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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2652 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Berufsschulen are the middle level of German schools?

And I take it civil servant is the equivalent of getting tenure?

Berufsschulen are vocational schools. Around 50% of German students attend those schools after finishing high school for a few days a week while doing an formal 3 year apprenticeship with a company. Classically, all trades have vocational schools, but also careers that would attend college in the US (nursing, accounting, system administrators, ect.) have vocational schools in Germany.

Civil servants is another classically German thing. It's a large class of government employees that enjoy extreme protections (absurdly difficult to fire, must be allowed to work part time if requested, ect.) and benefits (very nice pension, child benefits, ect.) - often in exchange for working a job where you cannot easily find equivalent work outside of government service. So examples are police, judges, firefighters, district attorneys, building inspectors, tax inspectors, head administrative staff at the city/state/federal government, ect. And, somewhat controversially, public school teachers.

No, Berufsschulen are a special kind of school for an Ausbildung, which you do after regular school. They help with the theoretic part of a practical education for a specific kind of job. As an example, if you want to become a mechatronic, you may learn the practical part working in an actual repair shop, and then for specific days you go to the Berufsschule and learn some basic electrical circuitry or whatever.

I would say it slightly differently, tenure is a special kind of being a civil servant, but yes.

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