The wage gap after apprenticeship: Bad grades - low earnings

Abstract

"Education has an extremely strong influence on labour market entries in Germany. Holding a vocational education & training (VET) degree in particular appears to guarantee successful transition from school to work. Because of the strong segmentation of the German labour market, the chances for a successful transition into the labour market are distributed unequally - as are entry-level salaries among VET graduates. In the end, better degrees in general education, higher educational requirements for certain occupations, and the higher training expenditures of certain firms result in first-job salary disparities. Using the Saarland VET Graduate Panel, we analyze the impact of the final grades received by four cohorts of VET graduates on wages in their first job. Our findings show that VET grades represent a stable and significant additional human capital indicator in explaining wage differences among graduates of comparable occupations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Wydra-Somaggio, G., Seibert, H., Buch, T., Hell, S. & Kotte, V. (2010): Einstiegsgehälter von Ausbildungsabsolventen: Gute Abschlussnoten zahlen sich aus. (IAB-Kurzbericht 20/2010), Nürnberg, 6 p.