GERMANY: Systematic registration of education levels of refugees needed

Ifo economist Ludger Woessmann has called for a systematic registration of the education levels of refugees in Germany, saying that “at the moment, we are groping around in the dark.”

Woessmann, an expert in the economics of education, said in Munich that, “nobody really knows what level of qualification the refugees have. But this is crucial for their potential integration in the labour market. Not even their language skills are being systematically assessed at present,” he added.
Appropriate integration and education measures can only be introduced on the basis of clear data on refugees’ language skills and qualifications.
“Unfortunately, we have to assume that two thirds of refugees from Syria have not been sufficiently educated to participate in a modern society,” Woessmann explained.
Data from Syria, for example, point to a poor achievement level of the education system. In international tests in mathematics and science conducted in 2011, 65% of Syrian eighth-graders did not even achieve a basic level of competence. In Germany, the comparable figure is 16%. Moreover, in previous waves of refugees, around two thirds did not have a vocational qualification degree, versus just 14% of the German domestic population.
According to the Chamber of Crafts of Munich and Upper Bavaria, 70% of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq who had started an apprenticeship two years ago have already dropped out again.
“One to two-year partial qualification training courses, for example to become nursing auxiliaries or bricklayers, combined with simultaneous language courses could be a possibility. Realistically, however, we can expect the road to labour market integration to be long and stony, and one that will require pragmatic and flexible solutions in education and labour market policy,” Woessmann concluded.