What are the rationales of decision-making when small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) allocate their apprenticeship places to school leavers? An interview-based approach was used to examine the organisational logics of decision-making and how applicant characteristics such as gender, nationality, and school achievement become relevant in the context of trainee selection. We followed unsuccessful applications by numerous school leavers in 2004/05 for the following apprenticeships: automobile painters, mechanics, carpenters, dental and medical assistants, and clerks. The combination of company and trainee candidate data comprised 67 SMB and 89 applicants. In addition, 14 further training firms were examined (N=81 SMB altogether). The documented interviews with training experts in the firms were interpreted using argumentation analysis. Due to a lack of knowledge in the research field, the study aims more at a comprehensive than for a representative reconstruction of trainee selection activities.

The selection procedures and criteria turned out to be inconsistent in the firms investigated. Procedures seem to differ not only within a trade but oftentimes within a single firm as well. Correspondingly, no generalizable "killer criteria" could be found above the level of the single firm. More adequately the relevance of particular selection criteria can be metaphorically described as a mosaic. In the end, an interwoven tangle of diverse criteria serves to justify the selection of a candidate for an apprenticeship. The statistically known differences in the accessibility of apprenticeships by gender and ethnicity can not be explained on the basis of vocational competencies relevant for the jobs. Instead, analyses of the differences with reference to the organisational exclusion of "foreigners" from training point to presumptions and fears on the part of the companies that significantly structure the selection of trainees. Generalized assumptions that operations troubles will result with regard to specific groups of applicants ("foreigners" in general, or foreign men working in dental and medical surgeries in particular) are made independently of individual competencies. But the organisational exclusion of "foreigners" is hardly ever justified in public using the reconstructed organizational apprehensions. Instead, generalized attributions in line with the prevalent ideology of merit and achievement are offered (notably the argument of "language and school deficits"). However, our results show that school achievement is not as all-important in trainee selection by small firms as is generally supposed.

The results allow for developing recommendations to avoid the organisational exclusion of disadvantaged applicants in the context of trainee selection:

- Systematic promotion of in-house skilled workers having a disadvantaged background (for example, migration experience) to the position of trainers; this lowers problematic attributions at a selection level.
- The creation of short-term traineeship for disadvantaged youth enables trainers to recognize their potential for the firm.
- Further education of trainers aiming at: (1) reducing company fears by confrontation with positive opposite images of productive trainees from disadvantaged backgrounds, (2) developing an organizational culture of self-reflection about the company's own selection activities.
- (Special needs) schools should avoid stigmatizing pupils with special educational needs. Remedial teaching should be carried out as unnoticed as possible. Integrative forms of instruction are well suited to do so.
- Reorientation in policymaking of transitional solutions between secondary school and vocational education and training: Establishment of institutions that see themselves as facilitators matching disadvantaged school leavers with training firms' needs (thus relieving the latter of the burden of trainee selection).
- Increased institutionalization of practical vocational trainings (certificate programs) for disadvantaged youth in a greater number of vocational fields.
- Small trades' customers can use their purchasing power to address the issue of trainee selection and to put the firms under more pressure for justification.
- Entrepreneurs and business partners can make use of their business connections to demand fairness in the selection of trainees.
- Professional and trade associations can award certificates of recognition to firms that train disadvantaged youth.
- Close relatives and teachers should encourage school leavers not to see their failure to find apprenticeship places as personal failure. Disadvantaged youth need to be supported (financial, advisory, or therapeutic) in their application efforts, sometimes for a long period.

However, one has to consider that under the condition of zero-sum games on the apprenticeship market - that is, when there is an insufficient supply of training spots - the integration of disadvantaged youth always happens at the expense of other school leavers (of newly disadvantaged groups).

More informations about the project

What are the rationales of decision-making criteria in the selection of young vocational trainees in small and medium-sized businesses (SMB)? The study aims to theorize admittance into the dual vocational training system from the perspective of the companies and to increase companies' awareness of the need for measures to promote integration.

Background
School qualifications and social networks explain only in part why a young person is granted a place as a trainee. For even when these factors are taken into account, there are considerable unequal training opportunities according to gender and country of origin. Successful admission into the vocational training system is essential for integration in the world of work and in society. Although a majority of Swiss young people are trained for the world of work in small and medium-sized businesses, it is surprising that there has been hardly any research on the mechanisms of their selection of trainees.

Aim and method
The project is analysing the lines of argumentation used in company sense-making about decisions in order to derive the norms used in the process of selecting trainees. It intends to arrive at a better understanding of the trainee selection effects evident in the education statistics by approaching the issue from the company side. In addition, the study wants to establish what emphasis is laid on lower formal school qualifications in the selection of vocational trainees. The reality of the selection process in small and medium-sized businesses is being analysed using a combination of company and trainee candidate data. This makes it possible to set the data on individuals in relation to the data on companies. Documented interviews with experts form the empirical basis of the argumentation analysis.

Significance
The research project is examining small and medium-sized companies as the route of access to explaining admittance into the dual vocational training system. From a social scientific perspective this will make an important contribution towards increasing the understanding of the selection of young people for job training after basic primary and secondary school. Up to now, the discourse in research and in the general public has focused on the individual and based mainly on the example of very large organizations. As an important complement, the present study takes the opposite, organization-centred tack and uncovers the realities of the selection process in small and medium-sized businesses. The findings will provide a basis for future thinking about ways to sensitize these selective gatekeepers to vocational training to the need for measures to promote integration.

Proposal no. 405140-69088

Grant CHF 286'870.-

Duration 01.12.2003-30.11.2006

Prof. Urs Haeberlin
Heilpädagogisches Institut
Universität Freiburg
Petrus-Kanisius-Gasse 21
1700 Fribourg
Tel. +41 (0)26 300 77 05
urs.haeberlin@unifr.ch
www.lehrlingsselektion.info

Further contact person
Dr. Christian Imdorf
Laboratoire d¹Economie et de Sociologie du Travail
35 Avenue Jules Ferry
F-13626 Aix en Provence cedex
Telefon +33 (0) 4 42 37 85 00 (centrale)
Telefax +33 (0) 4 42 26 79 37
christian.imdorf@unibas.ch
www.lehrlingsselektion.info

Publications

Imdorf, Ch. (2006). Der Ausschluss ‚ausländischer’ Jugendlicher bei der Lehrlingsauswahl. Ein Fall von institutioneller Diskriminierung? Working paper.
Imdorf_DGS06.pdf (280 KB)

Imdorf, Ch. (2006). The selection of trainees in small and medium-sized enterprises. Integration and exclusion of immigrant youth at the transitional stage between school and vocational training in Switzerland. Working paper.
ISA_Durban06_Imdorf.pdf (1,4MB)

Imdorf, Christian (2005), Lehrlingsselektion in kleinen und mittleren Betrieben (KMU), in: Vierteljahresschrift für Heilpädagogik und ihre Nachbargebiete, 74, Bd. 1, S. 53-54

Imdorf, Christian (2004), Geschlechtsspezifische Selektion bei der Ausbildungsplatzvergabe, in: Schweizerische Konferenz der Gleichstellungsbeauftragten (Hrsg.), Achtung Gender. Ausbildungsverhalten von Mädchen und jungen Frauen: Trends und Tipps, SVB, Zürich, S. 99-112

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