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antrazi March 19 2013, 20:37:38 UTC
An apprenticeship, most likely. It doesn't matter if you are thinking something like baker, hairdresser, car mechanic, office clerk, these are all jobs you do an apprenticeship for.
For becoming a Doctor, laywer or scientist or something like that you would have to change to the Gymnasium and then the Abitur to qualify for studying at a university, but for a lot of jobs this is the traditional way.

Apprenticeships

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syredronning March 19 2013, 20:53:35 UTC
*agrees*

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nightrose83 March 19 2013, 20:56:35 UTC
And doing an apprenticeship applies for both the Hauptschule and Realschule, then? I read that if you leave a Hauptschule, your opportunities may not be as good, but can apprenticeship types one is eligible for vary between the two schools?

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lizzardgirl March 19 2013, 21:05:14 UTC
Well, yes and no. Basically, when you leave school after year 10 and haven't failed the year, you get the 'Mittlere Reife,' comparable to English GCSEs. You may get those with or without qualification for years 11-13 and then Abitur. As far as I know, apprenticeships that require Mittlere Reife don't care where you got it, as long as you got it. However, individual employers may care what school you went to, and thus may prefer someone from a Realschule, because it's more prestigious.

However, that is very much what is the case today. Back in the 1970s, as far as I know, Hauptschulen didn't have nearly as bad a rep as they have today, and it was much less common for students to go on to make Abitur, so if you had a decent Mittlere Reife from a Hauptschule, most people would think you very well qualified for most apprenticeships.

(I should add that I was born in the '80s, so have no first-hand knowledge of this, so if anyone knows better, please correct me.)

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germankitty March 19 2013, 21:26:43 UTC
Traditionally, with a Hauptschulabschluss you go into the trades, sales, office clerking or (broadly) the service industry, like hairdressing. ALL of these require a three-year apprenticeship with additional, concurrent attendance at vocational school -- where you'll learn the tricks of the trade, like bookkeeping, typing, techniques, about the materials you're working with and so on ( ... )

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nightrose83 March 19 2013, 22:02:53 UTC
Thank you. I want to be sure that I have that understood in a basic way, so please excuse me as I spit things back out to ensure it's correct. It probably won't be, but I wanted to try ( ... )

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germankitty March 19 2013, 22:28:21 UTC
Broadly and basically correct summary, except that mandatory vocational schooling goes with EVERY apprenticeship. If a job/career is accredited as an "Ausbildungsberuf" with proper training by a master or journeyman certified to train others, you get on-the-job training with only a basic wage as well as vocational training both in generalities like bookkeeping, customer relations, sales techniques and whatnot, plus additional schooling in German and Maths, possibly English. Used to be it was one day of vocational school each week, with regular school holidays (which would be spent at the workplace), but I think it's block schooling nowadays, something like 3 months continuously ( ... )

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nightrose83 March 19 2013, 22:35:26 UTC
Ah, thank you. So once you have an apprenticeship secured (regardless of whether you're in a Hauptschule or Realschule), you're going to school and also attending an apprenticeship at the same time? I'm also unfamiliar with "Ausbildungberuf" and Google's giving me all German pages about it.

I was unaware of that; my parents were gas station attendants throughout my childhood, and here the best you may get is a week's worth of 'here's how you use the pump, don't annoy the customer,' and that's about it. It depends on where you go here, but attendants will also pump the gas for you--they don't allow you to pump your own (I guess too many people messed with the pumps). Is that the same as in Germany, or would you pump it yourself?

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