In the 1990s, the timing and duration of youth transitions has become variable because of cultural modernisation and the declining stability of careers. In particular, the German ‘dual system’ of Vocational Education and Training (VET) has come under pressure of globalisation and labour market deregulation. Despite economic turbulence, the main features of the VET have been maintained. The apprenticeship route is still highly accepted; two-thirds of the cohort of school-leavers are passing through it. It continues to provide standardised occupational qualifications and a context for socialisation. It supplies a skilled labour force and keeps youth unemployment low-despite shortcomings in standards of social equality and a slow pace in adapting to changes in technology and work. For the future, the ‘left modernisers’ strategy of upgrading skills remains possible, by reforming the apprenticeship system and maintaining the ‘high-skills’ route for transition from education to work. In transition studies structural analysis should be combined with research on institutional regulations, transition pathways, and individual agency.
