For years now, U.S. educators have invested massive amounts of talent
and money on two goals:
- preventing students from dropping out of high
school and
- increasing the percentage of high school graduates who go on
to college.
We do everything possible to encourage college attendance. In the
2011-12 academic year, for example, one program alone—the federal
Pell Grant program,
intended to help low- and moderate-income students finance college—cost
taxpayers $34.5 billion, about half the entire U.S. Department of
Education budget.
Yet many Pell Grant recipients never graduate. They flounder; they drop out; they become statistics.
How can we prevent such waste?
A new
report
from the College Board, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, offers a variety of useful ideas, such as larger grants for
students who take heavier college course loads. Tougher schedules show
that students are serious about graduating.
That’s one good approach. But let me suggest another, which Germany has pioneered.
Our friends in Germany know—as we should—that some students are bored
by traditional studies; some don’t have the aptitude for college; some
would rather work with their hands; and some are unhappy at home and
just need to get away. They realize that everyone won’t benefit from
college, but they can still be successful and contribute to society.
Americans often see such students as victims.
Germans see these
students as potential assets who might one day shine if they’re matched
with the right vocation. And it has a system in place—a partnership of
employers and unions with government—to do the matching and provide the
necessary training.
As the
New York Times Magazine recently noted,
Germany’s vocational education program doesn’t focus entirely on
factory work. Consider the story of the noted chef Claus-Peter Lumpp. “Lumpp’s culinary ascent began with the simple urge to drop out of high school around the time of his 16th birthday,” the
Times’
Nicholas Kulish reported. “His widowed mother had remarried, and the
family moved to another town. Everything felt off: the new school, the
new people. His mother gave him permission to leave school, but only if
he found an apprenticeship.” Lumpp found that apprenticeship in the
kitchen of the Hotel Bareiss. Today, Lumpp’s
Restaurant Bareiss
has a three-star rating from the prestigious Michelin guide—and most of
the chefs in his kitchen were mentored under the same system that
brought his talents to the fore.
As a result of this system, few Germans find themselves unemployable.
The youth unemployment rate, for example, was just 7.7 percent in
February, well below that of the
U.S.
(16.2 percent officially, excluding those who have dropped out of the
labor market) and the euro zone as a whole (23.9 percent). Overall
unemployment in Germany was just 5.4 percent in February.
Administered by the
Federal Institute for Vocational Training and Education,
Germany’s vocational education program is
a dual system: Students learn
in the classroom, and they learn by doing. Typically, trainees attend
vocational school one or two days per week, studying the theory and
practice of their occupation as well as economics and social studies,
foreign languages, and other general subjects. They also do a working
apprenticeship in their chosen field. During this period, trainees
receive about one-third of the salary of a trained skilled worker.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, a majority of German students
(some 51.5 percent) choose this path.
America for too long has attempted a cookie-cutter approach to
secondary education: Stay in school; go to college; and we’ll all be
happy. To our continued consternation, it doesn’t always work.
If America wants to remain competitive, we have to keep our young
people engaged. Germany has the right formula. U.S. business and
political leaders should learn from the German approach and invest in
creating and supporting a German-style vocational education system.
Businesses will get the skilled workers they need, young people will see
new career opportunities open up to them, our middle class will be
strengthened, and our economy will benefit.
