{
  "id": 722746,
  "title": "Second Chance: Chance of Success for School Dropouts: With Will and Soft Skills",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/13/zweite-chance-erfolgschance-fur-schulabbrecher-mit-wille-und-soft",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-13T02:18:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/zweite-chance-erfolgschance-fuer-schulabbrecher-mit-wille-und-soft-skills/100246916.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "More and more young people are leaving school without a degree. In the 2024/2025 school year, according to the research platform \"Correctiv\", more than 64,000 young people will have left school without a degree in their pocket. What happens next for them? \"These young people need professional support and, above all, people who give them courage,\" says Anke Burmeister from the counseling service for unemployed young people and young adults in Düsseldorf.\n\nBecause behind an unsuccessful school career, there is more than meets the eye: school leavers without a degree are often very strained. For example, by learning difficulties, lack of language skills, a lack of supportive environment in the family or anxiety disorders. But all this is no reason to stick one's head in the sand.\n\n\"The affected people to accompany on their way to further school and vocational training or into employment is often a slow process,\" says Burmeister. But even if it seems tedious at first - it is possible. It is important that young people seek help. For example, at counseling services of youth welfare, vocational counseling of employment agencies or job centers' U25 job placement services.\n\nEnough school - now work? Unfortunately, the entry opportunities into the labor market for people without a school degree are limited. \"There are, of course, industries that offer unskilled labor,\" says Burmeister. Here, however, one has to assume that at many places, applicants without a school degree compete with more highly qualified persons, such as students working part-time.\n\nDue to lower wage costs, students working part-time are often preferred to be hired. But targeted support and promotion offers can help school dropouts into companies. Openness to people without a school degree is also a matter of the industry. Realistic entry opportunities exist, according to Burmeister, mainly in the construction industry, scaffolding crafts, retail, gastronomy, delivery services, and parcel delivery services.\n\n\"Here, good contacts in the personal environment can be helpful to get a job,\" says Burmeister. Sometimes, parts of the craft, logistics, or individual service areas offer young people without a school degree not only an assistant activity but also a training place.\n\nThese skills are in demand. And what should young people bring? \"Decisive are motivation, willingness to work, and the willingness to develop further,\" says Irmgard Pirkl from the headquarters of the Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg. The goal should always be to complete a training course.\n\nBecause as a skilled worker, young adults have the best chances for the future. And with a successful training certificate, young people without a school degree automatically receive the secondary school certificate, says Burmeister. Whether it's an assistant activity for which no school degree is strictly necessary or a training course: a must in working life are also soft skills, i.e., personal and social competencies of a person.\n\nThese skills are often challenging for people without a school degree - because the stressful factors that led to dropping out of school also have an impact beyond school time, says Burmeister. The good news: school dropouts can learn these skills through coaching offers. In vocational or pre-vocational educational measures, young adults learn specifically also soft skills.\n\nDo you need to catch up on a degree? \"The school degree is a first important milestone for later professional life,\" says Pirkl. Decisive for long-term opportunities on the labor market, however, is a completed vocational training. Burmeister sees it similarly: \"The more practice-related qualifications one has acquired and the more stable and better one can integrate into the concrete work environment, the more the school degree fades into the background,\" she says.\n\nHowever, with a school degree, the selection of occupations is larger, and the chances of finding a training place that really corresponds to one's inclinations are higher. Therefore, catching up on a school degree is a good investment.\n\nThese opportunities exist. Through various offers of adult education, there is the possibility to catch up on a school degree up to the Abitur. \"Often the lesson times are designed so that learners have time for gainful employment to secure their livelihood,\" says Burmeister. Another option: also within the framework of vocational or pre-vocational educational measures, a school degree can be acquired.\n\n\"In such measures, participants often attend classes two days a week,\" says Burmeister. How such vocational or pre-vocational educational measures look in concrete terms is regionally different, according to Burmeister. Besides, there are other offers. \"Which possibility is the right one depends on the personal situation of the young person,\" says Pirkl. The employment agency or job center helps to find the right path.",
  "summary": "For young people without a school-leaving certificate, it's not easy to get a training place or a job. But anything but impossible. This is how it can work.",
  "key_points": [
    "Over 64,000 young people left school without a diploma in 2024/2025.",
    "Young people need professional support and confidence to overcome challenges.",
    "Soft skills and vocational qualifications are crucial for long-term job prospects."
  ],
  "editors_take": "Targeted support, practical qualifications, and development of soft skills can help school leavers without a diploma integrate into the workforce and improve their long-term job market chances.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}