The trend towards academization in Germany continues. In the winter semester 2020 / 2021 there were around 2, 80 million students than ever at German universities enrolled. However, the number of freshmen has been falling for years; five years ago it was 0.1 percent, this year it is 4 percent less. The percentage decline in the technical subjects of electrical engineering and information technology is particularly high (- 14 percent), mechanical engineering / process engineering (- 10 percent), computer science (-5 percent). There was absolute in computer science 50. First-year students. However, the dropout rate in the subject is extremely high. But also the chance for these former students to start a dual IT training. Is dual training an adequate alternative to academic training?

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Employees currently dominate University degree in IT professions. “Of our roughly 2. 95 employees have around 80 percent an academic title, “says Kerstin Aigner, Materna’s head of training. This is not surprising, after all 500 the first computer science course in Germany was introduced at the TH Darmstadt. The dual IT apprenticeships have only existed since 1997. Meanwhile have good 300. 000 Skilled workers graduated in one of the four dual training occupations. By far the most popular is the IT specialist. With approximately 16.500 Training contracts, he is one of the ten most popular professions in Germany. Compared to the number of computer science graduates in the past 30 years it’s a piece of cake.

Training instead of studying Although the proportion of academics at Materna is so high, the company trains most of the IT specialists in the chamber district of the IHK Dortmund, the headquarters of the IT company that supports customers in their digitization projects . According to Aigner, the dropout rate in the computer science course at TU Dortmund is around 70 percent .

Kerstin Aigner, Head of Training for IT professions at Materna, sees training as the first step towards IT studies.

(Image: Materna SE)

“We employ many dropouts as trainees and have had very good experiences with it. ” The other trainees as IT specialists need a university entrance qualification at Materna. “15 – year-old high school students often lack the maturity for such a training, and high school students are according to G8 and with 17 Years too young to study, “says Aigner.

The experienced HR manager therefore recommends training first and then studying. During training, the trainees learn a regular daily routine, discipline and practice.” Study later is in many cases the better way, because it is more successful, “says Aigner. Our permeable education system allows this in the most varied of ways: without a university entrance qualification, but with professional experience, part-time or full-time. The possibilities are rich.

Higher salary after graduation For a In the opinion of Professor Dr. Christian Koot, dean of several IT courses at Aalen University, there are several reasons for studying computer science. “An IT course is e A theoretically well-founded training in all essential sub-disciplines of computer science and the opportunity to learn scientific work and the associated methodology. “A successful degree brings easier access to more demanding project and management tasks” and, on average, significantly better earning opportunities compared to company training. Money and career are often given as reasons for proving that the degree is the higher-quality education. But is that really true?

No doubt about the salary. The compensation portal gehalt.de has calculated that in IT professions, skilled workers with vocational training with around 34. 000 Euro annual salary to start working life. Approximately 10. more euros get bachelor graduates and 15. 000 Euro those with a master’s degree. The higher the educational qualification, the higher the salary.

With increasing professional experience, the difference increases even further: by the 50. Year of age, the difference between a skilled worker with vocational training and a Bachelor graduate is around 20. 000 Euro annually . The difference in salary between Bachelor’s and Master’s graduates is around 5 when they retire. 000 Euro the same as when starting your professional life. A master’s degree doesn’t bring as much financially as some might hope or think.

Career without a degree With a career, the situation is not as clear as with the salary, because when you start your career, the activities are of trained specialists and academics at Materna similar. “Because of their practical experience, many recently trained IT specialists overshadow university graduates in IT,” says Aigner. This practical relevance is important to the company. However, the head of training does not hide the fact that “the more professional experience the academics have, their career opportunities increase compared to those with vocational training.” Computer scientists have the necessary academic background to work as software architects, for example. IT specialists have to work their way up to this demanding task. Only a few succeed.

But it doesn’t matter, because there are numerous jobs for IT specialists that do not require a degree. “In the IT professions there are many chiefs and few Indians,” says Florian Kaiser, head of educational counseling at the Munich Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The problem with this: academics are overqualified for routine IT work. Because the proportion of academics in Since the IT professions are so high and the proportion of those with dual training is so low, the companies in the Munich Chamber of Commerce and Industry District fear an increasing shortage of IT specialists with vocational training. In the coming years, companies will need significantly more professionally qualified than academics This is also the result of a survey by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce among companies: “The fact that many young people do not make the optimal decision to study is proven every year by the thousands of dropouts, including in IT,” says Kaiser. An apprenticeship would often be the better decision. The career prospects with both qualifications are currently very good igen.

(olb)