First the good news: The proportion of well-educated young people in Germany is increasing. The bad news: The number of those with poor or no training is also increasing. That’s what the study says “Education at a Glance 2023” by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) presented on Tuesday. In view of the data, Nicola Brandt, head of the OECD Berlin Center, speaks of a “polarization” of education in Germany.
In 2015, the proportion of 25 to 34 year olds who had completed a degree at a university or vocational academy was 30 percent; in 2022 it was 37 percent. However, the proportion of those who have neither a high school diploma nor vocational training grew from 13 percent to 16 percent over the same period. This means that Germany is actually bucking the international trend: in almost all other OECD countries, the proportion of young adults without a high school diploma or training has fallen in recent years.
The proportion of young people who have completed training in Germany has fallen more sharply than in any other OECD country: from 51 percent in 2015 to 38 percent in 2022. “An industrialized country like Germany, which is already suffering from a shortage of skilled workers, can afford this. “We can’t actually afford it,” says Brandt.
In principle, the study gives Germany good marks
The study, which this year focuses on vocational training, generally gives Germany good marks in this area. The dual system is strong, with 89 percent of trainees combining school and work. 94 percent of graduates are later employed; only in Iceland is the rate higher. So how can it be that so many young people in Germany still don’t have a high school diploma or even a training qualification?
This can certainly be explained by the pressure that the German education system as a whole is exposed to, says Nicola Brandt. For example, the fact that the proportion of migrants is higher than in other countries and that, due to the shortage of teachers, there is a lack of staff who could take special care of children who have difficulty learning.
The study also shows a mixed picture when it comes to education spending: in 2020, Germany spent less money on education in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) than the average of the OECD countries: in this country it was 4.6 percent of GDP, the average for all countries was 5 ,1. Germany paid more per student for this than many other countries. It cannot be said in general that Germany invests too little in education – but the question remains what the money is used for.
The study shows that Germany pays more money for education the older the students get. In other countries the situation is different; Luxembourg and Iceland, for example, spend almost 60 percent of their education budget on the first to seventh grades. In Germany the proportion is 45 percent. “If the number of people who don’t graduate well increases, we would actually have to invest in this area,” says Nicola Brandt.
The salary of teachers in Germany is significantly higher than the OECD average
Finally, the study provides another finding that is perhaps more surprising given the shortage of teachers: in international comparison, German teachers earn well. The annual salary for a trained teacher with 15 years of professional experience at the upper secondary level, for example at a high school, is around 76,000 euros, adjusted for purchasing power and the equivalent of around 97,000 US dollars. The average annual salary in OECD countries is $53,500.
This shows, says Nicola Brandt, that there must be other reasons for the teacher shortage than salary. For example, questions arose as to what proportion of working time is spent on teaching and what proportion is on administrative work, how well teamwork works in schools and how much teachers feel recognized.