Securing the supply of highly qualified skilled workforce is a key challenge for education and labour market policy in the context of demographic change in Germany. VET and HE are facing increasingly fierce competition for high-achieving young people, such as those with HE entrance certificate. Unlike in countries where VET is traditionally considered less prestigious (e.g., Chankseliani et al. 2016 for England), 28% of young people in Germany who choose a VET pathway have a HE entrance certificate (BiBB 2024). Young people with HE entrance certificate have thus become an important target group for image campaigns and innovative approaches in VET. The InnoVET initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education, Family, Seniors, Women, and Youth (BMBFSFJ) therefore funded 17 projects worth €74 million between 2020 and 2024 with the aim of making VET more attractive to this target group, by developing new, innovative vocational qualifications at the intersection of VET and HE (Kuhlee et al., 2022). However, what makes VET attractive to high-achieving young people has not yet been sufficiently investigated empirically (Neu, 2021). Yet, such data enable a more nuanced understanding also of how measures to increase the attractiveness of VET should look like (also Billets et al. 2022). This is particularly relevant in view of the question of whether newly designed vocational qualifications can really increase value and attractiveness. This is an aspect that is currently being discussed more intensively in the context of the introduction of T-levels in England also (Terry & Orr 2024).

The paper will therefore draw on comparative analyses of young people with HE entrance certificate who have opted for VET and those who have opted for HE. The focus will be on the possible correlations between the perceived attractiveness of VET and the choices made concerning their education pathways by the two groups under investigation. The following questions will be addressed:

(1)    Why do young people with university entrance certificate choose VET? And why might they not?

(2)    What are factors influencing the assessment of a potential vocational training and a corresponding career path compared to an academic one?

(3)    How do respondents rate the attractiveness of newly designed vocational qualifications at the intersection of VET and HE, as developed in the InnoVET initiative?

The empirical study is based in particular on expectancy-value models (e.g., Eccles, 1983; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002) and the Thuringian Career Choice Competence Model (Driesel-Lange et al., 2020). These models assume that an educational option is preferred if it has a high subjective value and thus also a high perceived benefit for the individual. At the same time, the individual expects to be able to successfully achieve this educational option. Thereby are personal and social, and institutional factors relevant for the respective assessment of subjective value and the expectations of success (Schnitzler, 2019).

Furthermore, influencing factors that arise from the qualification program itself can be differentiated from those that arise from the future prospects associated with the qualification (Neu, 2021). The attractiveness of the program as such includes aspects of training conditions and individual design options. After completing the qualification, however, expectations regarding the job market and aspects of professional self-fulfillment and skills acquisition become relevant for participants (Heublein et al. 2018).

The collection of empirical data follows an exploratory research design using a mixed-method approach. In a first step, in spring 2023, a total of 12 problem-centered interviews were conducted with young people with an HE entrance certificate. Whereby six have decided to enter an apprenticeship afterwards, the other had decided for an HE degree program. At the time of the interview, they were enrolled in their respective training or degree program. The semi-structured interviews focused on the attractiveness of vocational training and career choices, and centered on the individual perceptions of the respondents. The audio recordings were anonymised and transcribed, and the generated data corpus was coded and evaluated using structured content analysis (Mayring, 2019). A consensus-based procedure was used to ensure quality. In a second step, two questionnaire surveys were conducted among apprentices and HE students from mid-2024 to early 2026. The questionnaire design for these surveys focuses on the individual perspectives of potential participants and aims to provide insight into their perspectives on the attractiveness of the VET programs itself and the attractiveness of VET qualifications, and on aspects of their study and career choices. The questionnaire items were developed based on the results of the qualitative survey conducted as well as on previously validated scales (e.g., Heublein et al., 2018; Göller & Besser, 2021; Homuth et al., 2022). The questionnaire design also includes items to evaluate central characteristics of the newly developed qualification programs at the intersection of vocational and academic education from the perspective of the participants. Eventually, it includes an open-ended response format, which focuses on respondents' thoughts on their own professional development and ways to increase the attractiveness of VET. The data sets are analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 29 statistical software.

The data analysis focuses in particular on group comparisons between apprentices with HE entrance certificate and HE students in terms of their assessment of key attractiveness parameters of VET, of their educational choices and their assessment of central characteristics of the newly developed qualification programs at the interface between VET and HE as developed in the InnoVET initiative. The data set for the apprentices (N=4,051) includes apprentices without HE entrance certificate (N=2,380) and apprentices with HE entrance certificate (N=1,671). Initial comparative analyses of these two groups indicate, for example, that different attractiveness parameters appear to be decisive for the educational choices made by the two groups (Petzold-Rudolph et al. 2025). The paper will draw on the partial data set of apprentices with HE entrance certificate and the corresponding HE student data set for comparative analysis. Initial data analyses reveal different patterns in the attractiveness parameters between these two respondent groups also, which are associated with different study and career choices. Accordingly, the data provide insight as to why young people with HE entrance certificate opt for VET, how this group can be described, and how it can be distinguished from those who have decided to enter HE after completing general education. This paper presents these initial findings and critically evaluates them with reference to the theoretical models. It also draws conclusions regarding the attractiveness of German VET compared to HE, and the possibilities for increasing the attractiveness of VET for high-achieving young people. In particular, innovative qualification programs at the interface between VET and HE, such as those developed as part of the InnoVET initiative, are taken into account. Finally, possible measures are critically discussed and classified in the context of the international debate (e.g., Billett et al. 2022).

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