Educational Equity in professional education – Bochum

Professional education is the basis for the minor youth unemployment in Germany. The professional education programs (full-time vocational schools and the dual system) provide access to the labor market and to social participation. Both can also be linked to other phases of education, such as extracurricular or academic education. One third of all pupils are currently in the professional education system. Germany's dual system of professional education is unique and an export hit that is in demand around the world. Nevertheless, the importance of professional education is often neglected and only presented as a second-best solution compared to university studies, or it is completely ignored.

The key question is: how to make a professional education more attractive to pupils. The importance of the high schools/lower secondary school is pointed out, in particular to introduce the possibilities of Professional education to the pupils, because the interest in professional education has been declining for years. In the workshop, initial thoughts were exchanged on how the attractiveness of vocational training could be increased. Various starting points were discussed, ranging from more responsibility being assumed by the companies themselves, more vocational courses in lower secondary school, information for parents, role models for students, and vocational field studies in teacher training. In addition, it was also pointed out that schools and vocational colleges need to be better equipped in order to implement all mentioned offers.

During the workshop, the conditions for immigrants were addressed several times. It was illustrated that immigrants like pupils also focus on university studies but here different reasons where identified. This was justified with better possibilities to continue a study at another university compared to a vocational training, which is usually bound to a concrete company location. If the residence status is unclear, professional education is therefore associated with a high risk, as it is unclear whether it can be completed (also elsewhere). Another reason why professional education for immigrants isn’t interesting might be a lack of knowledge of the German education system and unknown opportunities that are offered by a dual vocational training. More and sufficient information is needed here.