Follow-up study within the NEPS

Students who were in grade 9 in 2010 were interviewed since then on a regular basis within the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). After the first funding period, the NEPS-consortium excluded former students of special schools from the main sample in December 2013. Therefore, there was a need for external funding to continue with the “special school sample”.

There is a lack of data on educational trajectories and transitions of former students who graduated from special schools. However, NEPS data allowed an analysis of transitions from general school systems to either a transition or a vocational training system (after grade nine or ten). Nevertheless, it is not known if those transitions succeed or fail.

This research project continued surveys of those students on a regular basis and contributed to the following research questions:

How do they proceed through different educational stages (after grade nine or ten)?
Who are the ones experiencing a smooth transition from school to the vocational training system?
Who is dropping out and who is not making use of available options at all?
Which factors have an impact on the school-training-transition?
Do students from special schools differ regarding their development of competences?
Which measures support the transition to the vocational training system, which do not?
Is in-school-guidance perceived as more helpful compared to extracurricular guidance?
And are there differences between these students and those with similar competences from different school types?

It was expected to get profound insights into educational trajectories of former students of special schools. The dataset can be used as a German-wide reference data set to contextualize process-based data collected by the Federal Employment Agency.

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

The ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim is a nonprofit and independent institute with the legal form of a limited liability company (GmbH). Founded in 1990 on the basis of a public-private initiative in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg in co-operation with the University of Mannheim, ZEW is one of Germany’s leading economic research institutes, and has an excellent reputation throughout Europe.

ZEW pursues four key objectives:

To conduct research of the highest quality
To provide scientifically grounded economic policy advising
To train up-and-coming economists
To inform the professional and lay public.

The Institute focuses on decision-makers in politics, economics, and administration, scientists in the national and international arena as well as the interested public. Regular interviews on the situation on the financial markets and the economic situation of the information industry as well as the large-scale annual study on innovation activities in the German economy are representative for the different types of information provided by ZEW.

Under the leadership of Achim Wambach, the president of the Institute, and Thomas Kohl, the director of business and administration, ZEW currently employs a staff of 176 in seven research departments, two research groups, and two service areas.

In order to ensure a high standard of excellence in research, ZEW promotes international co-operation with universities (e.g. integration in doctoral programs) and the ongoing development of its staff by granting periods of paid release from normal project work. These sabbaticals can be used for postgraduate doctorates, postdoctoral theses, or fellowships at renowned universities and research institutions.

The high quality of ZEW’s research work was confirmed in 1998, when the German Council of Science and Humanities evaluated ZEW and recommended its inclusion in the joint state and federal funding program. Since 2005, the Institute has received basic funding from this program. ZEW is a member of the Leibniz Association, a network of research institutes with outstanding scientific qualifications.

ion, a network of research institutes with outstanding scientific qualifications.

An excellent evaluation result in 2009 characterised the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research as an institution of international significance. Due to this assessment, the Leibniz-Association Senate recommended to the German federal and state governments to promote ZEW according to national strategies of science policy. The senate explicitly stated that “ZEW is an extraordinarily successful institute of empirical economic research with great prospects”.

Research Approach and Research Fields:

ZEW’s guiding mission is to study the “optimal performance of markets and institutions in Europe”. To this end, ZEW applies a plurality of methodologies, with a clear focus on microeconomic and microeconometric research. The Institute co-operates closely with other scientific disciplines as necessary to address research questions. In this context, the research institute distinguishes itself, inter alia, in the analysis of internationally comparative questions in the European context and in the creation of data bases which are eminently important as a basis for scientific research. In addition, ZEW provides external persons and bodies with excerpts of selected data stocks for the purpose of scientific research.

ZEW is subdivided into the following six research fields

Labour Markets and Human Resources
Digital Economy
Economics of Innovations and Industrial Dynamics
International Finance and Financial Management
Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmantal Management
Corporate Taxation and Public Finance
Social Policy and Redistribution

and one research group

Market Design

Evaluations in regular intervals ensure the quality of the work performed in the research fields and its orientation towards the Institute’s research program. Evaluations are carried out by the Scientific Advisory Council of ZEW, which is composed of renowned German and foreign scientists as well as of executives from the economy and public administration.

The ZEW provides external scientists with a range of research data sets. The ZEW research data offered at ZEW-FDZ is individual data collected through ZEW business surveys and ZEW expert surveys.

RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research

The RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research is an independent and non-profit center for excellent economic research and evidence-based policy advice in Germany. The research work of the RWI is based on the latest theoretical concepts and state-of-the-art empirical methods and ranges from the individual to the level of the global economy. The institute spans five areas of competence: “Labor Markets, Education, Population”, “Health Economics”, “Climate Change and Development”, “Environment and Resources ‘ and “Macroeconomics and Public Finance”. The research groups “Micro Structure of Taxes and Transfers” and “Prosocial Behavior” complete the research profile. The “Research Data Center Ruhr at RWI” (FDZ Ruhr) provides data services and engages in research on regional disparities.arch on regional disparities.

Important work and services:

RWI analyses the determinants of educational decisions and returns to education. In this research area, the particular focus of research is on higher education, training (vocational ecuation, lifelong learning) and the impact of education on labor market outcomes.
RWI assesses the causal impact of reforms and policy measures in the educational sector in Germany and low-income countries.
The institute conducts policy studies on the economics of education for public sector clients, such as ministries, the German Federal Employment Agency and the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit).
RWI designs individual and company surveys and is involved in data collection. For example, RWI, together with the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) and infas – Institute for Applied Social Sciences, established a longitudinal linked-employer-employee dataset on lifelong learning. Data are available for secondary use. More information.

Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi)

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg analyses educational processes from birth to old age. In order to promote longitudinal educational research in Germany, the LIfBi provides fundamental, nationally and internationally significant, research-based infrastructures for empirical educational research. One core of the institute is the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which is based at the LIfBi and brings together the expertise of a Germany-wide, interdisciplinary network of excellence. In addition to the ReGES and BildungswegeFlucht refugee studies, the LIfBi is also in charge of other major projects such as the Data Literacy monitoring study. This is based on their own research and development work, in particular the well-founded development of instruments and methods for longitudinal educational studies, from which other research projects also benefit.

Important work and services:

LIfBi runs the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The NEPS collects longitudinal data that are representative of Germany on the development of competencies, educational processes, educational decisions, and returns to education in formal, nonformal, and informal contexts throughout the whole life span.
NEPS data are made available to the national and international scientific community in the form of Scientific Use Files that can be accessed through various innovative ways using state-of-the-art technology. Interested data users are invited to attend regular user trainings.
NEPS data provide an empirical basis for research and offer a rich potential for analysis with regard to educational research and related disciplines (e.g., demography, educational science, economics, psychology, and sociology).
In addition to the standard documentation material for every single Scientific Use File, the NEPS Research Data Center offers a number of supplemental information and assisting tools for handling the NEPS data.
The Research Data Center LIfBi (RDC LIfBi) is primarily responsible for the user-friendly preparation of survey and test data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and its dissemination to the scientific community in the form of Scientific Use Files.
Third-party funded projects by LIfBi: LIfBi continually acquires new third-party funded projects.