More salary than everyone else

Apprentices start their careers as top earners

Salary increase: 18 months after graduation, apprentices outnumber all other school leavers.

(Bild: © Philipp Lipiarski / www.lipiarski.com)

The level of education in Austria is rising, according to the latest figures from Statistics Austria. An interesting detail is that apprenticeships and vocational schools earn significantly higher salaries at the start. 

Apprenticeships are golden! All too often, the dual education system in the Alpine republic is either demonized or praised to the skies. However, the bare figures from the current Statistics Austria publication "Education in Figures 2022/23" prove that vocational training paths pay off handsomely. One and a half years after graduating in 2020, completed apprentices earn an average of 2500 euros gross (!).

While boys in particular can expect to earn more than 2700 euros, girls "only" earn around 2100 euros. The consolation for the gender disadvantage: statistically speaking, the female apprentices also rank above the higher-earning male AHS graduates (on average only 2053 euros). 

Vocational colleges and secondary schools are also at the top of the rankings, with compulsory school leavers naturally bringing up the rear and therefore the lowest earners.

Higher earnings and quicker entry into employment 
People who have completed an apprenticeship are also the quickest to enter the workforce (the average is just 22 days) and have a relatively low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.

The unemployment rates of people with no formal education (no more than compulsory schooling: around twelve percent) and people with an AHS as their highest qualification (eight percent) are significantly higher. On the other hand, people with a BHS (3.2%) or university degree (3.5%) have even lower unemployment rates than people with an apprenticeship qualification.

The Statistics Austria office building in Vienna

(Bild: APA/HERBERT NEUBAUER)

High school students see the Matura as their only goal 
The course for the future is set early on in the educational career. After completing lower secondary school, nine out of ten pupils go on to attend a "Matura-leading school". After completing a secondary school, the figure is significantly lower at 40 percent.

For many, the path after finishing secondary school leads to an apprenticeship. For example, 22.3 percent go on to attend a polytechnic school. The glaring lack of good craftsmen and women will therefore continue to be a problem for the domestic economy in the future.