The impact of the German VET system on labour market segregation and gendered professions

This is a Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC) seminar taking place at Leeds University Business School on Wednesday 5 June 2019

All with an interest in the topic are welcome to this seminar.

When? On Wednesday, 5 June, 4 - 5pm

Where? At the University of Leeds, EC Stoner Building, Room 7.73

Presenter: Dr Simone Haasler, GESIS Institute

ABSTRACT 

The presentation will discuss the specific German nexus between the vocational education and training system, the labour market system and social welfare and family policies, which results in perpetuating gendered occupations, career pathways and labour market segregation. Reconstructing the parallel structure of ‘dual’ and ‘school-based’ vocational routes reveals the close connection between the German vocational training system and the segmentation of the labour market by gender. The legacy of semi-professionalism in female-dominated occupations like childcare or nursing is not just rooted in the nature of training and working conditions, but complexly interlinks with the prevalence of the male breadwinner model sustained by social policy regulations and the German taxation system, among other mechanisms. Thereby, highly standardised and stratified educational and occupational routes that ensure the tight coupling between skills formation and occupational labour markets make it difficult to alter once selected career tracks, for example through further learning. For women, two dominant patterns can be observed: First horizontal career mobility rather than progressive careers, and second, the stabilisation of precarious employment in the female-dominated social services.

For further information, please contact ceric@leeds.ac.uk

We look forward to seeing you there.

About the speaker

Simone Haasler is Head of the Department of Knowledge Transfer of GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Bremen. Between 2001 and 2017 she worked as Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Social Policy Research (now SOCIUM) and as Research Coordinator at the Centre for Labour and Civic Education (zap) of the University of Bremen. Her area of expertise include labour markt developments; employment and skills; work trajectories and learning biographies; lifelong learning; international comparative approaches and qualitative methods.