In Germany, students with a migration background are characterized by less successful transitions from the general school system into vocational training and education than their native peers. This concerns both the overall probability and the average period of time required to find a training position. Much of the observed gap is attributed to the systematically lower educational attainment of students with a migration background. While most training positions in Germany do not have any formal educational prerequisites, official statistics consistently show that both the probability and the time needed to find a position highly correlate with students’ educational attainment. In particular, many positions without formal requirements are almost exclusively offered to students that have obtained the highest possible degree in the general school system (cf. Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2008; Seibert & Solga 2005).

In our contribution, we specifically address the role of the mismatch between formal and informal educational requirements of the vocational education system in determining students’ probabilities to find training positions in a comparative perspective. On the one hand, we investigate whether the mismatch between formal and informal requirements is higher among the migrant population, or in other words whether students with a migration background select themselves into sectors with comparatively high informal requirements. On the other hand, we analyze in how far different aspects of the students’ career planning processes, for example whether students are aware of and consider mismatches between formal and informal requirements and whether they have already applied for a training position, are related to the communication structure in the family. This variable has been shown to be of major importance in determining students’ successful transitions into vocational education on the one hand, and to systematically vary across different population subgroups on the other hand (cf. Whiston & Keller 2004; Kouritzin 1999; Arriagada 2005).

Arriagada, P. A. (2005): “Family Context and Spanish Language Use: A Study of Latino Children in the United States”. Social Science Quarterly, 86 (3), 599-619. Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung (2008): Bildung in Deutschland 2008. Ein indikatorengestützter Bericht mit einer Analyse zu Übergängen im Anschluss an den Sekundarbereich I. Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF). Kouritzin, S. G. (1999): Face[t]s of First Language Loss. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Seibert, H. & Solga, H. (2005): „Gleiche Chancen dank einer abgeschlossenen Ausbildung? Zum Signalwert von Ausbildungsabschlüssen bei ausländischen und deutschen jungen Erwachsenen“. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 34, 364-382. Whiston, S.C., & Keller, B.K. (2004): “The influence of the family of origin on career development: A review and analysis”. Counseling Psychologist, 32, 493-568.