Abstract:

Many countries have implemented youth (un)employment programmes for low-achieving young people to improve their employment prospects. In Germany, these youths are often channelled into prevocational programmes to prevent them from long-term ‘scars’ by providing a ‘second chance’ to enter apprenticeships (serving as entry into the labour market in Germany). However, the usefulness of these programmes is contested. It remains unclear whether it is (more) useful for young people to invest in education and improve formal qualifications (to send a positive ‘signal’) or to spend more time in firms (e.g. to counteract possible discrimination processes or to generate new network ties). It is also unclear who benefits most depending on previous school-leaving certificates. We address these questions by using rich data from the German National Educational Panel Study and apply entropy balancing as a matching approach to control for selection. We find that both attaining a higher school certificate and spending time in firms improve low-achieving youth’s chances to enter apprenticeships. However, only those who attained a higher-level school certificate are able to enter higher-status training occupations afterwards. Moreover, prevocational programmes are most beneficial for the most disadvantaged.

中文翻译：

---

改善正式资格或公司联系-是什么因素支持德国低成就的毕业生中成功的从学校到工作的过渡？

摘要：

许多国家已经实施了青年（失业）计划，以帮助低成就的年轻人，以改善他们的就业前景。在德国，这些年轻人经常被安排参加职前培训课程，以通过提供“第二次机会”进入学徒制（充当进入德国劳动力市场的机会）来防止他们长期受“伤痕累累”。但是，这些程序的实用性受到了质疑。尚不清楚对于年轻人而言，投资于教育和提高正式资格（发送积极的“信号”）或在企业中花费更多的时间（例如，抵消可能的歧视程序或建立新的网络联系）是否（更多）有用。 ）。还不清楚谁最受益，取决于以前的毕业证书。我们通过使用来自德国国家教育小组研究的丰富数据来解决这些问题，并将熵平衡作为匹配方法来控制选择。我们发现，获得高中毕业证书和在公司中度过的时间都会提高成就不佳的年轻人进入学徒期的机会。但是，只有那些获得了更高级别的学校证书的人之后才能进入更高地位的培训职业。而且，职前培训课程对处境最不利的人最有利。只有那些获得更高级别学校证书的人之后才能进入更高级别的培训职业。而且，职前培训课程对处境最不利的人最有利。只有那些获得更高级别学校证书的人之后才能进入更高级别的培训职业。而且，职前培训课程对处境最不利的人最有利。