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Germany's youth employment recipe
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- Category: Youth News
- Created on Sunday, 13 May 2012 00:00
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Germany's youth employment recipe
Good training is a key to entering the work force. So why do many European countries have such high youth unemployment rates, despite graduating many well-trained people? And why is Germany different?
By Hilmar Schneider, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
It is not especially surprising that the unemployment rate of young people in most countries is higher than general unemployment. But what stands out is how those rates compare across European countries. In countries like Spain, where youth unemployment was traditionally very high, it has skyrocketed to above 40 percent in the wake of the financial crisis.
In Germany, using the same method of calculation, the rate is around 10 percent and appears to have little to do with the economic crisis.
Regulation creates obstacles for youth
It also stands out that youth unemployment tends especially high in countries with the tightest restrictions in place on the job market. In places that offer workers strong protection against being fired, young people find it especially hard to gain a foothold in the work force. As long as they remain a blank slate in terms of work experience, few employers are willing to take a chance on letting in a bad employee who will be difficult to fire.
Those facts raise a clear question. Germany has a strongly regulated job market, so why is its youth unemployment so much lower than elsewhere?
The secret to success?
The answer lies in Germany's dual education system, which exists in the same form in just a few other countries like Austria and Switzerland. In Germany, more than half of each age-group graduate from dual training programs in which they simultaneously earn academic credentials along with gaining work experience, rather than attending classes alone like in many other countries.
This style of training brings future job applicants in closer contact with the job market and generates more reliability when it comes to qualification standards. It also offers a long period in which employers can get to know young employees, offering managers a relatively reliable insight into trainees' skills and potential for development. That limits employers' risks when taking on young workers.
The system functions so effectively that Germany's youth unemployment rate is lower than in countries with more open job market regulations. In Great Britain, for example, the rate is double that of Germany's, although the percentage of university degree-holders is also nearly double that of Germany.
Symbiosis
Without the dual training system, Germany's youth unemployment rate would likely be similar to that of France or Italy. It is the necessary answer to a strongly regulated job market. And without tight controls on firing workers, the dual training system probably would not exist because when companies have the ability to part with employees more or less at will, the risk of making bad personnel decisions becomes less weighty. The necessity of financing a costly internal training system evaporates. In Germany, job market regulations and the dual training system have apparently formed a fruitful symbiotic relationship.
But this model of success would likely be difficult to export. Since training programs are expensive for companies, those headquartered in countries with weak job market regulation will have little reason to introduce such programs on a large scale. But in countries that have tight labor laws, the initial costs of setting up such a system act as a major obstacle to creating a country-wide network of training options.
Criticism from the OECD
Regardless, the OECD never seems to tire of criticize Germany for investing too little in education. The country, it says, keeps falling behind when it comes to graduating more highly-trained young people. These figures rely primarily on measuring the number of people with college and graduate degrees as well as the percentage of public spending on education measured against GDP.
The OECD appears to overlook the evident danger in systems that emphasize theoretical or university-oriented training. They may educate their students with little concern for the demands of the marketplace. Examining educational spending as a percentage of GDP also creates a misleading picture. A significant proportion of Germany's education costs fall on the companies that operate training programs in contrast with countries in which the educational system assumes most of the responsibility for preparing young people to get jobs.
The value of educational programs lies not in their input but in their output. And Germany, with its dual training system, has little reason to be shy.
Author: Hilmar Schneider / gsw Editor: Neil King
Dr. Hilmar Schneider is Director of Labor Policy at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). His most important publications cover the labor market effects of replacement wages, the labor market perspectives of East Germany, the efficiency of active labor policy in the transformation process, and the welfare state perspectives of Europe.
Source: Deutsche Welle, 02 May 2012
No commentsProfessor: Hard work not key to better grades
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- Created on Sunday, 29 April 2012 00:00
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Professor: Hard work not key to better grades
Rolf Schulmeister is calling for changes to the way university degrees are structured.
Over three years, Hamburg professor Rolf Schulmeister examined the learning patterns of German students as part of a one-off international study. The recently published results make for sobering reading, as it appears that academic achievement and effort have little to do with each another. Schulmeister is calling for reforms to university degree courses.
DW: If making more effort does not lead to better grades, then what does? Sheer intelligence?
Rolf Schulmeister: Good heavens, no! It is not about intelligence. It's not about talent, but the motivation to learn. This is reflected in different patterns of learning and can mean that students are easily distracted, or that when confronted with difficult texts, statistics or mathematics, they say, "I'll do that next week." And the way degree courses are organized with eight to 12 seminars per week exacerbates this problem. Students are unsure about which seminars they really need to study for.
{sidebar id=11 align=right}In your study, for which hundreds of students kept learning diaries, there appears to be five different types of learners. Which types of learners achieve especially good results at university, and which do not?
The highest achieving learners are the "self-determined learners," who demonstrate a strong ability to concentrate and can study very attentively over the course of an hour. Because of that, they achieve more than other students. The opposite of that are learners who demonstrate "study avoidance." When things become challenging, they resort to diversionary measures such as television or Facebook. They like to put off tasks for later. Then they start studying at the last minute before exams.
You have been researching the expenditure of time and the success of German students in your "Time Burden" study since 2009. In it you determined that students only allocate around 23 hours per week to their university studies. Nevertheless, they complain about the amount of stress they are under. Is that related to their learning behavior?
On the one hand, it is related to their learning behavior, but on the other hand it is related to the structure of degree courses. In German universities, far too many seminars are offered in a subject per week, which focus on a whole range of different topics. Students are unsure as to which topics they should be concentrating on. Then four months later, in January or in July, all the exams covering all the different topics take place. That is really threatening for many students.
How should degree courses be organized in order to make it easier for students to learn?
As part of the study, in a number of engineering and computer science degree courses we offered the modules - which bachelor's degrees now consist of - in the form of blocks. The modules are taught over the course of four-week blocks and not spread over the 14 weeks of each semester. Students are then able to concentrate on specific topics. With success: The students suddenly invest 34 hours as opposed to 23 hours in their studies. In computer science degrees in St. Pölten, we could see that the students' grades on the final exam improved by one-and-a-half levels.
That means that you are calling for block learning in German universities. Would that make sense in all degree subjects?
There are enough programs in which there are electives aside from the major subject. That means that block learning could easily be introduced. We did it at the Technical University of Ilmenau, so that students had block seminars on three days and elective seminars for the other two. Many universities in Canada run seminars only for half days, for four to five hours. That's also a possible model.
You completed your "Time Burden" study early this year. There have been many discussions about it in Germany. Have your findings led to any changes at universities?
At the Technical Museum of Ilmenau changes have been made and a so-called foundation semester has been introduced, during which a similar block pattern of learning occurs. Other universities are still trying out the recommendations in pilot courses, and in St. Pölten in Austria a Day of Teaching was recently held. It was attended by university rectors and many of them signed up for pilot schemes.
Interview: Sabine Damaschke / hw Editor: Kate Bowen / sgb
Source: Deutsche Welle
Six Arrested For Examination Malpractice
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- Created on Saturday, 21 April 2012 00:00
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Education
Six Arrested For Examination Malpractice
Six people, including three teachers, two invigilators and a student have been arrested for allegedly attempting to compromise the integrity of the on-going Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
They are being held by the police to assist in their investigation.
William Amexo, the Regional Coordinator of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the suspects were picked at different examination centres in Kumasi and the Bosomtwe District.
He gave the names of the teachers as Jonas Barnie, Charles Osei and Andrews Wiredu.
Elijah Opoku and Daniel Asumadu are the invigilators whilst 17-year-old Dawud Mohammed, is a student of the Islamic Call Basic School.
Mr Amexo said they were caught as they tried to smuggle foreign materials including cellular phones and papers containing answers to some of the examination questions to candidates.
He insisted that there had not been any leakage of the papers in the region and that some of the invigilators collaborated with the teachers hanging around the centres to solve the questions and attempted to pass on the answers to their students.
Mr. Amexo said they had put in place adequate security measures to prevent cheating, and offenders would be appropriately sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others.
In related development, Breman Asikuma police on Monday arrested Veronica Mensah, a teacher for giving answers to a candidate writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) at Breman.
Asikuma Senior High School Examination Centre.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Seth Tay told the Deputy Minister of Education, Elizabeth Amoah Tetteh during her visit to the examination centres in the Central region on Tuesday.
DSP Tay said on Monday, Michael Ampomah Oboubi, an Officer of the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) supervising the examination at the centre, saw Mrs. Mensah dictating some answers from her phone to one of the candidates during the writing of the English Objective Paper.
He said the WAEC officer seized the mobile phone and saw text messages containing correct answers to the questions.
DSP Tay, the Acting District Police Commander for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, said Mrs Mensah would be put before court after police investigations, adding that Mrs. Mensah refused to disclose the identity of the person who sent her the answers.
Kofi Sarfo Kantanka, Regional Director of Education, who was accompanying the Deputy Minister, appealed to the invigilators to remain calm and desist from acts that could disturb the examinations.
Mr Oboubi, later in an interview with GNA, said he had seized three mobile phones from the students contrary to the rules and regulations of the examination.
He said other GES officers in the District who were monitoring the examination centres had also seized about 20 mobile phones from the candidates.
Isaac Amonoo, the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa Director of Education, told the GNA that the invigilators threatened to go on strike when Mrs. Mensah was arrested.
GNA
Legal Council Tightens Lid On Lawyer Training
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- Created on Friday, 27 April 2012 00:00
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Legal Council Tightens Lid On Lawyer Training
The Ghana General Legal Council, the oversight body of the Ghana Law School, has initiated a number of strict reforms and entry requirements into the Ghana Law School.
The reforms are aimed at considerably sieving the number of law graduates that the school admits while boosting the quality of professional lawyers that pass out of the institution annually.
With the proposed reform, graduate lawyers (LL.B) aspiring to practice professionally, would have to undergo rigorous vetting before gaining admission into the law school, including subjecting applicants to an extensive interview session to assess the personal background of applicants, the Director of the Ghana Law School, G.A Sarpong, stated at a stakeholders’ forum held on Friday to discuss the new proposals.
{sidebar id=11 align=right}In the new structure, students will need to undertake a lot more courses in their undergraduate level to qualify for professional studies. Initially, law undergraduates studied approximately seven key courses including; Law of Contracts, Law of Torts, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, etc.
Now, about four additional courses, including contemporary law courses such as Natural Resource Law, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Law, Taxation Law etc, have been added to the basket of courses that LL.B students should study and pass as a prerequisite for admission into the Ghana Law School.
These reforms, according to members of the legal council, will take effect from next academic year (2013).
Currently, there are about seven different universities offering law courses in Ghana, these schools churn out approximately 600 graduates each year, however, the Ghana Law School can only admit 300 students at a time, meaning about 300 students will forfeit the chance of advancing their professional aspirations.
“Not every LL.B graduate would be admitted to the Law School,” Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, a member of the General Council and a Judge in the Supreme Court, told industry stakeholders.
“You can produce law graduates, but to produce lawyers who would practice law, then they must meet the requirements of the General Legal Council.”
“If you run a university, go ahead, but if you want to run a degree for people who want to be admitted to the Law School, then you have to be mindful of the new reforms,” Justice Brobbey cautioned universities offering law courses in the country.
The proposal has received mixed reactions among legal practitioners.
Though some say it would improve the quality of professional legal practitioners passing out of the Law School yearly, others see the reforms as a ploy by the General Legal Council to limit access to professional legal education in the country.
“The stance of limiting entry into the Law School is indefensible, in modern times, one does not need a Law School to be able to acquire the necessary skills sets to be able to practice law,” said Professor Kwame Frimpong, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
“The current practice of trying to control the training of professionals [in the Law community] is indefensible, to put it bluntly, that stance is outmoded.”
Some lawyers told DAILY GUIDE that the move by the General Legal Council has a lot more to do with protectionism and conservationism than ensuring the required quality.
Professor Jenny Hamilton, the Director of Undergraduate Law Programme at the University of London, told the paper that many countries face the headache of improving the environment for professional legal education, but have focused on increasing access to professional legal education.
According to Professor Hamilton, the UK, instead of capping the numbers, adopted a two-pronged strategy, where mechanisms were put in place to ensure quality education while expanding access to professional legal education at the same time.
In Ghana, practicing lawyers are concentrated mostly in the three major cities in the country- Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi because of the limited number of qualified practitioners in the country.
One institution that is bearing the brunt of this deficiency is the Attorney Generals Department, which has about 200 lawyers instead of 1,000. “Go through the process and look at the kind of cases one attorney handles a day in court, and you will see that we are seriously understaffed,” Ebo Barton Odro told DAILY GUIDE.
By Raphael Adeniran Source: Daily Guide
IMANI and the Great Education Debate: Separating Fact from Fiction
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- Created on Thursday, 19 April 2012 00:00
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Education
IMANI and the Great Education Debate: Separating Fact from Fiction
In recent years, the IMANI Center for Policy and Education has played a critical role in at least keeping the public aware of certain important national development issues...More Details