Changing Pattern of Youth Education in Austria in the 1990s

The 1990s showed a marked improvement in the education level attained by young people in Austria. The young no longer enter the labour market immediately after compulsory schooling to the same extent as in the past: only about 12 percent in contrast to 16 percent in the late 1980s. The proportion of 16-year-olds choosing higher education instead of medium upper secondary education is greater than a decade ago. In the main, education has shifted away from apprenticeship training to vocational college. As a result, about 42 percent of today's young have a baccalaureate ("Matura"), in contrast to 31 percent in the late 1980s, and slightly more than half of all baccalaureates are awarded by vocational colleges. However, the rising number of baccalaureates, i.e., of young people eligible for university education without prior entrance exams, does not automatically translate into an equivalent rise in the number of students entering universities. This is because about 75 percent of youth graduating with a baccalaureate from a vocational college enter the labour market immediately, while about 75 percent of those with a general education baccalaureate take the university path. Thus only about 22 percent of a youth cohort went to university at the end of the 1990s compared to 16 percent at the end of the 1980s. The rising educational attainment level of youth has failed to bring about a marked reduction in gender segmentation of upper secondary or higher education. In middle and upper secondary education, girls continue to cluster in colleges focussing on commercial subjects and hospitality services, while boys concentrate on technically orientated apprenticeship education and vocational colleges. Only the general education stream of upper secondary education has a more balanced gender distribution of students.