In Germany, 14 percent of adults aged 25 to 64 have neither completed vocational training nor a high school diploma.

This emerges from the OECD study “Education at a Glance 2021”, which was published in Berlin on Thursday.

Heike Schmoll

Political correspondent in Berlin, responsible for the “educational worlds”.

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Other OECD countries were able to significantly reduce the proportion of low-skilled workers.

The OECD average for young adults is 15 percent, in Korea only two percent, in Switzerland six percent and in Austria eleven percent.

In Germany, on the other hand, the share of 13 percent of low-skilled young adults remains more or less stable.

Share of low-wage earners in Germany is very high

60 percent of low-skilled adults in Germany are gainfully employed.

The proportion of low-wage earners and low-skilled workers is higher in Germany than in hardly any other OECD country.

Adults with a migration background generally have fewer educational opportunities than young adults without a history of migration. In almost all OECD countries, the chances of first- or second-generation immigrants in upper secondary education are lower than those of young people without a migration background.

Gender-specific differences are also large. While boys are overrepresented in vocational training and often take part in formal further training, women mostly take a course in higher education, but are less likely to be found in further training. Investments in education are of great importance, but high investments do not always guarantee high quality. Germany invests 4.3 percent of the gross domestic product in education, the OECD countries an average of 4.9 percent. The OECD recommends that educational spending should be checked more closely for its effectiveness.

In addition to the data on various educational opportunities, the study also contains a special brochure on schools in the pandemic. While some countries kept their schools open during the pandemic, primary and secondary schools in Germany were also affected by closings for a particularly long time in the second Corona year. Primary schools in this country were closed for 40 days, while the national average was only 19 days; at lower secondary level it was as much as 60 days compared to the national average of 27 days.

Overall, classes in general upper secondary education were disrupted for a total of 186 days between January 2020 and May 2021. Almost all OECD countries try to provide additional support for students in difficult learning environments at home. 19 OECD countries and partner countries, including Germany, have prioritized vaccination teachers.