Trajectories of the School-to-Work Transition in the U.S. and Germany: Effects of Different Educational Systems on the “Forgotten Half”

Corinne Alfeld

What happens to U.S. youth who don’t enroll in a 4-year college? Evidence shows that many drift in and out of jobs and community/technical colleges, often without receiving credentials or other resources that would put them on a career path. What happens to these individuals in young adulthood? If they do get training, a degree, or a certification, where do they do so and is it sufficient? Developmental researchers such as Arnett (2000b) have identified a new, normative period of time called “emerging adulthood” where young people may still be exploring their options. Is this really developmentally beneficial? Or would young people who don’t pursue a 4-year college degree be better served by a more structured training system such as that of Germany? There may be developmental costs and benefits of each system. U.S. educators and policymakers have neglected the important question of the overall influences of educational experiences (or lack thereof) on the lives of young people. This research project will compare similar longitudinal datasets from the U.S. and Germany to better understand the trajectories of different kinds of students during the transition to young adulthood in two industrialized countries with very different secondary and post-secondary educational systems.

About Corinne Alfeld

Corinne Alfeld is a research associate currently serving as the Deputy Director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Minnesota. After receiving her Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Michigan in 1999, she spent one year as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany studying the difference in educational structures for non-university bound students in Germany and the United States. After returning to the U.S., she worked as a research analyst at the National Science Foundation and the United Negro College Fund in the Washington, DC area before moving to Minnesota. Her interests focus on access to secondary and post-secondary educational and work opportunities for less advantaged populations of adolescents and young adults. Her perspectives are those of developmental psychology, sociology, and educational policy.