Vocational Training
After the tenth year of polytechnical school, a student could either end his education or continue on to 2½ or 3 years (depending on subject) of vocational training in a specialised subject such as building, telecommunications or electronics.
Vocational training was split in practical work and theoretical learning which focused both on the studied subject of career.
The student was then integrated in a collective farm or in a factory, depending on what he or she wished to do for a career. The vocational training could take place in the students home town, but often occurred in another city. Students lived there in an Internat (boarding school). In most cases that was the first time in the young persons life they lived "independent" from their parents home for one or two years. The students were allowed to visit home on the weekends.
At the end of vocational training, a student could take the Abitur (similar to the A-level in England), and if he or she passed, go on to university or a specialised technological school. But in most cases the student worked in a factory or in the field of his or her vocational training subject.
Read more about this topic: Education In East Germany
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