Germany has a unique system of school and firm based occupation specific education. Taking a life course perspective, this project analyzes empirically the school-to-work transition in Germany focusing on the apprenticeship system and on vocational schooling. Using the NEPS data will eventually allow us to explore the precise links between the educational experience, the development of skills and competencies over the life course, and labor market outcomes. The project will use data for the adult cohort and the cohort of ninth graders combined with information from other data sources. We will describe the associations between the formation of skills and competencies, transitions, and labor market outcomes, distinguishing between youth with and without migration background. We will estimate causal effects of educational pathways and of vocational training on skills and competencies as well as on labor market outcomes. The analysis will distinguish between different types of vocational programs (i.e. full-time vocational schooling versus apprenticeship training involving part-time voca-tional schooling) and occupational orientations. We will develop an empirically tractable version of the Roy (1951) model for educational and occupational choices.