Dual education and training is attractive for all

Increasing numbers of people with higher education entrance qualifications are opting for dual education and training - and encouragingly also in the skilled crafts sector.

In 2016, the Federal Employment Agency registered more applicants for training positions with higher education entrance qualifications than with lower secondary school leaving certificates. And in 2015, companies had already concluded more training contracts with those holding higher education entrance qualifications than those with lower secondary school leaving certificates. This was revealed by a recent analysis by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training.

Increasing proportions of individuals with higher education entrance qualifications are present among trainees in all areas of dual vocational education and training. While in 2010, for example, more than one in two individuals in the skilled crafts obtained a new training agreement with a lower secondary school leaving certificate, in 2015 the proportion of trainees with an intermediate secondary school leaving certificate or with higher education entrance qualifications was 52.6 per cent and already 10 percentage points above the proportion of individuals with the lower secondary school leaving certificate (43.1 per cent).

The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training has also registered similar major shifts in agriculture. In the public sector, the strong rise in the proportion of those with higher education entrance qualifications of almost ten percent has contributed to the fact that individuals with higher education entrance qualifications now represent the absolute majority (52.6 per cent) of individuals with a new training contract.

And it's not just occupations which, in the past, have been typical for people with higher education entrance qualifications which are benefiting from the increased numbers - such as banking professional, assistant tax advisor, business manager, designer of digital and print media, chemical laboratory technician.

Compared to 2010, there has also been a noticeable increase in people with higher education entrance qualifications among individuals with a new training contract in the skilled craft occupations - for example roofer, mason, cook, carpenter. The number of lower secondary school occupations has fallen from 56 to 48 between 2010 and 2015; by contrast the number of occupations for those with higher education entrance qualifications has increased from 30 to 45. Incidentally, this choice of words here is not intended to be derogatory but is defined as follows: The term 'lower secondary school occupation' or 'occupations for those with higher education entrance qualifications' is used if the proportion of the respective school group representing the training occupation is above 50 per cent.

Friedrich Hubert Esser, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, assesses the development as a positive sign of the increasing attractiveness of dual education and training. "If there are increasingly fewer lower secondary school leavers, more people among those with higher qualifications from school must be interested in dual vocational education and training. This seems to be working. However, in the future, it is a question of creating greater interest among those with higher education entrance qualifications for occupations which do not tend to be typical for them. This is the only way in which we can prevent them increasingly competing against one another and avoid a growing proportion of them ending up with nothing when searching for a training position."

The number of applicants for training positions who were unsuccessful among those with higher education entrance qualifications increased from 14,000 to 22,300 between 2010 and 2016. "We therefore have to strengthen career orientation in the higher level secondary schools," added Esser. "Furthermore, we must also, on no account, lose sight of young people with lower secondary school leaving qualifications. Even if their numbers are falling, their training interests and abilities must not be ignored. In view of the impending shortage of skilled workers, we need everybody."