Zur Übereinstimmung von Ausbildung und Arbeitsplatzanforderungen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (On the correspondence of training and job requirements in the Federal Republic of Germany)

"The correspondence of qualifications gained and those actually required constitutes an important research subject in many respects. It can amongst other things provide contributions to research into inequality, mobility, status inconsistency, and transformation and not least contributions to training and labour market policy. The study of the adequacy of training and education therefore follows the present discussion regarding the attractiveness of the dual training system compared with higher education. Some of the questions are as follows: Are workers with vocational qualifications or those with university educations more likely to be able to use their skills and knowledge at their place of work these days? To what extent does the German system of initial and further training provide qualifications which are needed on the labour market? To what extent is occupational knowledge acquired in the former German Democratic Republic usable in the 'new' Federal Republic of Germany? What effect does it have on remuneration when the activity corresponds or does not correspond with the training or education? Are the corresponding 'investments' in training and education at all worthwhile if the skills and knowledge acquired are hardly used or not at all used in the end? In the empirical examination of the adequacy of training and education the operationalisation of the same plays a decisive role. In this article it is proposed to differentiate in this respect not only according to the qualification level but particularly also according to the type of qualification. For this six categories of correspondence are distinguished: 1 ) correspondence: no trai-ning/ education; 2) correspondence: training/education; 3) different occupation; 4) overquali-fied: occupation trained in; 5) overqualified: different occupation; 6) underqualified. The analyses carried out on the basis of the socio-economic panel for 1993 show clear discrepancies both for western Germans and for eastern Germans between their training or education and the requirements of their jobs. Workers with vocational qualifications claim more frequently to be overqualified than graduates of higher education do. In western Germany in particular older workers with vocational training are employed below the level of their training, in eastern Germany this affects the younger workers. Most of the overqualified workers have hardly any opportunity to use the knowledge and skills they have gained. Adisparity between the qualifizations gained and those required is an important cause of income inequalities. Although overqualified workers do earn more than adequately trained workers in the same job - so their additional knowledge and skills are not entirely worthless - they receive far less than workers with similar training or education who are adequately employed. Eastern Germans who are overqualified have to accept higher losses than western Germany. The same is true of woman compared with men." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))