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Luxembourg: Jobs and Schools

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As the one hundred percent literacy rate suggests, Luxembourg is a well-educated country. Education is compulsory, generally beginning at age four and continuing until age fifteen. Most schools are free and public, but they do still include religious education as part of the curriculum. For secondary school, students choose either college prep or technical education, but surprisingly, it was not until 2001 that the government proposed creating a University of Luxembourg. Currently, most students go elsewhere in Europe for university if they want to continue their education.

One of the major subjects of study at all levels of school is language, and essentially all Luxembourgers are multilingual. Linguistically speaking, Luxembourg is a symbolic crossroads. Luxembourgish is the national language, and the language of the street, but French and German are the official government languages, and English is spoken in touristed areas.

The schools release students into a strong economy with less than five percent unemployment. Both men and women regularly hold jobs, and foreign workers make up nearly one-third of the workforce. The strong economy has made Luxembourg a very modern country; consider, for example, that though the country has only 450,000 people, there are more than 500,000 registered cell phones.

Even though the country remains largely rural, agriculture contributes only about one percent to the nation’s GDP. Instead, most workers are in the service sector; approximately eighty percent of the GDP comes from services, if you include financial, government and social services. The main goods that the country produces are chemicals and steel; the world’s second-largest steel producer, Arcelor, is actually headquartered in Luxembourg. The country’s main trading partners are other EU members, though China is also the source of many exports.

Sources:

http://www.cia.gov
http://www.state.gov
http://www.visitluxembourg.com
http://www.lonelyplanet.com
http://www.about.com
http://www.luxembourg-usa.com
http://sg.travel.yahool.com/guide/europe/luxembourg
http://en.wikipedia.org
Let’s Go: Western Europe 2005. Stuart J. Robinson, editor. New York: St. Martin’s, 2005.

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