Status: 03/06/2023 09:27 am
In Germany, tens of thousands of young people are still leaving school without a degree. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, boys are particularly affected. There are big differences between the federal states.
In Germany, the number of young people without a school-leaving certificate remains high. In 2021, 47,500 young people completed their schooling without having obtained at least a secondary school diploma. This is the result of a study by education researcher Klaus Klemm on behalf of the Bertelsmann Foundation.
This corresponds to 6.2 percent of all young people of the same age – a value that has stagnated since 2011. According to this, the proportion was already 6.1 percent at the time.
About 60 percent of this group are boys. In addition, people with foreign citizenship (13.4 percent) are affected almost three times as often as Germans of the same age (4.6 percent). Every second young person without a secondary school certificate has attended a special needs school.
Marked declines in Berlin and Brandenburg
There are big differences between the federal states: in Bavaria only 5.1 percent of all young people leave school without a qualification, in Bremen the proportion is almost twice as high at ten percent.
According to the study, larger differences can also be seen over time: while the rate in Bremen, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland has risen since 2011, it has fallen in Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and most clearly in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Bad future prospects
In view of the growing shortage of skilled workers, society cannot afford to let these people fall through the cracks, said educational researcher Klemm. People without a degree have a higher risk of ending up in precarious employment or not finding a job at all. “Every young person without a school diploma is one too many”
“Despite positive developments in individual federal states, it has not been possible to reduce the proportion of young people without a school-leaving certificate over the past ten years,” said Nicole Hollenbach-Biele, education expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
This is particularly problematic because the modern working world is making ever more complex demands. Those who leave school without a degree run the risk of ending up in precarious employment.
Unskilled unemployment rate high
Data from the most recent vocational training report shows that young people who do not have a school-leaving certificate have hardly any chances of training. According to this, two-thirds of young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 who do not have a school-leaving certificate also have no vocational training. This has consequences: the unemployment rate for unskilled people is almost six times higher than for people with vocational training.
In order to give young people better prospects in the future, the Bertelsmann Foundation recommends, among other things, the best possible support for particularly weak students in the classroom. Digital applications could help to identify learning deficits at an early stage and to accompany the young people individually in their learning process.