In the sociology of education there is a problem of the middle: they are mostly interested in the beginning and the end of educational paths.

So the first years at primary schools and the graduates of academic education.

By far the most popular question here is about the reproduction or correction of social stratification through the education system, culminating in the chances of the working-class child to get a university degree.

On the other hand, the middle of the vocational training paths, i.e. the middle school degrees, vocational training and higher qualifications such as master craftsman or business administrator, remains underexposed.

She owed it an answer to the question of why the rare promotion of said working-class children to academics was so much more important than the much more frequent social advancement through higher vocational training.

The assumption that academically trained sociologists are more interested in their own kind than in the world of crafts points to a blind effect of the subject, which it shares with society.

In general, two convictions prevail here: first, that more and more academics are needed in our economy, and second, that there will always be enough young people for whom higher vocational training is still more attractive than technical colleges and universities.

But then came Bologna.

Why go to the trouble of getting a master's degree?

The reform of the European higher education system initiated in 1999 has been intensively researched into its effects on academic education.

But the same applies here: their effect on vocational training paths has attracted little interest.

It is nevertheless obvious to fear that the bachelor's degree will devalue the higher professional qualifications.

This is obvious because the bachelor's degree is formally equivalent to the master's degree and the business administration or specialist degree.

Did the bachelor's degree trigger cut-throat competition at the expense of higher vocational training?

If more and more of a birth cohort complete the Abitur and push their way into universities, this would not necessarily lead to a loss of attractiveness of non-academic educational paths.

But the danger of marginalization is obvious if it also reduces the chances of exploitation.

Why go to the trouble of getting a master's degree when you can earn the same income with a bachelor's degree, which can be achieved much faster?

Anja Hall has now presented one of the first studies on this subject.

She was able to access the data from surveys by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training from 2006 and 2018.

Hall's findings could be read as an all-clear: No, she could not confirm the thesis that higher professional qualifications were clearly displaced and devalued by the bachelor's degree.

In this respect, the dual training system has not suffered any loss of attractiveness as a result of Bologna.

Better solid vocational training than narrow-track studies

One could say: It passed the robustness test that Bologna triggered.

So did everyone gain from this reform?

Hall's study shows that is not the case.

The comparison of the two graduation cohorts before and after Bologna refers to the falling educational returns of academics, not of those with vocational training: the later cohort achieves highly qualified jobs less often than those before Bologna.

As a result, the wage bonuses compared to those with dual training have also decreased, says Hall.

Compared to those with dual training, those with academic qualifications from the 2006-2017 cohort (i.e. mostly bachelor’s degrees) have less of a chance of finding a highly qualified job than those from the 1994-2005 cohort.

Bologna, one could conclude from these results, had two winners and one loser.

The winners were those who were able to maintain their privileged position on the job market with a master's degree.

Those with a solid higher education in the dual system also won, and were not only able to defend their position on the labor market, but were even able to improve it against the losers of the reform.

These are obviously those who only complete their vocational training with a bachelor's degree: not academically enough, and too impractical for the needs of the training occupations.

This is a remarkable finding because it could help to explain another trend: namely, that despite the increasing number of high school graduates, the number of first-year students tends to stagnate.

There are still educational politicians

who complain, but Hall's study points in a different direction: It may clearly be a better choice to opt for a higher professional education than the commodity bachelor's degree.

This is good news for both universities and training companies.