Education with a future Volume 3: Survey of graduates of general secondary schools
The aim of this survey is to examine the transition from school to the world of work or further education, to examine the skills in demand at work or university, and to gather feedback on the educational focuses at school.
The third volume of this survey series relates to graduates of South Tyrol's general secondary schools (Gymnasien) who graduated in 2003. A total of 321 people or 32.4% of all graduates contacted took part in the survey.
The respondents were generally satisfied with the framework conditions at school, e.g. learning content, teachers' specialist knowledge, school equipment as well as general and subjectspecific teaching content. The graduates gave less good scores for the acquisition of the second language, the foreign languages, mathematics/informatics as well as law and economics. In addition, almost 40% consider the practical orientation of teaching at the Gymnasium to be inadequate. In this context, respondents would like to see greater cooperation with companies.
After Gymnasium students choose mainly university studies More than 80% of Gymnasium graduates are in further education three years after graduation, mainly as part of university studies. By contrast, only 11% of those surveyed are employed. The most popular fields of study are pedagogy, medicine and law; the most popular cities are Innsbruck, Bolzano and Bressanone. After graduating, more than 40% plan to look for a job in South Tyrol, 46% may do that in South Tyrol and 10% want to work abroad.
Foreign languages, computer science, geography and economics, key competences in demand Retrospectively, respondents would like to see more or new foreign languages, informatics, geography and economics in their curriculum. The school leavers also consider personal skills, such as self-confidence, recognizing connections, motivation and the ability to present oneself, to be a prerequisite for the world of work.
Training content at the Gymnasium forms a good basis, but more languages and practical orientation demanded The majority (77%) of the graduates surveyed remember their period of education at the Gymnasium very positively. Two thirds of the graduates would repeat the school they attended. The remaining third stated that the change of personal interests and unsatisfactory preparation for working life as reasons for not choosing their school again.
Cooperation with companies, other schools and universities is very important for general secondary schools, as it makes a significant contribution to the educational and professional orientation of young people. Ultimately, the dialogue also serves to obtain suggestions and feedback on the teaching and educational content.
Conclusions Cooperation with the world of work is also very important for secondary schools with very general education, such as Gymnasien. As students from Gymnasien will sooner or later enter employment, everyone should have the opportunity to do an internship. In addition, there should be initiatives to support the learning of languages, economics and mathematics/computer science.