Career planning, school grades, and transitions: The last two years in a German lower track secondary school

Abstract

In Germany, students in lower track secondary schools (LTSS) typically receive intensive career guidance. Nevertheless, the majority of LTSS student graduates does not start an apprenticeship immediately after graduation. This paper analyzes career planning, school grades, and the first transition after graduation for LTSS students in Freiburg during the late 2000s. Only about 10% of LTSS students start an apprenticeship immediately after graduation. About half, typically those with better grades, participate in additional general teaching (AGT) and rather continue schooling after graduation, expecting that this will improve their future career options. The majority of students with poor school grades, especially male students with a migration background, continue with pre-vocational training, even though career guidance was effective in terms of the career planning activities reported by students. Our results suggest that a focus of career guidance on the immediate start of an apprenticeship after graduation may be misplaced for those students continuing in further schooling. Furthermore, such a focus potentially raises hopes for an immediate start of an apprenticeship among the other students, which may later on be frustrated when a student continues with pre-vocational training. © 2015, Walter de Gruyter GmbH. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Vocational training School-to-work transition career guidance Lower track secondary schools

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, School of Business and Economics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Abteilung für Empirische Wirtschaftsforschung und Ökonometrie, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

Grant: 31-7532.20/068

We thank two anonymous referees and Friedhelm Pfeiffer for many useful comments and suggestions received in the review process. We are grateful for insightful discussions with Christian Dustmann, Eric Hanushek, Aderonke Osikominu, Markus Zimmermann, members of the Netzwerk Bildungsforschung supported by the Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung, and participants in various workshops and seminars. The research reported in this paper was supported by the Arbeitsagentur Freiburg, the City of Freiburg, and various schools in Freiburg. We acknowledge financial support by the University of Freiburg, the Ministry of Science and Art in Baden-Württemberg through the project "Die Wirkung des Bildungssystems auf den Übergang von Schule in Beruf - Evaluation des Pilotprojekts Erfolgreich in Ausbildung" (No. 31-7532.20/068), and the DFG through the project "Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes" (No. Fi 692/11-1). Bernd Fitzenberger dedicates his contribution for this paper to Wolfgang Franz, his mentor and friend, on the occasion of Wolfgang Franz's 70th birthday. All errors are our sole responsibility.

Baden-Württemberg Stiftung

We thank two anonymous referees and Friedhelm Pfeiffer for many useful comments and suggestions received in the review process. We are grateful for insightful discussions with Christian Dustmann, Eric Hanushek, Aderonke Osikominu, Markus Zimmermann, members of the Netzwerk Bildungsforschung supported by the Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung, and participants in various workshops and seminars. The research reported in this paper was supported by the Arbeitsagentur Freiburg, the City of Freiburg, and various schools in Freiburg. We acknowledge financial support by the University of Freiburg, the Ministry of Science and Art in Baden-Württemberg through the project "Die Wirkung des Bildungssystems auf den Übergang von Schule in Beruf - Evaluation des Pilotprojekts Erfolgreich in Ausbildung" (No. 31-7532.20/068), and the DFG through the project "Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes" (No. Fi 692/11-1). Bernd Fitzenberger dedicates his contribution for this paper to Wolfgang Franz, his mentor and friend, on the occasion of Wolfgang Franz's 70th birthday. All errors are our sole responsibility.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG

Grant: 692/11-1

We thank two anonymous referees and Friedhelm Pfeiffer for many useful comments and suggestions received in the review process. We are grateful for insightful discussions with Christian Dustmann, Eric Hanushek, Aderonke Osikominu, Markus Zimmermann, members of the Netzwerk Bildungsforschung supported by the Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung, and participants in various workshops and seminars. The research reported in this paper was supported by the Arbeitsagentur Freiburg, the City of Freiburg, and various schools in Freiburg. We acknowledge financial support by the University of Freiburg, the Ministry of Science and Art in Baden-Württemberg through the project "Die Wirkung des Bildungssystems auf den Übergang von Schule in Beruf - Evaluation des Pilotprojekts Erfolgreich in Ausbildung" (No. 31-7532.20/068), and the DFG through the project "Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes" (No. Fi 692/11-1). Bernd Fitzenberger dedicates his contribution for this paper to Wolfgang Franz, his mentor and friend, on the occasion of Wolfgang Franz's 70th birthday. All errors are our sole responsibility.

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

We thank two anonymous referees and Friedhelm Pfeiffer for many useful comments and suggestions received in the review process. We are grateful for insightful discussions with Christian Dustmann, Eric Hanushek, Aderonke Osikominu, Markus Zimmermann, members of the Netzwerk Bildungsforschung supported by the Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung, and participants in various workshops and seminars. The research reported in this paper was supported by the Arbeitsagentur Freiburg, the City of Freiburg, and various schools in Freiburg. We acknowledge financial support by the University of Freiburg, the Ministry of Science and Art in Baden-Württemberg through the project "Die Wirkung des Bildungssystems auf den Übergang von Schule in Beruf - Evaluation des Pilotprojekts Erfolgreich in Ausbildung" (No. 31-7532.20/068), and the DFG through the project "Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes" (No. Fi 692/11-1). Bernd Fitzenberger dedicates his contribution for this paper to Wolfgang Franz, his mentor and friend, on the occasion of Wolfgang Franz's 70th birthday. All errors are our sole responsibility.

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Career planning, school grades, and transitions: The last two years in a German lower track secondary school

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