Practical Vocational Training: The Best Way to Guard Against Unemployment

Practical vocational training reduces the risk of unemployment to a greater extent than a university degree. A higher academic qualification is therefore not always the best way to guard against unemployment. Having said this, university graduates are quicker to find re-employment.

These are the findings of a new study carried out by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. The study concerned the connection between training and unemployment in Germany in the period from 1997 to 1999.

Poorly qualified workers who have completed no further training since leaving school are by far at the greatest risk of unemployment. The risk of unemployment is considerably lower for university graduates than it is for poorly qualified workers. It is, however, higher for graduates than it is for those who have completed some kind of vocational training. University graduates are also at a particularly high risk of becoming unemployed; graduates from technical universities are at a slightly lower risk of unemployment. Workers who have completed lower level vocational training, an apprenticeship for example, are at a marginally lower risk of unemployment than university graduates. Workers who have completed higher-level vocational training, master craftsmen and technical specialists for example, are at the lowest risk of unemployment.

The study has also shown that the likelihood of unemployed individuals finding re-employment increases in direct proportion with an increasing level of education and further training. University graduates therefore have the highest chance of re-employment. Practice-orientated training might offer the best protection against unemployment, but it is university graduates who have the best chance of re-finding work following a period of unemployment. Workers who hold a degree from a technical university have only slightly lower chances of finding re-employment than university graduates.

That individuals with a higher-level practical qualification are at a lower risk of losing their job might be explained by the fact that their training is practice-focused. Such courses generally reflect the needs of the economy. Practice-orientated training is, however, usually much more specialised than degree courses offered at universities, which generally provide knowledge which extends beyond that relevant to the given profession. The flexibility graduates gain from that may explain why they have particularly good chances of finding re-employment after a period of unemployment.

Contact

Dr. Charlotte Lauer, E-Mail: lauer@zew.de