Table 1 Descriptions of independent and control variables
Construct | Operationalization and scale information | Time of measurement |
|---|---|---|
Low educational qualification | No or a low school-leaving qualification achieved in general education | At time of leaving general education |
Poor GPA | Average grade point average on school-leaving report > 3.0 | At time of leaving general education |
Graduation after more than the typical number of years | Accomplishment of educational qualification in more than the typical number of years of general education | At time of leaving general education |
Participating in a prevocational program before VET | Participation in a prevocational program before beginning VET | At time of transition from school to VET |
Migration background | Born abroad or at least one parent is born abroad | Wave 1 (autumn 2010), wave 2 (summer 2011), wave 3 (2011/2012), wave 4 (2012/2013) |
Low parental education | No parent achieved an upper secondary school certificate, a VET or a higher educational qualification | If available, information on parental education was used from the parents’ survey, otherwise data from the adolescents’ survey. This information was collected in different waves |
Low parental occupational status | The highest parental ISEI-08 score is lower than two-thirds of all parents in the NEPS (ISEI-08 ≤ 32.50) | See above information on parental education |
Failure to realize the desired occupation | Match of last known intended training application before beginning VET and realized training occupation | Before beginning VET program |
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness | Big Five Inventory with two items per dimension (FI-10; Rammstedt and John 2007), expansion of agreeableness by a third variable | Wave 1 (autumn 2010) |
Self-efficacy | Scale of Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1999) | Wave 5 (2012/2013) |
Sex (female) | Females are coded as 1 | Different waves |
Training in eastern federal states | Beginning of the first VET program in an eastern federal state in Germany (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia) | Episode of first VET program |
Training in school-based VET system | Beginning of the first VET program in a vocational school (Berufsfachschule, Fachschule or Schule des Gesundheitswesens) | Episode of first VET program |
Time spent in first VET program until PTT (in months) | Training duration in first VET program | Episode of first VET program |