Career Planning, School Grades, and Transitions: The Last Two Years in a German Lower Track Secondary School

Abstract

Abstract:In Germany, students in lower track secondary schools (LTSS) typically receive intensive career guidance. 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. The majority of students with poor school grades, especially male students with a migration background, continue with pre-vocational training. Focusing career guidance on the immediate start of an apprenticeship after graduation may be misplaced. Keywords: school-to-work transition, lower track secondary schools, vocational training, career guidance JEL-Classification: I20, J24We 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,

Different counselors, many options: Career guidance and career plans in secondary schools

“…< Only a few other personal characteristics affect career planning: Surprisingly, 9 th grade students are more likely to report a desired occupation and to plan to continue general schooling while being less likely to have applied for apprenticeships. This is in line with our expectations since students nowadays only start to apply for apprenticeships at the end of grade 10 -in contrast to the past when students were still graduating from the lower track at the end of grade 9 (Fitzenberger and Licklederer, 2015). Students whose parents value educational performance as well as students with better math grades are more likely to plan continuing school.…”

“…In Freiburg, the program "Successful into Apprenticeship" ("Erfolgreich in Ausbildung") for the lower track has been running since the late 2000's. It involves additional classroom based career guidance as well as group and individual counseling both provided by local educational providers (Fitzenberger and Licklederer, 2015). The primary goal of these programs is to foster transition into apprenticeships or other types of vocational training, similar to the goals of the employment agency.…”

“…Career guidance in secondary schools typically promotes work experience placements as a means to gain first hand labor market experience. Solga and Kohlrausch (2013) and Fitzenberger and Licklederer (2015) find that work experience placements increase the probability of starting an apprenticeship. For the UK, work experience placements show some positive but weak effects on career planning, employability and wages of students (Hillage et al, 2001;Mann and Percy, 2014;Messer, 2018).…”

Jahrbuch der berufs- und wirtschaftspädagogischen Forschung 2015

“…Der Erwerb höherer Bildungsabschlüsse bewirkt eine geringere soziale Durchmischung und verschlechtert das Schulund Lernklima in Hauptschulen (Solga & Wagner 2001 (Cunha & Heckman 2007). Besondere Maßnahmen der Berufsorientierung in der Hauptschule stellen auf die Ausbildung kognitiver und nichtkognitiver Fähigkeiten ab, die den Über-gang in eine Berufsausbildung erleichtern sollen (Solga et al 2012 Fitzenberger & Licklederer (2015) Im Hinblick auf die Notenentwicklung ergibt sich, dass für Schüler, welche direkt eine Ausbildung beginnen, die Durchschnittsnote mit 3,0 in der Mitte der gesamten Notenverteilung liegt (siehe Tabelle 1 Fitzenberger & Licklederer (2015) Anzahl Praktika (8) Anzahl Praktika (9) Wunschberuf vorhanden (9) Berufsplanung: etwas verbessert (9) Berufsplanung: deutlich verbessert (9) Durchschnitt in D und M …”

Take Your Time to Grow: A Field Experiment on the Hiring of Youths

“… Some German states require 12 years of schooling, some nine and some have age limits in combination with years of schooling. In some states, the prevocational training counts as part of a higher schooling degree or school‐based vocational training, see Fitzenberger and Licklederer (), but this is not the case in Berlin where our study was conducted. …”