Session Information
02 SES 08 C, Pathways and Transitions I: Orienting Towards VET
Paper and Ignite Talk Session
Contribution
The situation in the German education sector has undergone far-reaching, noticeable changes over recent years. By now, the majority of German adolescents stay at school until they obtain a university entrance qualification and many of them subsequently enrol in an academic study programme (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung, 2018). Employers see the German labour market at risk of a lack of skilled employees if less and less adolescents enter Vocational Education and Training (VET), which already is reflected in the rising number of vacant training places each year. Fortunately for employers, not all graduates from upper secondary school follow the academic route; a certain share of graduates also enters VET. In some training occupations this group even forms the majority of apprentices (BIBB, 2018). To uncover the motives that attract these graduates to VET helps to find starting points for vocational orientation measures that could increase the interest of graduates from upper secondary schools in VET, which is necessary to counteract the risk of a future skills shortage. It is also important for employers to know which factors are responsible for these graduates’ interest in VET to take them into account when recruiting applicants from this target group for their apprenticeship places. As the relevance of non-academic qualifications for meeting skills demands on the labour market is increasingly recognised beyond countries with long-standing VET-traditions, findings on how to raise interest in VET become valuable for the whole European context. Therefore this contribution seeks to identify influence factors that distinguish prospective graduates from upper secondary schools who plan to enrol in VET from their peers who plan to attend university.
Ample theoretical work and research exist on factors affecting educational and vocational choices. According to expectancy-value theory (e.g. Eccles, 2011), both the subjective value of an educational option and the expectancy for success a person holds regarding the implementation of this option determine whether it is chosen. The appraisal of value and success expectancy is tied to personal as well as social factors. Different educational and vocational options offer prospects to implement different interests (e.g. Holland, 1997) and to match one’s values, expectations and self-concepts (cf. Leung, 2008). Social factors like expectations of the social environment towards appropriate behaviours and choices of young people socialised in that environment (cf. Bourdieu 1998) and parents’ ambitions for their children to achieve at least the same social status that they hold (cf. Boudon 1974) also influence young people’s educational decisions, for example with regard to the question which post-secondary education to choose (cf. Watermann & Maaz, 2006). However, there are institutional restrictions for entering both academic as well as vocational programmes, which graduates have to consider. The German dual VET-system is market-based; the choice for an apprenticeship is therefore not independent of the availability or lack of apprenticeship places. Despite the current favourable apprenticeship market situation, it can still be difficult to obtain apprenticeship places in certain, popular training occupations. Getting into a university programme, on the other hand, is often dependent on good school marks. Therefore, during the vocational orientation process pupils not only form an idea of the contents, but also of the accessibility of different educational options and the cost- and benefit-expectations tied to these (cf. Brändle & Grundmann, 2013), which are all relevant for decision-making within the framework of expectancy-value theory.
It is therefore expected that the plan of beginning an apprenticeship is related to 1) sociodemographic variables, 2) personal factors (interests, self-concepts), 3) current and prospective educational achievement, 4) the social environment, 5) cost- and benefit-expectations concerning the educational options and 6) variables pertaining to the vocational orientation process.
Method
The empirical analyses are based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) (cf. Blossfeld, Roßbach & von Maurice, 2011), which seeks “to study the acquisition of education in Germany, to assess the consequences of education for life courses, and to describe central educational processes and trajectories across the entire life span” (Blossfeld, von Maurice & Schneider, 2011, p.7). The data used here stem from wave 7 of starting cohort 4, which was administered in autumn and winter 2013 and which contains survey data from pupils in grade twelve, the last year of upper secondary school. The survey instrument captures sociodemographic variables, various aspects of the self-concept and career planning activities. It includes questions on educational plans, vocational orientation and choice, on interests and professional experience and on support from parents, peers and institutions in the process of vocational orientation. The target sample are N = 2,500 twelfth-graders in upper secondary schools (Gymnasium) participating in the NEPS who made an unambiguous statement of their educational plan for the future (irrespective of any gap phases such as a period of voluntary service or a year spent abroad), i.e. who named either beginning a dual apprenticeship or entering higher education study as their realistic plan for the next educational stage. Variables included in the data set that are relevant for the research focus are 1) sociodemographic variables like gender and migrant background, 2) personal factors including interests and aspects of the self-concept, 3) estimated as well as actual school performance and success expectancies regarding both educational options, 4) information on the social environment like parents’ educational level and their aspirations for their child’s education as well as aspirations of peers, 5) variables concerning expected costs and benefits associated with both educational options and 6) the state of the vocational orientation process. Between-group comparisons were conducted to detect whether pupils who plan to begin an apprenticeship differ from those that plan to attend university, regarding the six categories of variables mentioned above. A special focus will be on pupils’ cost- and benefit-expectations. Subsequently a hierarchical logistic regression was conducted to explore the combined influence of those variables on the likelihood of planning to begin an apprenticeship rather than planning to study at university.
Expected Outcomes
In compliance with the suppositions presented above, personal, social and institutional influence factors proved useful for characterizing pupils who plan to begin an apprenticeship after finishing upper secondary education. Effects were found for all categories of variables described above, though differences with regard to the sociodemographic characteristics considered here were only small. For example, pupils planning to enrol in VET expect to gain more benefits from an apprenticeship and rate their chances of succeeding at university distinctly lower than pupils planning to attend university. In addition, pupils from the two groups name different vocational interests and seem to differ in the precision of their conception of their professional future. A logistic regression revealed that the probability of planning to begin an apprenticeship is associated with practical-technical interests, lower school performance, seeing an apprenticeship as a way to keep up with parents’ social status and to obtain an attractive job, and a more advanced vocational orientation process. Understanding the processes influencing graduates from upper secondary schools in their interest for VET provides an insight into the question why adolescents decide in favour of VET despite the possibility to apply for university and which role the vocational orientation process plays in this choice. The results have implications for employers as well as professional career guidance by identifying starting points for interventions to raise this group’s interest in VET. Employers wanting to recruit upper secondary school leavers as apprentices can draw on these findings to adjust their approach towards their target group for example by pointing out benefits of a career in VET. Career guidance could for example stress the fact that VET offers opportunities not only for those interested in practical-technical work, but that a wide variety of training occupations exists.
References
Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung (Ed.). (2018). Bildung in Deutschland 2018. Ein indikatorengestützter Bericht mit einer Analyse zu Wirkung und Erträgen von Bildung. Bielefeld: wbv – URL: www.bildungsbericht.de/de/bildungsberichte-seit-2006/bildungsbericht-2018/pdf-bildungsbericht-2018/bildungsbericht-2018.pdf (retrieved 25.01.2019) BIBB (Ed.). (2018). Datenreport zum Berufsbildungsbericht 2018. Informationen und Analysen zur Entwicklung der beruflichen Bildung. Bonn: BIBB – URL: www.bibb.de/dokumente/pdf/bibb_datenreport_2018.pdf (retrieved 25.01.2019) Blossfeld, H.-P., Roßbach, H.-G., & von Maurice, J. (Eds.). (2011). Education as a lifelong process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) [Special Issue]. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 14. Blossfeld, H.-P., von Maurice, J., & Schneider, T. (2011). In H.-P. Blossfeld, H.-G. Roßbach & J. von Maurice (Eds.), Education as a lifelong process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) [Special Issue]. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 14, 5-17. Boudon, R. (1974). Education, opportunity and social inequality. Changing prospects in Western society. New York: Wiley. Bourdieu, P. (1998). Praktische Vernunft. Zur Theorie des Handelns. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp. Brändle, T. & Grundmann, M. (2013). Soziale Determinanten der Studien- und Berufswahl: theoretische Konzepte und empirische Befunde. In T. Brüggemann & S. Rahn (Eds.): Berufsorientierung: Ein Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch (pp. 58-72). Münster: Waxmann. Eccles, J. S. (2011). Gendered educational and occupational choices: Applying the Eccles et al. model of achievement-related choices. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35, 195–201. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices. A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3 ed.). Odessa, Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources. Leung, A. S. (2008). The Big Five Career Theories. In J. A. Athanasou & R. Van Esbroeck (Eds.), International Handbook of Career Guidance (pp. 115-132). Springer Science+Business Media B.V. Watermann, R., & Maaz, K. (2006). Effekte der Öffnung von Wegen zur Hochschulreife auf die Studienintention am Ende der gymnasialen Oberstufe. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 9, 219-239.
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