Abstract

This paper examines if and to what extent educational opportunities of immigrant and native youth are affected by the regional proportion of firm- versus school-based vocational education and training (VET) in Germany and Switzerland. As school-based VET systems, compared to training firms, rather select their applicants on grounds of school grades than ascriptive attributes, educational opportunities of immigrant students are expected to be higher in areas with a more school-based VET system. This assumption should at least prove true on condition that they hold sufficient secondary school certificates. This hypothesis is tested empirically using German Microcensus data and census as well as TREE data from Switzerland. The results refer to complex structures of certain ethnic disadvantages produced by the regional structure of the VET system: Even controlling for school certificates, immigrant students, in particular males, tend to be excluded in firm-based VET systems. In accessing school-based VET systems they face problems because they cannot provide the required school certificates compared to native peers.