Difficult search for a training place – higher likelihood of being given employment by the company providing training

The results of a new analysis conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) on the basis of the 2011 BIBB Transitional Study, which was a representative survey covering around 5,500 young people aged between 18 and 24, have shown that young people from a migrant background are nearly as successful in dual vocational education and training as their counterparts who are not from a migrant background. Following successful completion of the final examination, it is even the case that the former are more likely to progress to permanent employment with the company providing training. However, the greatest difficulty facing young migrants remains the task of finding a training place at all at the end of their schooling.

Conditions at the outset of dual VET are less favourable for young people from a migrant background than for young people not from a migrant background. It is, for example, more likely that their school leaving qualification tends to be too low for the demands level of the training, and their training occupation is less likely to correspond to their preferred occupation. For this reason, they are more likely to end training without having achieved a qualification, and the marks they achieve in the final examination are not quite as good. If, however, the prerequisites are equal, for instance in the case of an identical school leaving qualification, the BIBB analysis indicates that there are no discernible differences in the training success of young people from and not from a migrant background.

Following success in the final examination, 44% of young people from a migrant background obtain a permanent contract of employment from the company providing training. 27% receive a fixed-term contract of employment. For young people not from a migrant background, the proportions are 35% and 26% respectively. The authors’ view is that this indicates that companies are particularly satisfied with the performance of trainees who are from a migrant background.

However, the greatest hurdle for those from a migrant background remains the transition from school to dual VET. Only 75% of such young people progress to dual training within three years. By way of contrast, the corresponding figure for young people not from a migrant background is 84%. For young people from a migrant background, the prospects of finding a training place are lower than those of young people not from a migrant background. This even applies if the starting conditions are equal – i.e. same social origin, same prior school learning, same behaviour in the search for a training place and same training market situation in the region of residence.

BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser therefore believes that it is particularly important to use areas of existing potential even more effectively and to expand beneficial strategies and instruments still further so as to improve access to dual vocational education and training for young people from a migrant background. “The vital thing is to provide young people from a migrant background with more individual and more extensive advice and to give them the support they need to find a training place and to complete their training successfully despite their more difficult starting position. Initial resolutions which promise to deliver success in this regard have been formulated at the 7th Integration Summit staged by the Federal Government and via the newly formed Alliance for Initial and Continuing Training. The focus now needs to be on putting these into practice.”

Further information is available in issue 5/2014 of the BIBB REPORT, which is entitled: “Chances of progressing to dual vocational education and training and training success of young migrants”. This publication may be downloaded in English from the BIBB website free of charge at https://www.bibb.de/en/20883.php.

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