Supra-company apprenticeship training in Austria: a synopsis of empirical findings on a possibly early phase of a new pillar within VET

Peter Schlögl,Martin Mayerl,Roland Löffler,Alexander Schmölz

doi:10.1186/s40461-020-00102-y

Abstract

Since 2008, the Austrian Vocational Training Act has given young people the opportunity to obtain vocational qualifications in supra-company training workshops. In addition to the traditional full-time vocational school system and company-based apprenticeship training, a third vocational qualification path has thus been established. This article presents empirical findings on this innovation in skill formation and examines the question of whether conditions for the sustainable establishment of a third pillar for acquiring vocational qualifications are given with regard to regulatory, normative, and cultural cognitive dimensions.

Highlights

For some time research has investigated the question of how a full-time vocational education and training (VET) in schools as well as an apprenticeship system was successfully established in Austria
The Youth Employment Act of 1953 (Jugendeinstellungsgesetz 1953) reduced a high youth unemployment rate by obliging entrepreneurs to employ young people (Bamberg 2015). This was followed by a phase of economic upswing and almost full employment in the Austrian labour market that lasted until the 1980s, when another crisis in the apprenticeship market occurred
We have analysed the Supra-Company Apprenticeship Training (SCAT) in Austria based on the framework of neo-institutionalism, which proposes three key dimensions for analysing apprenticeship systems: the regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive dimensions (Powell and DiMaggio 1991; Lowndes and Roberts 2013; Scott 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Research has investigated the question of how a full-time vocational education and training (VET) in schools as well as an apprenticeship system was successfully established in Austria. This is an indicator that apprenticeship training has changed considerably over the last two decades This is due, for example, to a change in demand for skilled workers (Goos et al 2009) as a result of further expansion of the service sector and a related increase in qualification requirements, as well as a change in the educational choices of young people, leading to greater social selection and the opening up of new recruitment channels for skilled workers (Busemeyer and Trampusch 2012). 37% of young people at upper secondary level are pursuing an apprenticeship, 39% attend a full-time vocational school or college. In this context, less consideration has been given to the fact that a third, hybrid pillar has been developed since the end of the last millennium: the Supra-Company Apprenticeship Training (SCAT). SCAT is an apprenticeship scheme in which practical training is offered by supra-company training providers rather than companies themselves. In-company placements in SCAT have the primary goal of facilitating transition to a regular company-based apprenticeship. Since the introduction of SCAT, the share of young people on this programme has risen from 5.6% (2009) to 7.7% (2018) (Dornmayr and Nowak 2019, p. 16)

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