Katharina Wedel

Support from university student volunteers doubles the chances that adolescents from disadvantaged families have of starting vocational training. This mentoring improves not only the school pupils’ grades in math but also their focus on the future and their labor-market orientation. These are among the findings of an ifo research project that accompanied the “Rock Your Life!” mentoring program. “This kind of support has produced resounding successes,” says Ludger Wößmann, Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. “Mentoring is a great way of improving the labor-market prospects of highly disadvantaged adolescents.”

More instruction time and good teachers help students perform better. This is the result of a study conducted by the ifo Institute. “On average across the countries studied, the effect of instruction time on student achievement is greater when the teachers are better qualified,” says ifo researcher Katharina Wedel. However, when only developing countries are considered, instruction time has on average no effect. “Even so, increased instruction time in these countries also improves student achievement when children are taught by well qualified teachers,” she says.