Education & Training
Austria has one of the best educational systems in Europe. It provides customized education to cover the individual needs of students. Teachers are responsible for the success of their students, and in cases where students need extra tutoring, teachers are required by the state to private tutor them free of charge.
  
Austrian educational system offers three main types of secondary education: apprenticeship training, full-time intermediate and higher-secondary-level technical and vocational training and academic secondary education. Students can enrol in vocational training programmes from the age of 14 on. Choosing vocational education means in essence choosing their future occupation.
In apprenticeship training and the dual-system vocational education and training take place in training companies and in schools (80 and 20 per cent respectively of total training time). In 1994 students were being prepared for 238 different trades. Intermediate-secondary technical and vocational schools (Berufsbildende mittlere Schulen or BMS) offer one to three year programmes qualifying students for specific occupations. In order to get a trade licence, a minimum of three years of training is required. Higher level technical or vocational schools (Berufsbildende höhere Schulen or BHS) deliver upper secondary education completed with the Matriculation Examination. A special feature of the Austrian vocational education system, BHS, provides advanced general and vocational education (double qualification), which both qualifies students for higher positions and gives them access to universities. The BHS have intensive and institutionalised relations with business and industry, which makes easier the transition from the educational system to the workforce.
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