Germany-Senior Secondary Education

The variety of educational programs, tracks, and opportunities available to students increases at the senior secondary level. The largest single student group attends the senior level of the Gymnasium , the Gymnasiale Oberstufe . This level includes the traditional academically oriented Gymnasium , the vocational Gymnasium , the occupation-specific Fachgymnasium , and the Gesamtschule . Graduation from these schools requires passing the Abitur , the qualifying examination for studying at the university level. Until the late 1970s, nearly everyone who passed the Abitur had access to an institution of higher education. However, in the 1980s the numerus clausus , a restrictive quota system that had been introduced for the study of medicine in the late 1960s, began to be used for other popular fields of study. Strict selection criteria limiting access to higher education had become necessary because the demand for places at universities had become much greater than the supply.

Vocational Education and Training

The German education system has been praised for its ability to provide quality general education combined with excellent specific training for a profession or a skilled occupation. In 1992 about 65 percent of the country's workforce had been trained through vocational education. In the same year, 2.3 million young people were enrolled in vocational or trade schools.

Building upon the junior secondary program, the Berufsschulen are two- and three-year vocational schools that prepare young people for a profession. In the 1992-93 academic year, there were 1.8 million enrolled in these schools. About 264,000 individuals attended Berufsfachschulen , also called intermediate technical schools (ITS). These schools usually offer full-time vocation-specific programs. They are attended by students who want to train for a specialty or those already in the workforce who want to earn the equivalent of an intermediate school certificate from a Realschule . Full-time programs take between twelve and eighteen months, and part-time programs take between three and three-and-one-half years. Other types of schools designed to prepare students for different kinds of vocational careers are the higher technical school (HTS), the Fachoberschule , attended by about 75,000 persons in 1992-93, and the advanced vocational school (AVS), the Berufsaufbauschule , attended by about 6,500 persons in the same year. Students can choose to attend one of these three kinds of schools after graduating with an intermediate school certificate from a Realschule or an equivalent school.

The method of teaching used in vocational schools is called the dual system because it combines classroom study with a work-related apprenticeship system. The length of schooling/training depends on prior vocational experience and may entail one year of full-time instruction or up to three years of part-time training.

Students can earn the Fachhochschulreife after successfully completing vocational education and passing a qualifying entrance examination. The Fachhochschulreife entitles a student to enter a Fachhochschule , or a training college, and to continue postsecondary occupational or professional training in engineering or technical fields. Such programs last from six months to three years (full-time instruction) or six to eight years (part-time instruction). Some students with many years of practical experience or those with special skills may also attend a Fachhochschule .

Vocational education and training is a joint government-industry program. The federal government and the Länder share in the financing of vocational education in public vocational schools, with the federal government bearing a slightly higher share (58 percent in 1991) than the Länder . On-the-job vocational training, whose cost is entirely borne by companies and businesses, is more costly to provide than vocational education. In the early 1990s, companies and businesses annually spent 2 percent of their payrolls on training.

Data as of August 1995