New career paths

Attracting young people to Vocational Education and Training (VET) while at school with vocational, higher level school leaving certificate and with greater transparency and advice.

Young people are overlooking vocational education and training. More than half of the year group opt for a degree after leaving school. This is leading to problems with the next generation. Dr. Johanna Wanka, the Federal Minister for Education and Research, spoke about this challenge and how vocational education and training might respond at the Konrad Adenaur Foundation in Berlin.

She argued for the introduction of a vocational, higher level school leaving certificate and for expanding the provision of advice in schools.

Dr. Johanna Wanka, the Federal Minister for Education and Research, regards the vocational, higher level school leaving certificate as an intelligent route to take.

Wanka is currently on a spring tour and the future of young people is on the schedule. Before arriving at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a few days ago she visited Siemens together with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the First Daughter of the United States Ivanka Trump. She had something amusing to relate from this visit, "The trainees waited voluntarily for an extra hour in order to see Ms Trump," explained Wanka, adding that the young staff at Siemens were intrigued.

However, although it is not every week that somebody like Ivanka Trump comes to a training company, the training situation for young people at the moment is excellent, she added. There are just over 100 training positions for every 100 young people explained Wanka.

She added that there were regional differences: for example, while in the new federal states many training positions remain unfilled; in North Rhine-Westphalia many school leavers have no chance of training because there are not enough positions.

This has, in some cases, serious impacts on the job market and the career paths of young people: In 2015, the proportion of unemployed young people without vocational education and training was 59 per cent - though 19 per cent of the unemployed did not even have a school leaving certificate.

Wanka explained that something had to be done in order for vocational education and training to remain "a guarantee of successful career". For Wanka, however, limiting numbers of school leavers with qualifications for higher education or student numbers is not a solution. "I am against this!" she emphasized, adding that one promising approach to supporting vocational education and training is to increase the mobility of young people.

However, the construction of residential colleges would also serve the purpose of bringing young people to training centres which were further away from their homes. In addition Wanka commented that smaller companies would also have to be able to offer training positions, however they would need support when doing so. However, support for vocational education and training would actually have to start much earlier, she explained. "We must begin across all schools in Germany."

Instead of teaching just intellectual capabilities, other competencies should also be encouraged. Wanka wants a vocational, higher level school leaving certificate, that is to say vocational education and training which pupils complete while preparing for the traditional higher level school leaving certificate.

The Minister for Education believes this would have several benefits. This combination might increase the value attached to work. However, it would also give young people security because they would not only have achieved the university entrance qualification but they would also have secured a vocational qualification.

In conclusion, Wanka added that individual careers advice already exists in schools, "we deliver this to 500,000 pupils". She explained that this was also necessary because, on the one hand, the number of job descriptions has increased, while on the other many pupils do not know which pathway they want to take. Many people are also unaware that a secure and successful professional career, "does not depend on studying immediately".

Parents certainly only want the best when they are persuading their children to study. However, according to Wanka, transparency has improved a great deal. She explained that it was now possible to start from an intermediate-level school leaving certificate and gain a master's qualification via vocational education and training.

She added that there are certainly still problems, for example with trial semesters or entry examinations, but that, in theory, such a career was entirely possible.

Many courses are now modular and would therefore offer more individual training pathways. Such career pathways "are also conceivable for vocational education and training," she explains, adding that she certainly does not want to modularise training, however she would like more flexibility for young people.