DAB Panel Study

Overview of Key Results

High occupational aspirations of children of immigrants

Children of immigrants are found to have higher aspirations than their native peers, despite lower educational outcomes and poor labour market opportunities. Analysing the development of aspirations shows that students with a migration background not only aim high while still in compulsory education, but also stay optimistic. This persistent optimism indicates that the high aspirations are not result of a naïve misconception of labour market opportunities, but that the children of immigrants are inherently more ambitious than their native peers.

  • Möser, Sara. 2022. Naïve or Persistent Optimism? The Changing Vocational Aspirations of Children of Immigrants at the Transition from School to Work. Swiss Journal of Sociology, vol.48, no.2, pp.255-284. https://doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2022-0015

Assessment of apprenticeship/job offer: What matters to (future) apprentices?

During the transition from compulsory schooling to vocational training and the subsequent transition to the labour market, young people make a number of momentous decisions. Our study focuses on two such decisions: the choice of a specific apprenticeship position after compulsory schooling and the choice of the first job after completing vocational training. Which characteristics of (apprenticeship) jobs are important to (future) apprentices in this context? Our experiments conducted for this purpose show that the content fit of the (apprenticeship) job with the desired occupational specialization is the most important criterion for choosing an (apprenticeship) job. Regular working hours without weekend and evening shifts and the possibility of being taken on by the company after the apprenticeship are further criteria according to which prospective apprentices choose their apprenticeship position. In addition, it has been shown that apprenticeship graduates are willing to accept a lower in salary from their first job if they are offered a permanent contract or if the company supports their desire for further training.

 

Social inequality in the transition to upper secondary education

The distribution of students at lower secondary level shows that there is already high social selectivity in educational participation during compulsory schooling. At the transition to upper secondary school, the data of the DAB panel study show differences in decision-making behaviour according to social origin, with regard to the course of the educational alternatives. Both primary and secondary effects of social origin as well as ethnic origin effects are at work.

By the 8th grade, most students know what type of upper secondary education is appropriate for them. Inequalities in the successful realization of this educational desire exist by gender and by type of school at the lower secondary level. Female students are significantly less successful than male students in directly entering a certifying upper secondary education program. However, female students of the school type with extended requirement show a higher proportion with aspirations for middle school and realize their educational intention to a higher extent than male students. Despite aspirations for vocational training, adolescents of the school type with basic requirements enter directly into vocational training at a lower rate than adolescent of the school type with extended requirements. As with the transition to lower secondary education, there are also clear differences in educational aspirations and in the transition to upper secondary education according to the educational level and social status of the parental home.

Gender-specific career aspirations and educational choices

Almost one fifth of the girls and boys in the DAB panel study develop so-called gender-specific occupational aspirations. However, the preference for “woman’s or men’s occupations” can only be attributed to gender role orientations to a lesser extent; rather, this effect based on subjective assessment of restrictions and opportunities for the various training alternatives.

Opportunity structures are relevant for career and educational decisions

In addition to aspects of social origin and, closely related to this, school performance, the educational opportunities of young people are linked to the regional opportunity structures and the training alternatives available. The more extensive the regional opportunity structures, the greater the likelihood that young people will complete general education, while the opposite is true for vocational training. Young people from regions with comparatively limited opportunity structures also have fewer opportunities to complete an intermediate solution and are therefore more likely to be forced to start VET directly.

The vocational baccalaureate has established itself as an independent educational option

The vocational baccalaureate is not only increasingly in demand but is also explicitly aspired to as an educational pathway by students at the very first transition.This makes it an important educational option in the decision-making spectrum of young school leavers at the end of their compulsory schooling, alongside the classic vocational apprenticeship and the completion of a grammar school or secondary school.

  • Jäpel, Franziska. 2017. Die Berufsmaturität als Ausbildungsalternative. Einflussfaktoren individueller Bildungsentscheidungen am Übergang in die nachobligatorische Ausbildung. Haupt Verlag.
  • Jäpel, Franziska. 2017. Die Berufsmaturität als Ausbildungsalternative. In: SGAB Newsletter 06/2017.