Germany: vocational orientation for young people in times of social upheaval

Evaluation of innovative approaches and studies on vocational orientation 

First experiences of innovative approaches and studies on established measures are reported and supplemented by classification of current concepts of career choice theories:  

• BIBB-TUDa occupational orientation study investigated whether the established occupational orientation approach Apprentices ambassadors has an influence on young girls' perception of IT occupations. Apprentices visit school classes as so-called ambassadors for their profession to answer pupils’ questions . Initial results indicate that professional role models can reduce gender differences in the perception of IT vocational education and training (VET) occupations;
• another established tool to support career choice competence is the ‘potential analysis’. Since its introduction, various implementation variants have developed at Länder level. In a BIBB intervention study commissioned by the Ministry of Education (BMBF), the effectiveness of different approaches was examined. The article Reflection strengthens effectiveness of potential analyses reproduces the results, which show that the more room for reflection is given, the more successful the instrument proved to be. 

Individual self-determination of one’s career biography 

‘Newer occupational choice theories view people as actively shaping actors,’ is how Prof. Dr Hubert Ertl, Research Director and Permanent Representative of the President of BIBB, puts it. ‘This results in requirements for adequate career guidance services’:  

• with the aim of pupils experiencing themselves as shapers of their career choice process, the Mission ICH approach was developed. Offered over 3 school years, it aims to give pupils in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern more time to develop their own life and career planning. The modular concept is being developed and tested at the University of Rostock and 12 general education schools;
• the report Youth between awakening and stagnation. Promoting personal responsibility for one’s own employment biography in the transition from school to work, which was produced in cooperation between BIBB and Kolping University, is also based on vocational orientation as support for young people towards individual self-efficacy, reflection on their own abilities and self-determination. Based on the concept of self-responsibility in one’s career biography, recommendations for action for educators are developed. These are flanked by the offer of a digital learning platform to strengthen discussion and reflection in a way that is appropriate for young people. 

The current findings emphasise the promotion of individual self-determination, self-efficacy and self-responsibility, as well as reflection on young people's own abilities to act in the transition to VET. But to what extent do young people continue being perceived and involved as co-creators of decision-making processes in VET systems during the course of their training? 

The BIBB project Communication and reception of the apprentice perspective in international comparison (KuRA) explored this question. Education policy mechanisms that are suitable for making apprentice perspectives visible were investigated. Approaches in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark were examined and compared. The reception possibilities of the apprentices’ perspective as well as participation and design possibilities are distinctly different here. 

These latest findings, Ertl sums up, raise ‘questions of re-location and a redefinition of the professional roles of those in employment’ to understand ‘professional orientation as a biographical long-term project’.

Read more

• Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP 2/2023) Focus topic: Vocational orientation
• Apprenticeship ambassadors
• Mission ICH  
• Digital learning portal for the transition from school to work
• Communication and reception of the apprentice perspective in international comparison (KuRA)
• Presentation of the project at 2023 Crossing boundaries