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Zu jung oder zu alt für eine Lehre? Altersdiskriminierung bei der Ausbildungsplatzvergabe

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  • Christian Imdorf

Abstract

Two contrary effects determine how age influences access to apprenticeships: on the one hand, training companies increasingly hire older apprentices. On the other hand applicants who are too old, face difficulty in finding an apprenticeship place at all. The paper analysis the selecting companies’ motives in setting both the upper and lower age limits for new recruits. Referring to a conceptual framework of personnel selection drawn from the French sociology of conventions, the research question is investigated using secondary data analysis. Expert interviews with personnel managers in 60 small businesses from German-speaking Switzerland were interpreted using argument analysis. The findings show that most of the analysed training companies favour applicants who have not directly left school, but have usually spent one year in some kind of tiding-over arrangement. Despite this preference for ‘older’ candidates a significant minority of companies turns down applicants who have already reached a certain age. The network convention of workplace coordination gives rise to reservations towards too-young apprentices with regard to customer relations. In contrast, firms turn down older applicants because they believe they do not socially ‘fit in’, which can be interpreted through the domestic convention of coordination. These applicants are associated with a higher dropout risk, which would additionally entail costs to the firm in terms of the market convention. Having revealed the operations of age discrimination in hiring apprentices, the paper concludes that both the school leavers’ delayed start of training as well as the problems faced by older job applicants to access apprenticeships are in part caused by training companies and their multiple requirements for social coordination. Copyright Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Imdorf, 2012. "Zu jung oder zu alt für eine Lehre? Altersdiskriminierung bei der Ausbildungsplatzvergabe," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 45(1), pages 79-98, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:79-98
    DOI: 10.1007/s12651-011-0093-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Salais, Robert & Storper, Michael, 1992. "The Four 'Worlds' of Contemporary Industry," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(2), pages 169-193, June.
    2. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2003. "Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus," Post-Print hal-00680087, HAL.
    3. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162, December.
    4. Peter A. Riach & Judith Rich, 2010. "An Experimental Investigation of Age Discrimination in the English Labor Market," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 99-100, pages 169-185.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Neugebauer, Martin & Daniel, Annabell, 2021. "Higher Education Non-Completion, Employers, and Labor Market Integration: Experimental Evidence," SocArXiv evm74, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ausbildungsbetriebe; Lehrlingsselektion; Konventionen; Alter; Diskriminierung; J71; M51; M53; Z13; Training company; Apprentice selection; Conventions; Age; Discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • M53 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Training
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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