Is vocational education and training becoming obsolete?

The Federal Republic of Germany has been experiencing a rise in the proportion of persons completing the upper secondary school leaving certificate for several decades. This development is associated with a higher propensity on the part of school leavers to seek to enter higher education and with a decline in dual vocational education and training. The introduction of three-year bachelor programmes of study has given rise to the question of whether companies prefer skilled workers with an academic degree over those with a vocational qualification for the performance of tasks at the intermediate professional and management level. The article investigates this issue in the sectors of commerce, logistics, banking and tourism and presents relevant results from a BIBB research project.