"Studying Sounds Somehow Smarter Than an Apprenticeship" Pupils' Beliefs About the German Vocational Education and Training System

Context: Today, young people have a wide range of career options. Looking at the current labour market situation in Germany, however, some worrying developments become apparent. Even though there are good prospects for the professional future of young people, partly due to the growing shortage of skilled labour and the slight increase in the number of traineeship contracts following the Covid-19 pandemic, many training places remain unfilled or are withdrawn prematurely. At the same time, young people themselves – especially those with lower levels of education – are rather sceptical about their future. Several reasons exist for this scepticism among which are young people’s beliefs and/or misconceptions about the German vocational education and training system.  

Despite growing interest in pupils’ beliefs in career guidance, there has been little research so far focusing on this specific aspect in the context of a vocational educational and training system such as that in Germany. In light of demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers, it is important to raise awareness among young people about the vocational education and training system in Germany; and to communicate its professional and career opportunities in a comprehensible way. This article examining young people‘s beliefs of the German vocational education and training system in order to design target group-specific learning provisions and teaching methods for the classroom. 

Approach: In line with the research tradition of beliefs research in career guidance, this study uses a qualitative approach. 21 problem-centred individual interviews were conducted with pupils (13 female; 8 male) at German lower secondary level. The evaluation was based on a deductive category system and took inductive additions into account. The interviews were analysed using Mayring’s qualitative content analysis.  

Findings: Pupils’ beliefs about the vocational education and training system can be characterised by misconceptions and inadmissible generalisations, which can consequently have an impact on learning opportunities and on individual career choice behaviour, especially with attraction and aversion factors coming into play. Beliefs about labour market opportunities or career advancement opportunities are reflected in the perceived fit of the context. These can act as an aversion factor if they are perceived by young people as stressful or if goals cannot be achieved, as was shown in this study, in that they assess the number of traineeship places as too low overall because they expect that they will not receive a traineeship place in their desired occupation. 

Furthermore, the importance of social fit (in this study the need for recognition) emerged. Responses from the majority of young people saw university degrees being more highly regarded by society than a vocational training programme, justified by the school-leaving qualification required for further progression. A discrepancy in the appreciation towards mental and physical labour was also expressed as an expected reaction in society, which can act as an aversion factor against choosing dual training. 

Conclusions: This study provides insights into pupils’ beliefs about the German vocational education and training system in relation to different contextual factors that may influence the choice of traineeship places as attraction and aversion factors.