. In contrast to Germany, the Swiss system thus is far more successful in offering also academically weak youths to obtain vocational training.\" (author's abstract).