Abstract
Regional context conditions can have a crucial impact on school-to-work transitions and subsequently individual life chances. This paper aims to develop an approach to analyse the spatial references of regional socio-economic contextual settings young adults are embedded in. We apply this approach to assess the impact of regional unemployment on the transition from lower or intermediate compulsory schooling to vocational education and training (VET) in Germany. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) and merge these with administrative time series data on NUTS 3-regions level. We attach geocodes to the administrative districts to allow for a flexible operationalisation of the spatial reference of regional socio-economic contextual settings. Our results indicate, first, a negative relation between regional unemployment and the chances of entering vocational training in the dual system. Second, the effects of unemployment on adolescents’ transition chances have a specific spatial structure: The labour-market situation in the respondent’s district of residence moderates the relation between the labour-market situation in surrounding districts and the school graduates’ chances of entering dual training.
Highlights
Acquiring vocational qualifications is a central determinant for individual life chances in many contemporary societies
This paper aims to develop an approach to analyse the spatial references of regional socio-economic contextual settings young adults are embedded in
In research on school-to-work transitions a great deal of attention is given to questions that deal with differential chances of entering vocational education or training (VET)
Summary
Acquiring vocational qualifications is a central determinant for individual life chances in many contemporary societies. Vocational training opportunities are provided and shaped by the structure of the specific education and training system. In research on school-to-work transitions a great deal of attention is given to questions that deal with differential chances of entering vocational education or training (VET). It is well known that social contexts in which individuals are embedded have a strong impact on educational decision-making behaviour and actual transition chances. Contexts that are known to have an impact in these terms are families, class-rooms or schools, but educational differences between individuals even exist when these conditions are comparable. An additional source of explanation for these disparities can be varying regional context conditions representing, e.g., the local labour-market situation. This paper focuses on the relevance of regional labour-market conditions for transitions to vocational training
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