Understanding the role of post-compulsory education in the formation of civic
participation in England and Germany
Education is globally recognised as being beneficial
to young people’s life chances and future prospects,
whether in terms of labour market success or
increased civic participation. Less is known about
whether all types of education bring about such
benefits, particularly whether there are differences
between vocational and academic routes in postcompulsory education.
The ESRC-funded project Education and Social
Outcomes of Young People: Promoting Success set
out understand the role of different types of postcompulsory education in the formation of social
outcomes. In order to do this, researchers
compared the outcomes of young people in
England and Germany, who had completed their
education in the 1990s
Table 1: Key characteristics of English and German
education transitions in the 1990s
England
Germany
Compulsory leaving age
16 years
four distinct categories: academic, vocational,
mixed or no further education. The mixed category
comprised those who had achieved both academic
and vocational qualification (in any order) while no
further education consisted of the people who left
the educational system after compulsory education.
Figure 1 shows the proportion of people in each
country who followed these trajectories. Postcompulsory education in England in the 1990s
included 16-18 year olds, which explains the
greater numbers of people following academic and
mixed trajectories in England. The large percentage
of young people pursuing a purely vocational
education in Germany is particularly noteworthy
and evidence of the important role vocational
education and training plays in the German
educational system.
Figure 1: Proportion of people in each educational
category in final samples
Compulsory leaving age
18 years
Low formal stratification Highly stratified
of the education system education system from
the age of 10
Weak links between
education and industry;
transition from school
to work problematic
Strong links between
education and industry;
transition from school to
work fairly easy
Multiple changes to
vocational education
and training
qualifications and
schemes are difficult to
navigate
Well established system
of vocational education
and training with strong
tradition and formalised
structure
Using information from the British Household Panel
Survey for England and the German SocioEconomic Panel for Germany about educational
qualifications, young people’s post-compulsory
education in the early 1990s was categorised into
60
40
%
20
0
academic vocational mixed no further
education
England
Germany
The researchers analysed a number of outcomes to
identify whether there were differences depending
on the educational category people were in. The
results for the health domain are available in a
separate briefing on our website (see over).
This briefing focuses on the results for the civic
participation domain, examining any effects of
types of post-compulsory education on two
outcomes: political interest and voting. For political
interest, people were asked to rate their level of
interest in politics on a four-point scale from not at
all to very. The voting outcome was measured by
asking respondents whether or not they had voted
in the last election (England) or would vote if there
was an election on Sunday (Germany). These were
measured in national election years to provide as
accurate a picture as possible of people’s voting
habits.

In each case, the outcomes for the type of postcompulsory education are compared with those in
the “no further education” category. The analyses
were conducted separately for men and women
since this time of transition from school to work has
been shown to affect men and women differently.
As family and social background factors (such as
parental education, parental occupational class and
young people’s prior educational attainment) have
been shown to have influence both education and
social outcomes in England and Germany, a further
analysis included these factors to see if the results
differed.

Results
The analysis revealed that only post-compulsory
education with an academic element (that is, either
mixed or academic) was associated with high levels
of political interest and a greater likelihood of
voting in both England and Germany, although
there were differences by gender. In both countries,
people who had chosen a vocational route were no
more interested in politics or likely to vote than
their counterparts who had left education.
Additionally, when background factors were
included, the effect of post-compulsory education
lessened, and for voting disappeared, indicating the
significance of these earlier factors in determining
young people’s educational track and their later life
outcomes.

Men with academic and mixed qualifications
were more likely to vote than their peers
who left education at 16
The effect of post-compulsory education on
voting for men disappears when background
factors are included
There were no associations between postcompulsory education and voting for women
Key findings – Germany




Men and women with academic or mixed
education had greater levels of political
interest than those who left education
Having an Abitur was predictive of higher
levels of interest in politics
Men and women with academic
qualifications were more likely to vote than
their peers who left education
The effect of post-compulsory education on
voting disappears when background factors
are included
Conclusions
It is striking that in both countries vocational
education did not increase people’s civic
participation, since it shows that the type of postcompulsory education followed does matter.
Furthermore, the role of both prior education and
parental socio-economic factors emerged from our
analyses as key influences on both measures of civic
participation.
For these democratic societies to be truly
represented at the polls, more needs to be done to
encourage those from all levels of society to take an
interest in politics and crucially, to vote.
Key findings – England

Men and women who had academic or
academic and vocational qualifications
expressed stronger interest in politics than
those who had no further education
For more details, see:
www.sussex.ac.uk/cie/promotingsuccess