This paper studies influencing factors of premature dissolutions of apprenticeship contracts in the dual vocational education and training (VET) system by analyzing cohort data from the German census on VET from reporting years 2008 to 2011. The data set covers all contracts that firstly started in 2008 in 51 training occupations of the dual system (cohort of beginners). In contrast to the predominant focus on apprentices as “dropouts”, the paper develops an alternative perspective. We argue that the probability of contract dissolution is strongly determined by characteristics of the training firm and the occupation. Furthermore, we expect occupational segmentation to be an important factor for explaining the completion of apprenticeship contracts. Results from multilevel analyses support these assumptions. They reveal that training conditions in the firm, the training strategy and the attractiveness of the training occupation significantly affect contract dissolutions over and above individual characteristics. Initiatives that aim at reducing contract dissolutions in the dual VET system will therefore be insufficient when soley focusing on individual factors. © 2014, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Author Keywords
Index Keywords
