Wr. Heinz et al., VOCATIONAL-TRAINING AND CAREER-DEVELOPMENT IN GERMANY - RESULTS FROM A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY, International journal of behavioral development, 22(1), 1998, pp. 77-101
The present paper presents empirical results from a German panel study
which collected longitudinal data regarding the job entry of young ad
ults in six of the top training occupations in the service and technic
al-industrial sectors. The data clearly demonstrate the influence of g
ender and social origin on the access to training in particular occupa
tions. Furthermore, the existence of gender and occupation-specific pa
tterns of career development is demonstrated. However, the apprentices
hip system also provides mobility opportunities which depend on the sp
ecific training occupation. Moving along a certain occupational pathwa
y results in an interplay between the structural opportunities and con
straints of occupational contexts, on the one hand, and the young work
ers' aspirations and orientations, on the other. These orientations an
d aspirations were investigated with qualitative methods which helped
to identify different modes of biographical action orientations of you
ng workers.