Apprenticeship and After: Does it Really Matter?

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for 1984 - 1990, I analyze the entrance of young individuals into the German labor market. The experience of apprentices is compared to the experience of graduates from universities, full-time vocational schools, and secondary schools. The main findings are: apprentices experience fewer unemployment spells in the transition to their first full-time employment than non-apprentices; among apprentices those trained in large firms have the smoothest transition to employment; once employed, however, apprentices (whether they stay in their training firm or not) and non-apprentices look very similar in terms of job stability (tenure); and an estimated 70 percent of trainees leave their training firm within a 5 year period. The findings are consistent with the view that apprenticeship training generates general, portable skills rather than firm-specific skills.