One important part of the European policy agenda is to make access to higher education (HE) more inclusive through the implementation of vocational pathways. The development and upgrading of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in several countries has created manifold alternatives and ‘second chance’ routes into HE. Whereas vocationally oriented pathways have enriched the access routes to HE, it remains contested whether such pathways can decrease social inequalities of young women and men in HE access. While some research points to opportunities for upward mobility for young people from lower classes through vocational grammar schools and colleges in Austria, France, and Germany (Lassnigg 2011; Imdorf et al. 2017; Watermann & Maaz 2006), results for Switzerland show that vocational baccalaureate schools tend to reproduce social inequalities, albeit to a smaller extent than the traditional Gymnasium (Imdorf et al. 2017). 

This contribution asks how vocational schools impact on HE access for socially disadvantaged students in Germany. While at an international level, the German VET model is mostly discussed with regard to its function to lead their apprentices successfully into the labour market, vocational schools are often reduced to schools that complement company-based training in the dual VET system. Besides the latter, the German education system also includes a variety of different vocational schools at the upper-secondary education level which offer higher education entrance qualifications (HEEQ) of different kinds. However, the heterogeneity of vocational schools as pathways to HE remains a black box of educational research (for an exception, see Schuchart 2019). Besides schools of the transition system (schools for vocational preparation) and initial VET schools (in dual VET: vocational schools; in school-based vocational education: specialized vocational schools/Berufsfachschule), the upper secondary vocational school system is further differentiated in schools which offer HEEQ, namely, specialized high schools (Fachoberschulen) and vocational grammar schools (Berufliche Gymnasien) without training for holders of a general certificate of secondary education, upper-secondary schools after completion of initial VET (colleges for further education/Berufsoberschulen), and schools for further training (technical colleges/Fachschulen). 

The various vocational schools do not only attract a heterogeneous mixture of students due to their different entry conditions. They also lead to HEEQs of different kinds (e.g. general, vocational, specialised baccalaureate) and in different numbers. Hence, they differ in their permeability towards the higher education sector. Our study sheds some light on the variety of vocational schools in Germany. We ask how vocational school contexts impact on HE access for socially disadvantaged upper secondary students. We understand school contexts as the intertwinement of different types of (vocational) schools and forms of HE entrance qualifications. We further distinguish plural social groups of upper secondary students by their social origin and gender, taking the intersection of origin and gender into account (Imdorf et al. 2017; Lörz 2019). We use the concepts of institutional and social permeability by Bernhard (2018) to claim that social permeability in HE access can be reached through institutional permeability. Firstly, we assume that vocational schools in general are less institutionally permeable with regard to transitions to HE than the Gymnasium, but that the institutional permeability differs between different institutional types of vocational schools. Secondly, we expect that the intersectionality of gender and social origin affects individual transitions to HE of young adults with a HEEQ and shapes social disparities in HE access. Thirdly, we assume that the institutional contexts at the upper secondary school-level affect (mediate) social disparities in HE access, that is, that social permeability can at least partly been explained by institutional permeability as proposed by Bernhard (2018).

To answer our research question, we use “DZHW Panel Study of School Leavers with a Higher Education Entrance Qualification” data from 2015. The panel study surveys cohorts of school leavers with a higher education entrance qualification selected from all over Germany. The young people approaching their higher education entrance qualification in 2015 were surveyed in December 2014 - six months before gaining their qualification - on their educational aims (N_wave1 = 29’728). The data differentiates between several types of vocational schools and forms of HE entrance qualifications. The combination of both school type and HEEQ allows for building an institutional variable of school context which consists of a dozen different categories. We restrict our analysis on the first wave of the panel and use students’ intention to study as a proxy of HE access as our dependent variable. Study intention was measured continuously on a likert scale. We address the intersectionality of gender and social origin by splitting these groups into four subgroups of female and male students from either lower or higher social backgrounds, the latter being measured by having at least one parent with a higher education degree. We analyse how institutional contexts matter for study intentions of social groups by applying multivariate stepwise linear regression models. We control for social composition of institutional school contexts and additional individual confounding variables (e.g. migration background).

Preliminary findings come as a surprise as they show that some vocational school contexts are related to higher study intentions of their students compared to those in the Gymnasium. However, as expected, study intentions as a proxy for institutional permeability in HE access vary considerably between different types of vocational schools. We also find significant differences of study intentions of different social groups of upper secondary students with HEEQ: While 75% of young women from academic family background intend to study probably or certainly, only 58% of those from non-academic background tend to do so. Whereas men from academic family background intend to study somewhat less often, those from non-academic background tend to study more often than their respective female peers. Finally, our analysis shows that institutional school context accounts for a considerable part of the social disparities in HE access of students with regard to social origin and gender. Hence, social permeability in HE access from general and vocational schools can be partly explained by the respective institutional permeability of those schools. This conclusion is especially valid to understand the lower study intentions of male students from non-academic background compared to students, both male and female, from academically trained parents.

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